TCP2028 : Understanding Cities
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Available to incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students
- Module Leader(s): Dr Georgiana Varna
- Lecturer: Professor Simin Davoudi, Professor Rose Gilroy, Dr Jane Midgley, Dr David Webb, Dr Loes Veldpaus
- Owning School: Architecture, Planning & Landscape
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
To build critical, social-scientific understanding of contemporary cities and processes of urban change.
- To give students an understanding of the key debates in contemporary urban theory.
- To link theoretical debates, processes of urban change, and urban policy and planning debates using specific case studies and examples.
Outline Of Syllabus
This module uses a range of teaching styles – lectures, videos and discussions – to present a cutting-edge and critical introduction to the understanding of contemporary cities. The course addresses a wide range of types of cities; ’global’ cities such as London; postindustrial cities such as Newcastle; and Global South mega-cities. Using the latest insights from a wide range of social-scientific research on urban change to address this wide range of examples, the module will allow students to gain insights into contemporary urban theory. It will use these to build an understanding of how contemporary cities are changing and how these changes raise major challenges for urban planning and policy making.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | Synchronous scheduled in person lectures |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 82:00 | 82:00 | Reading and research specifically focussed on assessment preparation and completion |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 1 | 85:00 | 85:00 | Reading and learning as set out within the lectures and developed in the workshop discussions and |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 4 | 2:00 | 8:00 | Synchronous workshops in class debating key issues discussed during the lectures |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 1 | 3:00 | 3:00 | Surgery |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Weekly lecture material, followed by individual activities of creative practice (e.g. viewing of a film, photographing) and contextual reading linked to topic, followed by bi-weekly workshops with group activities and discussion. Structured readings supplied each week. Support for preparation of assessments.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 2 | A | 70 | 2500 word urban focused essay due at the end of the semester |
| Reflective log | 2 | A | 30 | visual assignment (poster, drawing, collage, artistic visualisation) |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The 70% assignment urban essay will draw together ideas they have learned in class and workshops into one coherent critically engaging piece of work. Drawing on academic and non-academic materials, students demonstrate how these are used to aid 'understanding' of a particular issue in a city of their choice.
The 30% visual assignment of reflective logs is meant to help students to develop their visual and graphic illustration skills which they will need in their future planning professions. Students are required to create a visual piece of a method of their choice such as collage, poster, masterplan, artistic visualisation etc. to illustrate one of the critical elements of their essay in teh city of their choice.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- TCP2028's Timetable