Geography

This course explores the relationship between urbanization and globalization and considers global urbanization based on the discipline of geography and its tools. After providing conceptual bases for thinking and representing the urban, the course explores the spaces and forms of urban societies, as well as the practices and social dynamics that define urbanity. It then studies the logic of interconnection between cities, particularly on the economic and migratory levels. Finally, the course focuses on the government of cities and their major development issues. It highlights differing urban realities on each continent, examining the diverse urbanity of the South in particular. 

This course examines the physical, human, and socioeconomic differences between Anglo-Saxon and Ibero-American areas of the Americas. It discusses development, effects of globalization, and on-going conflicts.

There are important differences in terms of economic dynamics between cities and regions. The question of why some areas tend to be wealthier than others, and how these differences in wealth change over time, is crucial. This course analyzes the economic success and failure of cities and regions according to the main economic theories of regional growth. Building on theories and concepts from previous courses, students start with agglomeration theories. Then traditional growth theories of convergence and divergence, the basic concepts of evolutionary theory and its application to the spatial dynamics of industries, economic growth, and the spatial dynamics of innovation networks are considered. Special attention is devoted to the spatial-economic and industrial and innovation policy in the Netherlands and the European Union. Students organize a seminar with people from the academic, policy, and business world.

This course critically examines notions of globalization, and in particular economic globalization. This course will allow students to develop an understanding of the global scale of human activity with a particular emphasis on the economic dimension, as well develop an understanding of how the world is shaped by the interaction between economic, political, social, and cultural processes operating at different, but connected, geographical scales, from the global through the national to the local.

This reading, field-trip, and discussion course exposes a range of contemporary geographic narratives, and then works to apply the narratives while exploring daily life in Jerusalem with and for diverse populations. The course examines a series of readings introducing frameworks including the ordinary city; the global, world and capital city; the Zionist city; and the city as shaped by history and religion. The course also weaves a set of four field trips in Jerusalem, three guided and one self-guided. It provides a platform for informed, critical, and multi-perspective discussion about contemporary spatial practices in Jerusalem. The course also encourages challenging values and perspectives while exploring the impact of ideology on the built environment and on the range of Jerusalemites.