Urban development in conflict cities: planning challenges and policy innovations

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

In a highly urbanized world like the one we live in, cities become the strategic place of violent conflict. Economic, religious, gender and ethnic differences are negotiated every day in the urban arena, when tensions become conflict and conflict escalates into violence, the urban space becomes the battlespace. The process of city building with all its conflicts and tensions then is a tool for both violence and reconciliation. In short, the tools of urbanization are the tools of war in an urbanized conflict.

In this class, we examine urban development challenges in conflict cities. Case studies are used to examine the basic infrastructural, governance, social, and economic dilemmas facing citizens and local officials. The course explores multiple disciplinary perspectives from which urban conflict is addressed. It gives equal power to understand the particular conditions of urban conflict and to the policy solutions used to address such issues. This course examines the urban development challenges facing conflict and post-conflict cities, defined as locales that are socially, economically, and physically impacted by war, ethnic or religious conflict, and / or endemic criminal violence. The course reviews the literature by specific topics in which violence and cities intersect. The course introduces the concept of urban violence and its relationship to development, and takes a look at different perspectives of urban conflict: Military, gender, race, spatial, gang, mapping, peace building, and reconstruction.

This eclectic survey of issues intends to give students a general idea of the varied concepts of urban conflict. By focusing on a particular locale (city), this course will present each case with potential resolutions in the form of policy or project solutions. This class proposes to collaborate with a diverse group of institutions that deal with urban security (UN-Habitat, First Mile Geo, United States Agency for International Development, United Nations Development Programme, Internews) that will provide analytical data for some of the students' selected cases. Students are also encouraged to use other cities of their interest, data sources and methods.

MIT students were required to obtain permission of the instructor.

This course meets two days a week: The first session introduces a concept and the second session has student-led discussions about the issue of the week, building on the expectation that students will have completed all readings prior to class. There will be two types of weekly readings divided into required (for the first session of the week) and student led discussion readings (for the second class of the week). All students handle weekly required readings. Each student will also sign up for a brief oral report of student led discussion readings for a given week, once in the semester.

Within the first week of the course, students will pick a single "conflict" city to research during the semester, both for deeper empirical study as well as problem-solving. Data may be available for some students to focus on the following cities: San Pedro Sula, Medellin, and Aleppo. However, students are also encouraged to focus on other conflict cities, and to select a city of their choosing for deeper empirical study.

Student grades are based on in-class participation, the class presentation, and a paper that will have two parts:

Each paper should not be more than 10–15 pages in length, including any data illustrations you may wish to include.

Students are graded on the basis of active participation, commitment, quality of presentation and submitting the assignments on time. Progress during the semester and striving for improvement will be credited.

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