EGS5056F - Imagining Southern Cities

Course Outline:

The global South is urbanising at roughly twice the rate of the global North, yet dominant narratives of 'the city' continue to privilege London, Los Angeles and Paris over Lagos, Johannesburg and Mumbai. This course explores how cities of the global South are generating new bodies of theory, new forms of social life, and new imaginaries. It does this through novels, films and other textual and visual representations of everyday urbanism, drawing on contemporary theory from the global South to help make sense of these discourses. Situated in the rapidly evolving field of Urban Studies, the course aims to open up conversations across disciplines about the cities we are in and the cities we desire. Students will be expected to read set texts, both fictional and theoretical, and watch set films, in preparation for classes will which take the form of weekly, student-led seminars.