The global city and the nature of the urban: Anthropological perspectives

The global city and the nature of the urban

What is the urban? Are cities increasingly becoming similar all over the world? How is it possible, as anthropologists, to grapple with the complexity of urban sociality?

In this course, we will look closely at cities as a global phenomenon and explore the nature of the urban from a range of anthropological perspectives.

• Read more about the course here: Course description SANT905

Interested PhD students in anthropology, history, political science, human geography, sociology etc are welcome to apply for participation. The course is relevant both whether you are planning to conduct qualitative fieldwork in an urban site, or have already done so.

Please see the attached course outline for readings, registration and further details. 

With now 50 per cent of the world’s population living in urban settings and the numbers increasing with what has been called the rise of ‘planetary urbanism’, there is a need to recognise that the urban is to some extents a new social phenomenon. 

This course will deal with a division between centrist notions of ‘the city’ and other approaches emphasising heterogenous and mutating urban, suburban and peri-urban forms.

Course Organizers

The course is organized in cooperation between Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris by professors Bjørn Enge Bertelsen and Knut Rio, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen.

• Bjørn Enge Bertelsen: Bjorn.Bertelsen@uib.no
• Knut Rio: Knut Rio@uib.no