New Technologies and Urban Change

Cities are always changing, most times gradually, but sometimes very rapidly and with significant effects on urban space, form, culture, and society. Among the forces that have historically driven urban change are the dynamics of immigration, both local and international, and the impacts of new technologies. These two forces are closely related. Indeed, acting as a magnet for increased immigration may itself be one of the most important impacts of techno-logical innovation on urban development. The purpose of this course is to explore the way new technologies have impacted -- and continue to impact -- urban society. The first half of the course will consist of a series of lectures and discussions of how technologies have changed cities in the past: in the ancient world, in the early industrial period, and in the period of the twentieth-century regional metropolis. The second half of the course will consist of weekly oral reports by 3-4-person student working groups researching specific examples of how current and still-emerging new technologies are transforming cities and city life today and how those changes may need to be addressed by either new public policies and/or new personal or community accommodations.