Students

ANTH303 – Anthropology of the City

2018 – S2 Day

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Lecturer
Jaap Timmer
jaap.timmer@mq.edu.au
Jaap Timmer
jaap.timmer@mq.edu.au
Payel Ray
payel.ray@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
(39cp at 100 level or above) or admission to GDipArts
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
How might we think about the relationships between the built environment, culture, and individual or collective identity? What makes a city socialist, Islamic or modern? What impact do these varied forms of urban organisation and architecture have on the inhabitants that dwell in them? This unit introduces students to the anthropology of the city through focusing on the organisation of space and the politics of architectural forms and urban planning. It explores how space and its design are intimately connected to particular modernist projects such as nationalism, colonialism, socialism and apartheid. Students consider a variety of anthropological perspectives that seek to explain the amazing diversity and surprising similarity of urban cultures and their spatial forms, as well as ways that the built environment might both express and generate culture, power and individual or collective identities.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Minor Essay 15% No 2nd September 2016
Major Essay 40% No 21 October 2016
Take Home Test 25% No 8 November 2016
Tutorial 20% No n/a

Minor Essay

Due: 2nd September 2016
Weighting: 15%

Using the materials covered in the first four weeks of lectures and tutorials, write a short commentary on the organization of space in the Cathedral.

Preliminary references include the tutorial and secondary readings
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Major Essay

Due: 21 October 2016
Weighting: 40%

This essay is a maximum of 1500 words. It is due Friday 21st October (end of Week 10). Choose your topic from one of the questions below.

Further references will be given out nearer to the second essay date.

 

1.      Using Low’s distinction between the social production and social construction of space, discuss either indigenous urbanity in Australia or urbanization in Africa.

 

2.      Compare and contrast ecological, cultural and social production perspectives on the built environment.

 

3.      Discuss the similarities and differences between any two forms of modernist city i.e. apartheid, colonial, Islamic, socialist, nationalist, settler colonialist etc, concentrating on connections between their built environments, politics, culture, and inhabitants’ urban experience and identity. You are encouraged to use case studies of specific cities.

 

4.      “One of the social effects of modernist master planning is the de-politicization of those who are not planners, since their political organization becomes irrelevant if not obstructive in decisions about urban development” (Holston). Discuss in relation to selected city examples. 

 

5.Write your own question that incorporates the main themes of the course and readings (please draft your question and email it to me, or meet with me for discussion before proceeding).

This may include topics on the organization of the built environment exploring issues such as design and security, health, sustainability and the environment (i.e. the sick building syndrome), interior design, ethnicity and the city, architecture and urban planning issues, monuments and urban landscapes, the use of space, strategies of place-making, urbicide, landscapes of clearances, conservation struggles, heritage processes, consumption, housing and property, spatial interventions etc.
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.

Take Home Test

Due: 8 November 2016
Weighting: 25%

A take-home exam will be distributed at the Tuesday seminar on 1st November and will be due back at the Tuesday seminar on 8th  November. No extensions will be allowed and any late returns will be penalized. The exam will consist of a combination of short answers to questions that link together topics and themes covered in lectures, tutorials and practical activities throughout the course. More information will be distributed nearer the due date.

 

 

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Tutorial

Due: n/a
Weighting: 20%

Tutorial preparation involves a couple of hours of pleasurable (!) reading a week. To facilitate tutorial discussion, you are required to submit a one-page typed answer to the tutorial question for that week (see lecture and tutorial programme below).

The format of this answer is quite specific and you must address the following criteria:

  • Your one-page answer must be double-spaced and in 12 point font. This ensures that everyone does the same amount of work for each week. Do not go over the one page limit. It is quite challenging to provide a meaningful response to the question in such a small word limit, but this will develop a really important set of skills that will make it easier to grasp some of the complex concepts in the course.
  • Answer the question in your own words. Do not simply summarize the reading!!

 

There are ten tutorial questions. The tutorial mark will be awarded both on the basis of the written work, as well as on tutorial participation.

Tutorial papers are to be done every week and they can only be submitted at the tutorial in which the reading is to be discussed.

 

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Delivery and Resources

Anth 303 involves a two-hour seminar starting at 9.00 pm and finishing at 11.00 pm on Tuesday, in W5A203. This weekly meeting will be used for lectures, discussion and for films. Attendance at seminars is compulsory.

Students are also required to attend one of three weekly tutorials on Tuesdays: the first and second are scheduled in C5C 240 at 11.00 am and 12.00 noon respectively; the third is in W5A201 at 2.00pm.

 

REQUIRED TEXTS

  • All readings for tutorials are found on the iLearn page for the unity, with the tutorial question. All other listed readings are on three-day loan (books) or e-reserve (journal articles).   
  • All lecture PowerPoint Slides will be posted on iLEARN  

 

TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGY

Tuesday Lecture: Each week, the course convener will use the two hours of the Tuesday meeting to sketch out and address the key issues under discussion and to situate the tutorial readings. The class will also view and interpret a number of significant films.

Tutorial: Tutorial readings are intimately connected to the topics under discussion in the two-hour lecture session. Sometimes the tutorial material approaches the issues explored in the lecture from a contrary direction; sometimes it places those issues in a different context or summarizes key themes. Students are expected to attend all tutorials and to be familiar with the assigned material, as well as participate in small group discussion or larger tutorial activities.

Unit Schedule

Part One: Built Form, Society, Subjectivity

 

Week One: Relations between Built Form, Society and Experience/Consciousness

 

1. The Tower of Babel: Introduction to Selected Dimensions of the Built Environment

 

2. Built Form, Culture, Subjectivity

 

Week Two: Anthropological Approaches to Urban Form & Built Environment (1)

 

1. Ecological & Social Organization Approaches

 

2. Symbolic or Semiotic Approaches

 

Week Three: Excursion to St Mary’s Cathedral

 

Meet at 9.55am (for 10.00am start) at the middle door, next to organ console, for the guided tour.

 

No Tutorial this week.

 

Week Four: Anthropological Approaches to Urban Form & Built Environment (2)

 

1. Social Production Approaches

 

2. Film: The Architecture of Mud

 

 

 

Part Two: Historical Background to Urban Anthropology

 

Week Five: Representing the Heart of Darkness: Imperial Urban Ethnography at Home and Abroad

 

1. Urban Ethnographic Representation at Home: Karl Marx, Charles Dickens and Metropolitan Urban Ethnography.

 

2. Urban Ethnographic Representation Abroad: International Fairs, Native Villages, Picture Postcards and Photograph 

 

Week Six: Urban Anthropology and Case Study 1: Dependent Colonialism and Urbanization in Africa

 

1. Anthropology of the Urban: Anthropology’s Missing Link?

 

2. Settler & Dependent Colonialisms: Introduction to World Systems Theory in the African Context  

 

Film: Songs of the Adventurers 

 

 

 

Part Three: Urban Modernities, Imagined Communities

 

Week Seven: The Colonial City as Exemplar of Modernist Cities

 

1. Modernity & Planning

 

2. The Colonial City: Laboratories of Modernity

 

 Term break

 

Week Eight: Anti-Colonialism and the Struggle for Urban Space

 

1. Space and Resistance

 

2. Film: Battle of Algiers

 

Week Nine: Post-Colonialism and the Nationalist City: Monumentalism and Identity

 

1. Nationalism and Identity

 

2. Nationalism and Urban Form

 

 

 

Part Four: Exit State Developmentalism, Enter Neoliberal Globalisation?

 

 Week Ten: Istanbul: History, Experience and Politics of Place (1)

 

1. Republican Turkey

 

2. Film: Ekumenopolis

 

 Week Eleven: Istanbul: History, Experience and Politics of Place (2)

 

1. Neoliberal Globalization and the Politics ofCulture and Public Space

 

2. Film: Crossing the Bridge

 

Week Twelve: The End of Modernism & State Developmentalism?

 

1. Imagining the City: Metaphors and Images 

 

2. Built Environment, Culture, Consciousness

 

Week Thirteen: Course Overview and Last Thoughts

 

1. Reckoning with Architecture, the City, Place and Identity.

 There is no tutorial scheduled for this week, but students are encouraged to look at:

 

Dovey, K. (1999) ‘Liberty and Complicity’ (Chapter 13) in Framing Places: Mediating Power in Built Form.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct​

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Take Home Test
  • Tutorial

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space

Assessment task

  • Tutorial

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Tutorial

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Account for the diversity of urban environments

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Tutorial

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Take Home Test
  • Tutorial

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Take Home Test
  • Tutorial

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Account for the diversity of urban environments
  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.
  • Apply the concerns of various anthropological writings to contemporary processes of spatial design and groups' or individual's perception and use of space

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Take Home Test
  • Tutorial

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Take Home Test
  • Tutorial

Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible

We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Identify relations between built form, culture, and individuals’ experiences of space
  • Analyse how architectural forms, modernist urban planning and people’s use of space are articulated with particular political projects of nationalism, colonialism, socialism etc.

Assessment tasks

  • Minor Essay
  • Major Essay
  • Take Home Test
  • Tutorial