Urban Sociology
Structural contexts, social dynamics and lifestyles
Professeur : Tommaso Vitale
Année universitaire 2015/2016 : Semestre de printemps (INTRO SCPO)
DESCRIPTIF DU COURS
This course is an introduction to the sociological study of lifestyles and social relations in urban spaces. Two main parts compose it.
The first part has to do with structural contexts of opportunities, and the evolution of approaches and paradigms in urban sociology. We will ask two main questions. How does sociology understand the morphology of urban spaces and their constraints? How is it possible to track social effects related to the distribution / cohabitation / segregation of different social and ethnic groups? The general idea is to highlight contemporary debates related to urban population dynamics and to relations between groups and individuals.
The second part is about sociological methodology. A preliminary introduction to methods of urban ethnography will help designing and implement a mini-survey in three different types of urban spaces..
Descriptif du cours
Class 1: Cities as structural contexts of opportunities
Class 2: The neighbourhood: social organisation and integration modes
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part VI
SCHILLER, Nina Glick, and Ayse CAGLAR, "Towards a Comparative Theory of Locality in Migration Studies: Migrant Incorporation and City Scale." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2009, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 177–202.
Class 3: Principles of urban ethnography
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part I and Part VIII
ROULSTON Kathryn, "Interactional problems in research interviews", Qualitative research, 2014, Vol. 14, N°3, p. 277-293
Class 4: From the neighbourhood to the metropolis. Using quantitative analysis to change of scale and improve urban ethnography
Reading: Edmond Préteceille, " Has Ethno-Racial Segregation Increased in the Greater Paris Metropolitan Area? ", Revue française de sociologie 3/2009 (Vol. 50) , p. 489-520. URL : www.cairn.info/revue-francaise-de-sociologie-2009-3-page-489.htm. DOI : 10.3917/rfs.503.0489.
RUCKS-AHIDIANA Zawadi and BIERBAUM Ariel H., "Qualitative spaces: Integrating spatial analysis for a mixed methods approach", International journal of qualitative methods, vol.14, no2, 2015, p. 92-103
Class 5: Upper class in the metropolitan space
Oberti M. et Préteceille E., , « Les cadres supérieurs et les professions intermédiaires dans l'espace urbain: des dynamiques résidentielles divergentes, entre séparatisme et mixité sous contrôle », in Paul BOUFFARTIGUE, Charles GADEA et Sophie POCHIC (dir.), Cadres, classes moyennes : vers l'éclatement ?, Armand Colin, Paris, p. 202-212. Cote bibliothèque Sc Po : 8°300.544
Pinçon-Charlot M., Pinçon M., Les Ghettos du Gotha : comment la bourgeoisie défend ses espaces, Payot, Paris, 2009. Cote bibliothèque Sc Po : 8°277.613
Reading: GENIS Şerife, "Producing elite localities: the rise of gated communities in Istanbul", Urban Studies, vol. 44, no 4, 2007, p. 771798.
Class 6: Middle classes in the working class suburbs
Reading: Préteceille E., "Is gentrification a useful paradigm to analyse social changes in the Paris metropolis?", Environment and Planning A, vol. 39, n° 1, p. 10-31. 2007
BLOKLAND Talja, "Celebrating Local Histories and Defining Neighborhood Communities: Place-making in a Gentrified Neighborhood", Urban Studies, 2009, Vol. 46, N°8, p. 1593-1610
Class 7: On urban sociology and contextualisation: evidence between theory and instruments for empirical research
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part V.
LAMONT Michèle, and SWIDLER Ann, "Methodological Pluralism and the Possibilities and Limits of Interviewing", Qualitative Sociology, 2014, Vol. 37, N°2, p. 153-171.
Class 8: Micro level hyper-segregation: mechanisms and processes
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part III
BLOKLAND, Talja, "Blaming Neither the Undeserving Poor Nor the Revanchist Middle Classes: A Relational Approach to Marginalization." Urban Geography, 2012, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 488–507.
Class 9: Improving tools for urban ethnography: doing systematic observation
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part IV.
SMALL, Mario Luis, "`How Many Cases Do I Need?' On Science and the Logic of Case Selection in Field-Based Research." Ethnography, 2009, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 5–38.
Class 10: Sociology of social relations in the metropolitan suburbs
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part II.
Class 12: What has urban sociology to offer to policy studies? Comparing structural contexts of opportunities
Reading: Duneier Mitchell, Kasinitz Philip, Murphy Alexandra (eds), 2014, The urban ethnography reader, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Part VII
SMALL Mario Luis, "Culture, Cohorts, and Social Organization Theory: Understanding Local Participation in a Latino Housing Project", American Journal of Sociology, vol. 108, n°1, 2002, p. 1-54.
Team paper (urban sociology and integration)
How groups integrate into a structural context of opportunities? This is the research question for teams of 4 students to write a short team paper based on observations and interviews. Team papers have to explore contextual constraints and opportunities for integration, as well as the actions and strategies developed by a specific groups to integrate into a specific context. Team papers must show evidence on the main mechanisms and processes of social integration.
Requirements
Students should read all the assigned readings before the class and come to class with comments and criticisms on the readings, being able to present the main contents, consistently take an active part in class discussions, and respect dead lines.
Grades
Grades are between 0 and 20.
They will be determined by two main components:
A paper based on a short collective urban ethnography (between 3000 and 4000 words, by groups of four students) 85%
Class participation: random selection of four students to present and discuss the readings of the week (15%)
General information
Faculty:
Prof. VITALE Tommaso. On my webpage you can find useful links for sociological research, as well as my cv.
Office Hours:
Monday, but by appointment. Please specify if you ask for a 10' or a 15' meeting. Please consider booking 2 weeks in advance
Office Address:
Centre d'études européennes- 28, rue des Saints Pères - 4th floor, c 407.
Recommendation letters:
Students asking me for a recommendation letter have to send me their CV two weeks before the dead line.
Contacts:
tel: 0033.(0)1.4549.8320 (please call me any day of the week but between 17:00 and 18:00, and not in the morning)
skype: tomvita
[email protected] (answers in one week, not in real time, sorry)
Cities are back in town
This is the website of the research program in urban studies at Sciences Po. You can find a lot of interesting news on seminars, publications, urban data, and so on: http://blogs.sciences-po.fr/recherche-villes/
My papers
You can download most of my papers from the Sciences Po open repository: http://spire.sciencespo.fr
Urban School
If you are interested in advanced education in Urban Sociology and broadly speaking in Urban Studies, please take a look at the website of the Sciences Po urban school: http://www.sciencespo.fr/ecole-urbaine/en
Suggestions for academics journals
Please note that the most important academic journals for urban sociology are: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies, City and community, Research in Urban Sociology
Also: please consider looking carefully at this undergraduate Journal, it accepts papers from young, undergraduate urban sociologist!: Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography (JUE).
Suggested adding readings
Gottdiener M., Hutchison R., Ryan M.T., The New Urban Sociology, Fifth edition, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 2015
Harding A., Blokland T., Urban Theory. A critical introduction to power, cities and urbanism in the 21st century, Sage (2014). To be read for class 5, by September 30th.
Violence at the Urban Margins, Edited by Javier Auyero, Philippe Bourgois, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Oxford University Press, 2015.
04.06.2015 5
PLAN DE COURS
