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Elective Courses

ECON7260: Urban Economic Systems

Examines urban economic systems including systematic relationships among cities, as well as those within cities. The portion of the course devoted to inter-metropolitan analysis covers central place theory, the location of economic activity, and intermetropolitan trade. Intra-metropolitan analysis includes urban form and land use, land use controls, and local government systems.

ECON7261: Urban Economic Development

Examines urban economic development processes. Topics include models and techniques for describing and evaluating urban economies; development strategies and tools; commercial, industrial, and housing development; and problems of poverty and housing.

ENVR5260: Geograpic Information Systems (GIS)

Examines geographical information systems (GIS), a way to input, store, analyze, and display spatial data (data with a geographic location). Introduces the major components and applications of this exciting new tool. Consists of two lectures and one laboratory period a week. Laboratory exercises introduce methods of data analysis as well as practical issues of how to manipulate various GIS software packages. No planning module is needed for this course.

Fall 2009
CPN # 12690
Mon 5:45 - 9:45pm | Hazelton

ENVR5262: GIS Workshop

Studies the basic techniques of reflection and refraction seismology, gravity, aeromagnetic and heat-flow processes, and the information they provide on the structure, composition, and dynamics of the earth’s interior.

HIST7217: Modern American Social History

Examines recent historical literature on changes in American society over the last hundred years. Possible topics include race, ethnicity, class, gender, migration, demography, deviance, and social policy.

HIST7311: Grad Seminar in Urban History

Examines the history of the modern city, with a focus on America and on Boston, and discusses local history sources and their analysis.

LPSC7309: Green Cities

LPSC7312: Cities, Sustainability, and Climate Change

Provides an overview of the various aspects of urban sustainability planning. Examines sustainability as an urban planning approach with both ecological and social justice goals. Covers sustainable planning and offers students an opportunity to understand it within the context of smart growth and the new urbanism. Focuses on the two areas in which cities can reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions—the built environment and transportation. From there, the course examines planning efforts to reduce demand on water and sewer systems and to create employment in renewable energy and other “clean-tech” occupations. The course ends by placing urban initiatives in the context of state and national policy. Please enroll for the planning module associated with this course when you register.

Fall 2009
CPN # 15881
Mon 6pm to 8pm | Fitzgerald

LPSC8400: Planning Module in Urban Law and Policy

This is the add-on module for LPSC7312, please make sure that you are enrolled for this additional semester hour.

Fall 2009
CPN # 12610

POLS7314: Urban Government and Politics

Explores issues and problems in urban government, such as legal dependence, government finance and administration, rapid growth of suburban and metropolitan areas, and decline and decay of the central city.

POLS7315: Urban Development and Politics

Analyzes the creation and implementation of urban development policies and programs. Explores subsidies and taxes, housing, commercial and industrial development, and job creation and training projects in terms of their historical, political, economic, and social dimensions.

POLS7324: Problems in Metropolitan Policymaking

Examines the broad challenges that confront metropolitan areas-defined as including the center city, its immediate suburbs, and the broader periphery-including economic development, land use, transportation, housing, and the provision of basic services. Considers the array of tools available to policymakers, including planning, tax policy, pooling of services, and zoning. Includes a professional activity related to urban planning.

PPUA6201: The 21st Century City

Offers multi-disciplinary examination of the wonders and challenges of urban life, with focus on current dynamics of urban location and prosperity in the context of a global economy. Examines forces that shaped the evolution of cities and metropolitan regions, assesses a range of policy issues confronting metro areas today and the respective roles played by public and private sectors in addressing those challenges, explores global forces that are transforming cities and regions throughout the world, and addresses key questions of urban well-being, civility, and civic engagement. Please enroll in the planning module associated with this course when you register.

Fall 2009
CPN # 12470
Thur 6:00 - 8:00pm | Bluestone

PPUA7673: Capstone Project in Urban and Regional Policy

Offers an opportunity for student teams, in partnership with a local, state, or federal agency or nonprofit institution, to assess an urban or regional problem, produce a thorough policy analysis, and present it and recommended solutions to the agency or institution. Course readings focus on materials needed to assess the problem and provide solutions. This is a faculty-guided team project for students completing course work in urban and regional policy studies. Please enroll in the planning module associated with this course when you register.

PPUA8400: Planning Module in Public Policy and Urban Affairs

This is the add-on module for PPUA6201, please make sure that you are enrolled for this additional semester hour.

Fall 2009
CPN # 12425

SOCL7235: Urban Sociology

Discusses theories of the development of urban life. Compares preindustrial and industrialized urban areas. Presents methods for the study of urban social structure and change, and evaluates contemporary metropolitan action programs. [Note: This course will be adapted to suit masters level students outside SOC]. Please enroll in the planning module associated with this course when you register.

Fall 2009
CPN # 12412
Tue 5:15 - 7:15 | Weinstein

SOCL7264: Urban Poverty: The Ethnographic Perspective

Explores the complex topic of urban poverty through the lens of ethnography. Each week students are required to read a selected ethnographic text and consider its contributions—theoretical and methodological—to the ongoing dialogue within sociology concerning the causes, consequences, and individual experiences of poverty in America’s inner cities. Arranged thematically, seminar discussions are necessarily iterative, as we revisit issues introduced at different points throughout the syllabus. While this is not intended to be a methods course, one of its key objectives is to encourage students to think critically about the choice of methodology and research design in each of the texts we study. The course explores how such choices influence both the author’s substantive claims, as well as the reader’s understanding of those claims.

SOCL8400: Planning Module in Sociology

This is the add-on module for SOCL7235, please make sure that you are enrolled for this additional semester hour.

Fall 2009
CPN # 16109