Course on urban policies and cities in crisis by the Autonomous University of Barcelona
Cities have become a focus of interest for the analysis of the urban and public policies. With an unstoppable upward trend in the concentration of people living in urban contexts, cities are today the scene of an exciting change of time that affects the social, political, economic and technological spheres.
Understanding its structure and the different opportunities not only from an urban perspective, but from other areas such as politics, will reveal its weaknesses and opportunities for improvement.
From the Autonomous University of Barcelona, for the next month, launch a free course in MOOC format (Taught in Spanish) with the title «Cities in crisis and new urban policies«.
In the training they reveal unknowns to us such as … What are the urban vulnerability factors and what responses are being articulated in the form of urban policies? How does innovation emerge in the city, both from the grassroots and from public entities? What effects has the irruption of the digital age had on the city? among other matters of interest.
Who is the course aimed at?
The course is aimed at all those interested in cities and public affairs, as well as those who want to become influential participants in the process of shaping urban policies.
Also for all those students who will want to pursue university or postgraduate studies in urban planning, urban geography, public management, public administration or urban policy analysis.
Program
The course is structured in 4 weeks with a specific agenda for each week, at 6 teaching hours per week, with different graded tasks if you want to pass it.
1.- First week
Introduction where the concept of what are urban policies composed of ten videos.
The city is today the area in which the great global problems become reality. In this first week we talk about what urban policies are (and are not), the concept of urban public space and the growing and increasingly complex rivalry for this scarce resource.
The relevant actors in urban governance and, finally, of the two great values by which urban policies can be judged: access and diversity.
2.- Second week
He delves into the study of urban vulnerabilities and what are their social consequences on cities (See article of interest on resilience in cities) Participation, exchange, possible concentration of knowledge, innovation, how wealth is generated is analyzed, and at the same time inequality and social exclusion are also addressed.
The impact of the recent crisis on neighborhoods is also studied with special attention, and on how cities have shown varying degrees of adaptability and resistance or how they are responding to these vulnerabilities from the traditional logics of the welfare state.
3.- Third week
This week is about social innovation and urban policies, of how cities have responded to these changes with urban innovation practices, including experiences from logic and the community base.
It is investigated in … What role does citizen participation play in generating innovations? How is innovation distributed among the neighborhoods of a city? What role does leadership play in generating innovations? What happens when bottom-up initiatives converge in the same area with top-down ones?
4.- Fourth week
This last week the digital age in the city and how it is affecting them. The implications of the technological change and its consequences in urban life.
There is also a critical analysis of the concept of Smart City and how it affects social and economic aspects or what are the opportunities of the collaborative economy from a digital perspective.
Access to register from HERE. It is taught through the Coursea platform. Remember that MOOC (Massive Open On-line Course) courses are totally free, of course, if you want to have an Official Certificate - of course you have to pass the course - you must pay an amount that depends on each platform, normally it varies between 30 and € 60.
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