AP/HREQ 3410 6.00
Human Rights and Urban Space
This course uses a critical human rights perspective to explore how social relations, equity, and access are experienced in urban spaces. Gentrification, access to social services, and homelessness are explored in the context of the competition for urban space. Forms of resistance through cultural expression, activism, and community action are also examined.
The course encourages students to analyze the way space is organized in cities as a product of purposeful social practice with implications for social justice and human rights. Students will learn how spatial processes, arrangements, and manipulations in cities, as well as in the broader society, affect the human rights of different individuals and groups. Examples include the spatial concentration of poor people in massive social housing complexes; the location of urban facilities, amenities, and utilities, such as schools and hospitals; and the placement of garbage dumps, environmental contaminants, and hazards.
Prerequisite: 24 credits.