This course provides an overview of the history, theory, and politics of community development and social planning as an important dimension of contemporary urban development and change.

This course is the foundations course for the city governance concentration in the City Studies program, and provides an introduction to the study of urban politics with particular emphasis on different theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding urban decision-making, power, and conflict.

This course introduces quantitative and qualitative methods in city studies. Students will engage in observation and interviews; descriptive data analysis and visualization; surveys and sampling; and document analysis.

This introductory course will encourage students to exercise their relational and comparative imagination to understand how the urban issues and challenges they experience in Scarborough and Toronto are interconnected with people, ideas and resources in other parts of the world. Students will examine the complexities of urbanization processes across different regions in the world, including themes such as globalization, urban governance, sustainability, climate change, equity and inclusion. Through interactive lectures, collaborative work and reflective assignments, students will learn to apply comparative and place-based interventions for fostering inclusive, equitable, and sustainable urban futures.

This course introduces students to economic approaches to cities. Cities are historical hubs of economic life, and economic reasoning has become a dominant lens in policy design and implementation in the last few decades. Becoming familiar with economic concepts (e.g., supply and demand) and tools is useful to those interested in urban planning and policy.

This course engages students in a case study of some of the issues facing urban communities and neighbourhoods today. Students will develop both community-based and academic research skills by conducting research projects in co-operation with local residents and businesses, non-profit organizations, and government actors and agencies.

With a focus on building knowledge and skills in community development, civic engagement, and community action, students will ‘learn by doing’ through weekly community-based placements with community organizations in East Scarborough and participatory discussion and written reflections during class time. The course will explore topics such as community-engaged learning, social justice, equity and inclusion in communities, praxis epistemology, community development theory and practice, and community-based planning and organizing. Students will be expected to dedicate 3-4 hours per week to their placement time in addition to the weekly class time. Community-based placements will be organized and allocated by the course instructor.

This course examines how planning and housing policies help shape the housing affordability landscape in North American cities. The course will introduce students to housing concepts, housing issues, and the role planning has played in (re)producing racialized geographies and housing inequality (e.g., historical and contemporary forms of racial and exclusionary zoning). We will also explore planning’s potential to address housing affordability issues.

Constitutional authority, municipal corporations, official plans, zoning bylaws, land subdivision and consents, development control, deed restrictions and common interest developments, Ontario Municipal Board.

In recent years social policy has been rediscovered as a key component of urban governance. This course examines the last half-century of evolving approaches to social policy and urban inequality, with particular emphasis on the Canadian urban experience. Major issues examined are poverty, social exclusion, labour market changes, housing, immigration and settlement.

An examination of community development as the practice of citizens and community organizations to empower individuals and groups to improve the social and economic wellbeing of their communities and neighbourhoods. The course will consider different approaches to community development and critically discuss their potential for positive urban social change.

The history of spatial planning practices is essential to understanding how planning actually works, how it impacted urbanization, and what is possible today. This course examines the evolution of spatial planning institutions of the Toronto region in global comparative perspective. Planning history is foundational knowledge for City Studies students. Spatial planning has, since its origins in the early 20th Century, had a major impact on patterns of urbanization, yet works differently in each jurisdiction. Understanding housing affordability, congestion, homelessness, and climate change vulnerability requires understanding how we got here.

Examination of one or more current issues in cities. The specific issues will vary depending on the instructor.

Local governments are constantly making policy decisions that shape the lives of residents and the futures of cities. This course focuses on how these decisions get made, who has power to make them, and their impact on urban citizens. We will address how challenges in cities are understood by city council, staff, and the public, and how certain “policy solutions” win out over others. In the process, we will draw from both classical and contemporary theories of local government as well as the latest research on urban policy making. We will also be learning field research methods to study policy making as it happens on the ground in cites.

This course introduces students to questions of urban ecology and environmental planning, and examines how sustainability and environmental concerns can be integrated into urban planning processes and practices.

This course examines the role of municipal finance in shaping all aspects of urban life. Putting Canada into a comparative perspective, we look at how local governments provide for their citizens within a modern market economy and across different societies and time periods. The course also explores the relationship between municipal finance and various social problems, including movements for racial justice and the ongoing housing crisis.

Most of the world's population now lives in large urban regions. How such metropolitan areas should be planned and governed has been debated for over a century. Using examples, this course surveys and critically evaluates leading historical and contemporary perspectives on metropolitan planning and governance, and highlights the institutional and political challenges to regional coordination and policy development.

This course examines the engagement of citizen groups, neighbourhood associations, urban social movements, and other non-state actors in urban politics, planning, and governance. The course will discuss the contested and selective insertion of certain groups into city-regional decision-making processes and structures.

Demand forecasting; methodology of policy analysis; impacts on land values, urban form and commuting; congestion; transit management; regulation and deregulation; environmental impacts and safety.

A central focus of city studies is the attempt to understand the diversity of cities and urbanization processes globally. This course provides an opportunity to engage in field research work on a common research topic in a city outside Toronto. Students will prepare case study questions; engage in data collection including interviews, archives, and observation; networking; and case analysis in a final report.

This course is designed as a culminating City Studies course in which participants are able to showcase the application of their research skills, and share their professional and disciplinary interests in a common case study. Lectures and guests will introduce conceptual frameworks, core questions and conflicts. Students will be expected to actively participate in discussions and debates, and produce shared research resources. Each student will prepare a substantial research paper as a final project.

City Studies Workshop I provides training in a range of career-oriented research, consulting, and professional skills. Through a series of 4-week modules, students will develop professional practice oriented skills, such as conducting public consultations, participating in design charrettes, making public presentations, writing policy briefing notes, conducting stakeholder interviews, working with community partner organizations, organizing and running public debates, and participant observation of council meetings and policy processes at Toronto City Hall.

City Studies Workshop II provides training in a range of career-oriented research, consulting, and professional skills. Through a series of 4-week modules, students will develop professional practice oriented skills, such as conducting public consultations, participating in design charrettes, making public presentations, writing policy briefing notes, conducting stakeholder interviews, working with community partner organizations, organizing and running public debates, and participant observation of council meetings and policy processes at Toronto City Hall.

Designed primarily for final-year City Studies Majors, this research seminar is devoted to the analysis and discussion of current debates and affairs in City Studies using a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Specific content will vary from year to year. Seminar format with active student participation.

This course is designed to develop career-related skills such as policy-oriented research analysis, report writing, and presentation and networking skills through experiential learning approaches. The policy focus each year will be on a major current Toronto planning policy issue, from ‘Complete Streets’ to improvements to parks and public space infrastructure, to public transit-related investments. Students work closely in the course with planners and policymakers from the City of Toronto, policy advocates, and community organizers.

An independent studies course open only to students in the Major and Major Co-op programs in City Studies. An independent studies project will be carried out under the supervision of an individual faculty member.

An introduction to the main features of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean world from the development of agriculture to the spread of Islam. Long term socio-economic and cultural continuities and ruptures will be underlined, while a certain attention will be dedicated to evidences and disciplinary issues.
Same as HISA07H3

A study of Mesopotamian and Egyptian mythologies. Special attention will be dedicated to the sources through which these representational patterns are documented and to their influence on Mediterranean civilizations and arts.

A study of Greek and Roman mythologies. Special attention will be dedicated to the sources through which these representational patterns are documented and to their influence on Mediterranean civilizations and arts.

A survey of the history and culture of the Greek world from the Minoan period to the Roman conquest of Egypt (ca 1500-30 BC). Special attention will be dedicated to the nature, variety and limits of the available evidences, to socio-cultural interactions as well as to historical processes of continuities and ruptures.
Same as HISB10H3