CRP 5850 Special Topics

Most of the world’s urban population already resides in the Global South—the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, where mega-cities now reach massive proportions. While these cities are often sites of economic and cultural innovation and opportunity - they also pose enormous challenges - including the difficulties of containing diseases such as COVID-19, vastly unequal populations, lack of urban services, poor governance, and issues of environmental sustainability. According to the United Nations, by 2050, around 2.5 billion people could be added to urban areas, highlighting the need for more sustainable urban planning and public services. The course introduces students to contemporary urbanization processes, patterns, and trends focusing on the cities of the Global South. We study scholarly, journalistic, and film depictions of cities such as Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro in Latin America; Algiers and Lagos in Africa; Cairo and Istanbul in the Middle East; and Beijing and Mumbai in Asia.