International Divided Cities
UPPP 178 / Poli Sci 157B / Sociol 176
Winter 2021 Remote Teaching TuTh 3:30-4:50pm
LIVE: Zoom Meeting ID =959-7763-6803
RECORDINGS: Canvas folder Yuja
Professor Scott A. Bollens
Office hour: Wednesdays 12:00-1:00
Office hour zoom 416-062-9671
[email protected]
Teaching Assistant
Sara O’Connor
Wednesdays 4:00-5:00
[email protected]
A note to my students: I will teach this course with an abundance of compassion for you and with a keen awareness of the difficult and challenging times facing you during the coronavirus pandemic. I will do everything possible to make this as much as possible, under the current circumstances, a high-quality learning environment. You will find me kindness and tolerance during this course. Let us do our best! Scott Bollens
Nicosia, Cyprus
This course explores urban divisions and conflicts in international cities where nationalistic ethnic differences are deep-seated and can facilitate violence. In these cities and societies, ethnic identity and nationalism combine to create pressures for group rights, autonomy, or even territorial separation.
Nationalist projects—often exclusionary and assertive—are projected onto urban spaces of multiple and often intertwining cultures. Polarized cities are where two or more ethnically-conscious groups—divided by religion, language, and/or culture, and perceived history—coexist in a situation where neither group is willing to concede supremacy to the other. In these cities, there is an absence of trust across the ethnic divide.
Whereas in most cities there is a belief maintained by different groups that the existing system of governance is capable of producing fair outcomes, assuming adequate political participation and representation of minority interests, governance amidst severe and unresolved multicultural differences in polarized cities is viewed by at least one identifiable group in the city as artificial, imposed, or illegitimate.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course:
- You will understand how nationalistic and ethnic conflict penetrates the urban setting and to be able explain differences between “polarized” and “divided” cities.
- You will comprehend how political polarization is manifested in the urban setting in the form of boundaries, demarcations, divisions, walls, security checkpoints, and contested governance.
- You will be able to identify how cities can either lessen or increase intergroup conflict. Most of the problems of the city are in the city, but not of the city; their roots, however defined, are in the larger society and not in the city per se. Yet, cities can have significant effects on how intergroup relations are manifest in a contemporary society.
- You will develop an awareness of how ethnic or nationalistic identity, urban space, housing, economic development, public education and land development intersect in polarized cities, both historically and today. You will be able to evaluate how the physical development of a city influences social and intergroup relations.
- You will be able to describe and critically analyze, for a specific polarized city, the options available to policy analysts and planners that may improve intergroup relations.
- You will be able to describe the lessons that polarized cities present to us regarding how to address divisions in non-polarized but divided settings of many cities throughout the world.
TEACHING METHOD
I will use Zoom to broadcast live lectures on TuTh 3:30-4:50. You can access Zoom on desktop or on mobile device. Once you are in Zoom, input the meeting ID during lecture times and you will be a participant in Zoom live lectures.
I will also upload recordings of all lectures onto Canvas. For those who cannot attend regular live lectures, you can view the lectures in their entirety at a time convenient to you. Lectures will be accessible in the Yuja 2.0 folder of your Canvas site. Lectures will be identified by the date of the live recording.
I will use varied formats during lectures. I will use PowerPoint slides, the white board, and short video presentations of many of the cities discussed in order to illuminate the difficult and challenging conditions of polarization present in these cities. I will introduce you to music from many regions of the world to provide a rich cultural context for the fascinating areas that we explore.
You can participate and ask questions through two main methods:
- Zoom live lectures— send a chat during lecture and my TA and I will do our best to respond.
- Canvas—write a comment/question in the discussion board section. TA and I will engage with
these discussions and respond to queries and comments.
READINGS
The primary reading for this course is the book:
Bollens, Scott. A. 2012. City and Soul in Divided Societies. London and New York: Routledge.
You will find the book, and all additional required readings, accessible through the class Canvas site. There is no need to purchase any book.
EVALUATION
Your grade will be determined as follows:
Paper 1 15%
Paper 2 15%
Paper 3 15 %
Midterm exam 25 %
Final exam 30 %
Jerusalem, Israel/Palestine
Papers
Each paper is to be approximately 1150-1400 words in length and each paper will build upon your earlier papers.
Papers should be 1.5 line spaced, 12 font, with 1 inch margins.
Papers are to be turned into Canvas.
Paper I – Background to three cities. Discuss three polarized cities and, for each, describe the main antagonists. Why conflict? Background to urban setting (demographics, governance, other factors). 15%
DUE January 29, 10am
For the following papers, select one of the three cities you discussed in paper I and analyze that city for both papers II and III.
Paper II –Urban conditions and the conflict. How is the broader conflict translated onto the urban landscape? Specific urban ethnic attributes of the city that are associated with inter-group conflict. These can include spatial/ territorial, political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of urban living. 15%
DUE February 19, 10am
Paper III – Policy options for urban peacebuilding. The problems and obstacles urban conditions have presented to peacebuilding. What has been government approach toward these urban attributes? What alternatives exist for bettering inter- group relations in the city? 15%
DUE March 12, 10am
Mid-term exam (Remote, online). It will be solely multiple-choice and true/false and will test your understanding of material. Timed exam, open notes. Exam window: February 11, 3:30pm-February 12, 3:30pm
Final exam (remote). It will be multiple-choice and true/false and will comprehensively test your knowledge of course material from all ten weeks. Timed exam, open notes. Exam window: March 16, 4pm – March 17, 4pm
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (formerly Yugoslavia)
TIMELINE
January 29 Week 4 Paper I
February 11-12 Week 6 Midterm exam
February 19 Week 7 Paper II
March 12 Week 10 Paper III
March 16 -17 Week 11 Final exam
HELPFUL SOURCES FOR YOUR PAPERS
Conflict in Cities and the Contested State http://www.conflictincities.org/
International Crisis Group http://www.crisisgroup.org/
Urban Environment: Mirror and Mediator http://www.urbanpolarisation.org/
Citydivided.com (Bollens research website) http://citydivided.com
United States Institute of Peace http://www.usip.org
CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/
CLASS SCHEDULE AND READINGS
International Divided Cities
Readings listed for sessions are required and you should complete prior to the class meeting. I will test you on both reading and lecture material and these readings will provide you useful information for your three papers, so I recommend you stay up-to-date with readings. Readings outside of City and Soul book are accessible through Canvas course site.
January 5 and 7
CITY DIVISIONS, CITY CONFLICT
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 1. Introduction
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 2. Scholarship with an ‘I’
CITY AND SOUL. Pp 21-24. Nine Cities, Nine Sorrows.
Bollens, Scott A. 2006. “Urban Planning and Peace Building.” Progress in Planning. 66, 2: pages 67-76 only.
January 12 and 14
POLARIZED CITIES part I
Whereas most cities are divided socioeconomically and culturally, “polarized” cities contain a depth of antagonism and opposition beyond what the word “divided” connotes.
SHOWING OF THE DOCU-DRAMA MOVIE, WELCOME TO SARAJEVO (103 min)
Reading
CITY AND SOUL, Chapter 3. Soul in the City: Epic Cultures and Urban Fault‐lines
Gaffikin, Frank and Mike Morrissey. 2011. “The Divided City” Pp. 53-84 in Gaffikin, Frank and Mike Morrissey (eds.) Planning in Divided Cities: Collaborative Shaping of Contested Space. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
January 19 and 21
POLARIZED CITIES part II
Polarized cities are commonly platforms for the playing out of broader epic struggles tied to religion, historic political claims, ideology, culture, and nationalism.
Reading
Gaffikin, Frank and Mike Morrissey. 2011. “Identity, Space, and Urban Planning.” Pp. 85- 105 in Gaffikin, Frank and Mike Morrissey (eds.) Planning in Divided Cities: Collaborative Shaping of Contested Space. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Anderson, James. 2008. “From Empires to Ethno-National Conflicts: A Framework for Studying ‘Divided Cities” in “Contested States—Part I”. Conflict in Cities and the Contested State Research Program. Working paper #1.
January 26 and 28
SARAJEVO AND MOSTAR
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 4. Sarajevo, Bosnia‐Herzegovina ‘Urbicide’ and Dayton
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 9. Mostar, Bosnia‐Herzegovina: The City as War Spoils
Bollens, Scott A. 2006. “Urban Planning and Peace Building.” Progress in Planning. 66, 2: pages 88-91, 98-104, 111-117, 120-123.
February 2 and 4
BELFAST AND JOHANNESBURG
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 6. Belfast, Northern Ireland: A Peace’ Not Envisioned
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 5. Johannesburg, South Africa: ‘Swimming Olympic Style after Years of Drowning’
Bollens, Scott A. 1998. “Ethnic Stability and Urban Reconstruction: Policy Dilemmas in Polarized Cities.” Comparative Political Studies 31, 6: 683-713. (Belfast and Johannesburg)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
February 9 and 16 (Midterm exam February 11-12)
JERUSALEM AND NICOSIA
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 11. Jerusalem: Narrowing the Grounds for Peace
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 7. Nicosia, Cyprus: Surmounting Walls, not Politics
Bollens, Scott A. 1998. “Urban Planning Amidst Ethnic Conflict: Jerusalem and Johannesburg.” Urban Studies 35, 4: 729-50.
February 18 and 23
BASQUE COUNTRY AND BARCELONA
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 8. Basque Country, Spain: Moving From Etxea to Euskal Hiria
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 10. Barcelona, Spain: An Inclusive Nationalism?
Bollens, Scott A. 2006. “Urban Planning and Peace Building.” Progress in Planning. 66, 2: pages 85-88, 92-98, 104-111, 121-123.
February 25 and March 2
BEIRUT
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 12. Beirut, Lebanon: City in an Indeterminate State, Part I
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 13. Beirut, Lebanon: City in an Indeterminate State, Part II
Beirut, Lebanon
March 4 and 9
COMPARING ACROSS CONFLICTS
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 14. Comparing Across Conflicts
March 11
URBAN PEACE-BUILDING STRATEGIES AND POLICIES
Reading
CITY AND SOUL. Chapter 15. Cities and National Peace
Jerusalem, Israel / Palestine
