Overview

This course covers different schools of political urban theory, from Classical urban theory, Urban regime analysis to Marxist Urban Geography, in order to analyse the role of political power and social struggles in urban politics.

In the second half of the course we look into case studies of urbanism across the world, explaining their common political-economic trajectories and power relations. Finally the course takes a more detailed look at Urban Politics in Turkey, and discusses the political dominance of mayors as a part of the authoritarian neoliberal regime in the country. It will conclude with a final lecture on the “City as Commons”.