ELP 586SEM - Read Urban Ethnographies

In the U.S. as elsewhere, the ¿urban¿ provokes mixed emotions - hope, desire, fear, despair - and continues to attract scholarly and policy attention. The ¿urban¿ is often where poverty, racial segregation, crime, and illness intersect, where vulnerable communities struggle for a good life amid trying circumstances. This course surveys historical and contemporary ethnographic writing on urban life that focuses on topics including streetcorner societies, youth subculture, inner-city schools, (im)migrant students, crime and punishment, welfare, and moral life, to illuminate the tensions, maneuvers, suffering, and solidarity deeply embedded in the fraught city fabrics. Drawing on scholarship in anthropology, sociology, and education, this course examines the social, economic, racial, political, and global forces that come to bear on the urban conditions. Through reading ethnographies that delve into issues of class reproduction, race relations, gender disparities, spatial stratification, state power, neoliberalism, and globalization, students will gain a critical understanding of the unique challenges and possibilities in the everyday lives of the urban dwellers. Besides critical theoretical analysis, we will also look at the ethical and methodological complexities of doing/writing ethnographies in the urban space.

Credits: 3