GEOG 3760-01 (32790)

Welcome to Urban Processes and Patterns, Spring 2023! I'm excited to take you on a journey this semester to examine today's urban areas and urban theories. You can check out the full Syllabus here!

Today, more than 4 billion people, or over half of the world’s population, live in urban areas. However, until the early 2000s, the majority of people in the world lived outside of urban areas. Recent and ongoing rapid urbanization shows us that understanding the social, political, and environmental processes that shape urban areas is not only important, but essential.

In this course, we will examine theories developed and used by geographers to explain urbanization and the common spatial patterns found throughout the world’s urban areas. The course serves as an introduction into these processes and patterns. We will critically analyze and conduct in-depth readings of both canonical and emerging literature in the field of urban geography. We will also explore this scholarship, and the processes and patterns they discuss, through the lens of Los Angeles in two ways. First, we will analyze urban processes and patterns through our own lived experiences as part of the Los Angeles community. Second, we will be reading City of Quartz, Mike Davis’ text on Los Angeles, in conversation with other required readings.

By situating global theories on urban processes in our local experience in Los Angeles, I hope that you will leave the semester with an expanded curiosity for the places you live in and a drive to help shape them.

To start, check out the Modules section which includes a page for each week with the topics we will be covering and the readings we will be engaging with.

Below you will find introductions to each of the assignments we will work on throughout the semester. I will provide more details and rubrics as we start the course.

If you have any questions, please reach out to me at: jbremne@calstatela.edu