Course description
More than half of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas. The dynamics of urbanization, which have partially slowed down in the Global North, occur today at a massive pace and on a much larger scale in the so-called Global South. As global changes continue to gather pace, their positive and negative impacts become more evident locally: cities are the places where such emerging challenges (i.e. unemployment, social unrest, immigration, climate change, environmental crises, etc.) are directly experienced by people in their everyday lives. Cities, however, are also where such issues become a matter of policy intervention.
The course focuses on contemporary cities considered as complex systems where natural, human, socio-economic, political and built environments co-evolve. By assuming a multidisciplinary perspective and approach (economics, environmental sciences, urban planning, architecture, political science, sociology, administrative law, etc.) it aims at exploring how urban policy-making processes work today, and particularly their effectiveness in tackling the impacts generated by the aforementioned global changes.

Learning outcomes
1) to introduce students to the basic concepts and theories relevant for an understanding of the major interrelated forces that drive the changes and challenges affecting cities in the current era of global change;
2) to introduce students to the field of the public policy analysis (i.e. policy/politics, the social construction of collective problems, networks of actors, resources and issues at stake, forms of knowledge and decision
making rationality, implementation and evaluation, etc.);
3) to familiarize students with the set of planning instruments, approaches and governance arrangements involved in the contemporary urban policy-making process (comprehensive plans, strategic plans, mega-events, mega-projects, culture-led urban development, bottom-up social initiatives, etc.);
4) to introduce students to the use of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a policy-making support tool to analyse, map and address contemporary urban challenges.
The course is divided into three modules.
Module 1 introduces students – from a theoretical perspective – to cities, global changes, urbanization processes, planning policies and the field of public policy analysis. Module 2 introduces students to the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a fundamental tool for analysing, mapping and communicating research on complex places. With the help of a small Digital Lab, participants will learn how to manipulate raster and vector images, as well as to contextualize historical and current statistical data and cartography. In module 3 students will be introduced to selected case-studies; the module is structured as a real urban analysis and policy design workshop experience where students will acquire practical skills through the analysis of the complex interrelation between Venice and the global changes affecting the city and its residents.
Students will be organised in work-groups (with a mix of nationalities and university backgrounds) which will work together with the aim of critically investigating the underlying complexity of such policy areas, as well as proposing policy initiatives and planning goals.

Requirements
Students are expected to do the required readings and to attend class regularly, as attendance is compulsory (maximum 15% absence is allowed, see VIU Program Regulations). Required readings will be designated on a weekly basis according to the themes listed in the course outline.
Given their different countries of origins and backgrounds, students are encouraged to participate and discuss
actively during the lessons in order to enhance a regular exchange of points of view, ideas and perspectives.
With reference to the development of the case-study, continuous tutoring will be offered by the professor.
The use of any kind of phones, tablets and computers (if not explicitly required by the professor) is strictly
prohibited during the class hours.
Penalty grades will be assigned to students who fail to observe these rules. This means that unexcused absences, lateness, low participation in class discussion, disrupting classes and the use of technological devices when not required will reduce the final grade.

Evaluation methods
The course will consist of the following autonomous evaluations:

1) group assignment (percentage of the overall grade = 10%) comprising a critical presentation to the class of a global issue affecting contemporary cities;
2) mid-term evaluation: in-class individual written test (percentage of the overall grade = 45%);
3) final evaluation: presentation of the group-works (percentage of the overall grade = 30%).
In addition, a 15% of the overall grade will be attributed according to these criteria: class attendance, participation and interaction, prompt submission of the required assignments.

Bibliography
Selected chapters from the following list will be provided by the professor:

ABBOTT C., (2020), City planning: a very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DESJARDINS J., (2020), Signals. Charting the new direction of the global economy. Canada: Visual Capitalist.
HALL P., (2002), Cities of Tomorrow: an intellectual history of urban planning and design in the Twentieth
Century, 3th edition, Malden, Oxford: Blackwell.
JRC, (2019), The Future of Cities. Opportunities, challenges and the way forward. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
SAPRU R.K., (2013), Public Policy. Art and craft of policy analysis. Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited.