Urban Ethnography and Field Methods

Catalog description

Cities can be dense, noisy, gritty and dirty. They can also have oases of calm and beauty. They are places where the unexpected is expected to occur. One thing is certain–urban settings are full of the diversity of human expressivity. Through readings, videos, guest lectures, and field trips, this course addresses the symbolic meanings and social production of urban life. The urban landscape provides an intensification of cultural processes. How humans experience them are more easily studied and understood in an urban setting. This course is a seminar with readings from Philadelphia and other urban settings introducing students to the study of the city as a site of everyday practice, introducing themes across neighborhoods, urban institutions, policy processes, and cultural change. For the semester project, students get step-by-step training in conducting an ethnographic fieldwork project on a topic of choice. They will acquire an understanding of qualitative field methods that they can employ in the service of capstone, thesis, and dissertation projects.