HENA0363GU Engelsk - Frit emne: The City in the Garden: The Garden in the City

City, suburb, exurb, technoburb, edge city, sprawl, blight, utopia, dystopia, autopian, landscraper, anti-city, blob, nowhere, segregated, integrated and city of a coming golden age are some of the names given to the characteristics of Americans cities, demonstrating that descriptions of the American city clash and collide depending on who is writing. During the last century downtowns emptied, and outer areas filled up. The daily commute to work skirts the city as much as it used to dive into downtown. Today most Americans live somewhere outside of downtown, despite recent urban rebounds.

This course will explore the evaporation of the traditional American city and view its re-materialization at the metropolitan edge. It will investigate the consequences of America’s great migrations from city to suburb and beyond by focusing on competing issues, including political, social, environmental, and spatial justice. What do Americans want of their neighborhoods, what does “neighborhood” mean, and do Americans have real choice in where or how they live? Are Americans getting what they want? Where is the city heading in the Twenty-first Century?