Urban Studies

This course examines the intersection of ethics and culture within the context of urban sustainability. It addresses ethical reasoning models, cultural identity, and moral dilemmas in contemporary urban life. This course critically analyzes real-world ethical challenges related to cultural diversity, social justice, environmental ethics, and governance in urban settings.

This course explores the structure, dynamics, and challenges of cities in Spain, Europe, and beyond. It discusses urbanization trends, growth models, and key indicators used to study urban systems. This course also examines contemporary issues in Spanish and European cities such as sustainability, mobility, gentrification, and smart city development while analyzing data sources and case studies to understand how cities evolve and adapt to social, economic, and environmental change. 

This course examines the relationship between society and the built environment, using a sociological perspective to analyze the city and urban phenomena. It discusses the main theoretical contributions and lines of research that have facilitated the interpretation and analysis of various social problems in the urban context.

This introductory course examines the causes of housing price fluctuations and their implications for urban life. It explores how housing functions both as an investment and a necessity, creating an owner–renter dichotomy with contrasting interests. The course analyzes the economic consequences of housing market swings, including negative equity, asset bubbles, financial crises, and affordability challenges, while considering broader impacts on living conditions, community sustainability, and urban policy. It explains the relationships between money, land, and housing; covers the factors that determine land and housing prices; identifies the effects of housing price fluctuations on financial stability and wealth inequality; describes how monetary and land policies influence housing affordability; and covers implications from the owner–renter dichotomy for housing policy.

This course approaches the city from an urban geography perspective. It repositions cities as a social construct, i.e., as the result of political, economic, technical, and cultural dynamics. It addresses the internal organization of cities, the mechanisms of differentiation between intra-urban spaces, and the social, political, economic, and environmental issues that this entails. Finally, it provides factual and theoretical knowledge (analytical frameworks, theories, concepts) to move from knowledge of urban facts and dynamics to an understanding of the processes that underlie them. This course opens up further study on intra-urban dynamics: processes of gentrification and impoverishment of territories, functional changes, demographic dynamics; the effects of these dynamics on urban organization and functioning: urban sprawl, spatial segmentation and mobility, theatricalization of city centers; and the construction of public problems: socially constructed identification of certain urban dynamics as problematic and requiring intervention by the authorities of the public powers. A minimum knowledge of the different types of intra-urban spaces (city center, suburbs, peri-urban areas) as well as the different types of cities and their functions is a prerequisite for the course.

This course is unique in its focus on the core challenges facing our increasingly 'smart' cities, from their operational functions and planning through to management and control. The course reflects the changes that technology is making to the operation of, and our understanding of, the city, and gives students the technical and theoretical skills needed to make a difference to the cities of today and tomorrow.

This seminar examines American cities over the past 150 years through major theoretical traditions and empirical themes. It explores housing markets, racial segregation, immigration, suburbanization, gentrification, policing, gender, finance, education, and urban politics. Throughout, it maintains a comparative lens, juxtaposing American patterns with European experiences. The course has two goals. First, to familiarize students with major theoretical frameworks in urban sociology, building a conceptual toolkit for analyzing cities. Second, to develop critical analytical skills through engagement with classic texts and contemporary research.

This course examines the urbanization context, the modalities of development of cities, and the role of change agents. Topics include the theoretical and conceptual foundations that support urban geography as a subdiscipline of human geography. Students analyze different urban theories, the origin of cities, and the global context of urbanization.

How did the cities in the Mediterranean world develop from the 4th to the 8th century? How did the arrival of Christianity and Islam influence the built environments, and how did the urban populations engage with the monuments of the pasts? This course uses texts and material culture (art, architecture and objects) to examine how people lived in, thought about and interacted with the urban space. Students begin with a critical examination of the models that scholars have used to explore the process of urban change. The course adopts a thematic approach by addressing the organization of physical space, examining the fabric of the late antique city, and exploring social and religious practices in the urban environment. Towards the end of the course, students return to the present to explore how archaeological practices and heritage management influences the view of the late antique city.