Sociology and urban sociology, Theoretical courses

Duration

24h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Stéphane Dawans

Coordinator

Stéphane Dawans

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

The urban question is the today's major concern : the complete urbanization of the planet, such a
The urban question becomes all the more urgent as the complete urbanization of the planet, hypothesis that Henri Lefebvre had formulated around 1968, seems to be realized at an unexpected speed. As the world population grows in a vertiginous way, as the current work of a radical geography verifies (Harvey, Davis ...), the city dwellers will represent two thirds of the population in 10 years, in other words, 5 billions of human beings will flock to larger and larger cities. It is therefore not surprising to see sociologists like Jean-Marc Stébé and Hervé Marchal affirming  that "the city as a human institution has largely imposed itself in our ways of thinking, feeling, acting, moving , to communicate, to love, to consume ... "or philosophers like Olivier Mongin and Thierry Paquot speaking of" urban condition "or even of « homo urbanus » to apprehend this socio-spatial transformation unprecedented in human history.
Among the urban studies or urban studies, the sociology of the city strives to make this phenomenon intelligible since the second half of the 19th century when the first metropolis appeared with the industrial society. Today, in a post-Fordist regime, cities are redeploying themselves according to the modalities imposed by the « new spirit of capitalism ». New phenomena are emerging: economic globalization of the world, development of new technologies and mobility, birth of globalized megacities ... Their analysis therefore requires the mobilization of new concepts (network city in Castell's and Dupuys' work, actor-network theory in  Latour ...)
In this course, we will try to identify how the social and the spatial articulate at two key moments in recent history: the turn of the 20th century when the theories of progressive and culturalist urbanism clash (Choay ), and the turn of the 21st century when the industrial city is brought to reconfigure itself under the blow of an economy become largely tertiary, tourist and globalized.
To give us the necessary tools to understand how this spatial / social articulation works in a world in the middle of a reconfiguration, we will quickly draw the history of urban sociology to approach the authors (from Marx to Sennett), the texts (original as well as make possible) and the essential concepts of the discipline (organic solidarity, sociation, urban area, ... lived space, ... metropolisation).

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

At the end of the course, the students will notably be able to identify these new movements of the contemporary city (gentrification, periurbanisation, relegation, ...) and to explain the political stakes of what the geographer Michel Lussault approaches as a struggle for places, after the class struggle ...

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

None

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The course will be mainly given in masterful form (with the help of a power point, excerpts from documentaries, ...) and possibly accompanied by one or two presentations of researchers

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

The course will be mainly given in masterful form (with the help of a power point, excerpts from documentaries, ...) and possibly accompanied by one or two presentations of researchers
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Organisational adjustments related to the current health context

Recommended or required readings

La sociologie urbaine. Par Jean-Marc Stébé et Hervé Marchal. Année : 2018; Pages : 128; Collection : Que sais-je ? Éditeur : Presses Universitaires de France.  

Assessment methods and criteria

Below you will find information on the evaluation methods planned for in-person and remote exams as well as those planned for hybrid sessions. Depending on how the health crisis evolves, the chosen method will be communicated to you no later than one month before the start of the exam session.

Any session :

- In-person

oral exam

- Remote

oral exam

- If evaluation in "hybrid"

preferred remote


Additional information:

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Work placement(s)

Organizational remarks

Contacts

Stéphane Dawans