Course Frame

<body> <h3 align="center">URBAN STUDIES PROGRAM <br> San Francisco State University</h3> <h3 align="center">URBAN STUDIES PROGAM COURSES</h3> <h4 align="center"><a href="index.htm">Home</a> | <a href="program.htm">Program Requirements</a> | <a href="faculty.htm">Faculty</a> | <a href="coursses.htm">Courses </a>| <a href="internsh.htm">Internships </a>| <a href="urban.htm">Urban Action</a> | <a href="alumni.htm">Alumni</a></h4> <h4 align="center">Click on a Course Number to See The Course Description<br> Or scroll down this page to see all courses in numerical order</h4> <p align="center">  </p> <p><a name="URBS 200"><font size="2"><u>URBS/SOC 200: The City</u> (3 units, F, summer)<br> </font></a></p> <p><font size="2">This is a lower division course which provides an overview of the city. The course draws on a wide array of materials, including social science research, novels, films, and direct observation of the city, as means of acquainting students with the richness and diversity or urban life and the variety of perspectives from which it can be understood. Topics covered include: the origin of cities, the experience of urbanization and ethnic pluralism, metropolitan spatial arrangements and the interaction of people within urban space, the nature of work in cities, urban life styles, the city in novels and the arts, urban and metropolitan governments, and current problems and issues in urban policy. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><a name="URBS 400"><font size="2"><u>URBS 400/HIST 489: Dynamics of the American City </u>(3 units; F/S) <br> </font></a></p> <p><font size="2">This is the required introductory course for all Urban Studies majors and minors. It should be taken during the first semester of a student's participation in the Urban Studies Program. In URBS 400 students become familiar with the historical development and current conditions of the American city. The course introduces basic concepts and methods of the interdisciplinary field of Urban Studies. Major topics include city planning, federal-city relations, and the dynamics of urban policy-making. Special attention is given to social class, gender, and ethnic diversity in urban America. The economic, cultural, and political contributions of women and nondominant/ethnic groups to the development of modern urban American receives detailed attention throughout the course. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/GEOG 432: Urban Geography</u> (4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This is a core course that focuses on space in the city, in which locational principles as they relate to societal constraints are examined. The emphasis is on physical structure, the where, why, and so what of buildings, districts, and the relative location of these components. Past patterns are examined in detail as a prelude to examining the patterns of the present city. The order of the classical city, the medieval city, and the city of the industrial revolution is examined in relation to its physical organization, and this spatial structure is then related to the societal and institutional forces that affect this shaping. This is essentially a liberal arts approach to the city.<br> <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">** <u>Note:</u> F,S, or F/S following the course title indicates the most likely course offering plan: </font></p> <p><font size="2">F = Fall; S = Spring; F/S = Fall and Spring. <u>However</u> this plan may be varied, especially with the kinds of budget constraints that we are facing today: you must <u>consult your advisor</u> for accurate information on planned course scheduling. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/GEOG 433: Urban Transportation Analysis</u> (4 units; S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Urban Transportation Analysis stresses the analysis of problems and the application of metropolitan planning methodology. The transportation consumption function is described. Interrelationships among urban transportation systems, human behavior and metropolitan landuse patterns are analyzed. The concept of a balanced transportation system is presented. An analysis is made of the effects of the automobile and mass transit on patterns or urban activities. Trip generation, trip distribution, modal splits and trip assignment are modeled. Alternatives are evaluated. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/SW 456: Urban Community Organizing & Citizen Action</u> (3 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course examines the theory and practice of community organizing. In what ways can people articulate their interests and effect social change? Topics include: turning community concerns into specific issues, how to put an organization together, leadership development, strategy and tactics, negotiations, use of the media, and fundraising in the organizing process. This course includes speakers presently involved with community organization efforts in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Students are required to observe, analyze, and report on a community organization's activities. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 475: Selected Issues in Urban Studies</u> (3 units, occasional)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This is the "variable topic" course in Urban Studies, a course which allows the program to offer special courses on topics of particular interest. Most recently it was used for two courses which have become permanent courses: Urbs 514, Urban Growth Management, and Urbs 582, Homelessness and Public Policy.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI 480: Policy Analysis </u>(4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course analyses policy making processes in the United States and presents the basic concepts and techniques of policy analysis. The course first examines the institutional and political contexts of policy analysis and policy-making. Then the central concepts and techniques of policy analysis are presented, including problem definition and measurement, causal analysis, policy tools and constraints, and evaluating policy alternatives and program results. A variety of substantive policy areas are covered through case studies and readings.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 485/PLSC 475: San Francisco Political Issues</u> (4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">San Francisco Political Issues focuses on politics and public policy formation in San Francisco. The course offers students of urban studies an opportunity to take the theories of urban politics and planning and apply them directly to the San Francisco context. After a series of introductory lectures on the culture, economy, and political processes of San Francisco, speakers are invited to the class to discuss issues of concern to students. Speakers are drawn from the City's elected officials, community leadership, the bureaucracy (e.g.Planning Commission, PUC) the media and the private sector. Students are encouraged, but not required, to do field work projects in the City.<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI 492: Research Methods</u> (4 units, F/S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course introduces the theory and practice of urban research. It is a required core course. All Urban Studies students are urged to take this course during their first or second semester. The course covers: sources of urban data; use of the library in urban research; formulating research questions; research design; methods commonly used in urban research: observation, interviews, survey research, content analysis, and use of unobtrusive measures; use of computers to store and manipulate quantitative urban data; an introduction to data analysis; written, oral, and graphical presentation of research findings; theoretical and practical applications of urban research. This course lays the foundation for the quantitative research methods requirement (Urbs/PlSi 493). <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSC 493: Data Analysis</u> (4 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The aim of this course is good basic understanding and skill with methods of data analysis that are useful in Urban Studies and related fields. Applications are drawn from Urban Studies, public administration, policy analysis, and related social sciences. The emphasis is on techniques for analyzing quantitative data. We are moving toward offering this course only once a year (each spring) as a large lecture course with smaller sections in the computer lab. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI 512: Urban Politics</u> (4 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course provides an introduction to urban politics and policymaking. It is intended to provide students with the knowledge and analytic tools with which to understand and operate within the political system through which so much of the quality of urban life is determined. The historical evolution and current range of formal political institutions are examined, with particular emphasis upon the political causes and consequences of formal institutional variations. Patterns of participation, influence, and power and their variation by class, race, and ethnicity are discussed, with particular attention to the recent efforts of minority groups to gain access to established urban political system. Substantive problems confronting urban political systems and policies which have been addressed to them are analysed; and the relationships between urban, regional, state, and federal policy systems are examined. Finally, policy recommendations and political strategies for change are explored.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI/513/GEOG 668: Politics, Law & Urban Environment</u> (4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course introduces students to the American legal system and how it affects cities. The role of courts and lawyers in the management of urban growth, resource utilization, and environmental protection. Topics include: private nuisance law, zoning, subdivision law, condemnation and inverse condemnation, growth management, development rights transfers, NEPA, and CEQA. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 514: Urban Growth Management</u> (4 units, irregular)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Prerequisite: Urbs/PlSi 513/Geog 668 or graduate status and consent of the instructor. An advanced course for students with a background in planning and land use regulation. Analysis of dimensions of urban growth. Urban growth impacts. Residential tempo controls, greenbelts and urban limit lines, control of annexation and incorporation, agricultural preserves, traffic mitigation, development fees and exactions. Seminar format with major research paper.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 515/GEOG 667: Race, Poverty, and the Urban Environment</u> (4 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course analyses urban environmental hazards and pollution and their differential impact on urban populations. It focuses particularly on the role of race, ethnicity, and class in decisions about the location and treatment of environmental pollutants and toxins. It also looks at the role of social movements in identifying and monitoring environmental assaults and in empowering people towards action. Public policy responses and strategies for change are considered. </font></p> <p><font size="2"><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 530: Alternative Urban Futures</u> (3 units; F/S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course analyses a variety of proposals for the future of urban life by examining the values, assumptions, and empirical evidence on which those proposals are based. The course examines current trends and projections, issues, and policy debates in a broad range of areas including politics and the economy, technology and the environment, housing, health, and the family. Controversies regarding planning and growth management in the Bay Area are used as concrete examples of alternative approaches to the future of the city. A variety of sources are used, including science fiction, planning documents, scholarly publications, policy arguments, and current media sources. Throughout the course students are encouraged to articulate their own values and consider methods and strategies for participating in the process of "creating the future." </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/ECON 535: Urban Economics</u> (3 units, F/S) </font></p> <p><font size="2">Analysis of those economic forces which determine a city's income, employment, land use pattern, and industrial structure. Particular attention to such problem areas as: central city poverty, labor market discrimination, housing, transportation, central citysuburban relationships, and the public service sector. This is a core requirement of the Urban Studies major. It is also especially useful to students interested in real estate, development, employment policy and local public finance. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/ANTHRO 555: Urban Anthropolgy</u> (4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Anthropology of cities. Cultural communities within contemporary cities. Adaptation of migrants to urban culture. Urban kinship networks and family structures in urban settings. Assimilation and acculturation. Participation by urban groups in the formal and informal economy. Preservation of ethnic, religious, and nationality-based identities. Application of anthropological insight to the solution of urban problems including employment, family policy, substance abuse, and economic development.<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/ANTHRO 557: Urban Ethnography</u> (4 units)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Students are trained in participant-observation fieldwork techniques and undertake research projects in inner city communities in the Bay Area. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 560: Urban Poverty and Policy</u> (4 units, S) <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Urban poverty remains one of the most intractable and tragic problems facing conteporary America. Compounding the genuine and increasing difficulties in addressing this problem is the nature of the public debate, which has generated more rhetorical slogans than useful insight. There is a desperate need for informed and thoughtful policy analysis which rigorously analyses the causes and possible solutions to this problem. This course will help you develop that analysis: examining the nature and experience of urban poverty, critically reviewing alternative theories of the causes of poverty and their policy implications, and carelly examining the lessons to be learned from past policy efforts. Particular attention is given to the role of education, employment, and family status; gender and race; metropolitan location; and global economic restructuring in shaping the problem and thus the solutions. The role of politics in shaping the policy debate and its outcomes will be analysed. The ultimate goal of the course is to help you effectively assess the present debate about poverty policy and to develop your own recommendatios for more effective policy. Prerequisite: Eng 214 or equivalent.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 565: Social Policy and the Family</u> (4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The family is the central institution for economic support, nurture, care and the production and socializing of children in American society. While most people associate the family with these functions, governments see families as the most significant vehicle for the transmission of social values, provision of dependent care and for the achievement of broad political and social goals, ranging rrom political indcotrination to labor market behavior. States are directly affected by how blood ties are defined, roles and responsibilities of family members are determined, issues of custody are decided, property is inherited, and social responsibilities are distributed. This course examines the relationship between the state and the family in America's cities. The overall objective of the course is to examine the relationship between the state and the family in the United States, focusing on the rights that families and family members have, and don't have, in American society. The course examines the concepts of "family" and "family policy" and then looks at specific policies which affect families. Key questions include how the interests of the state are served by specific social policies which affect families, and whether all families benefit equally from US family policies.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/LABR/PLSI 570: Urban Health Policy</u> (3 units; S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The US health system spends more on health than any other country in the world, yet we rank 20th in infant mortality, and we are the only industrialized country in the world without a universal health program. Our public hospitals are overwhelmed by the growing number of uninsured as well as the epidemics of AIDS, homelessness, and crack-cocaine. Yet crisis has brought opportunity: proposals for universal health programs, experiments with alternative delivery systems. This course provides an overview of the structure and dynamics of the US health care system as a basis for understanding the causes of the present crises and evaluating proposed solutions. The experience of other countries is examined as a source of suggestions for change. Key issues examined include: costs and cost containment efforts (including the current shift to managed care); access--and in particular the problems of access for low-income and third-world groups; the maintenance of urban "safety net" institutions such as public hospitals and community clinics; and selected problems of particular importance in urban areas such as maternal and child health; the AIDS epidemic; drugs; and homelessness. Recommendations and strategies for improving the US health care system are developed, with particular focus on proposals for a universal health program. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><a name="URBS 580"><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI 580: Housing & Urban Development Policy </u>(3 units, S)<br> </font></a></p> <p><font size="2">The first part of the course deals with the way in which the private market in housing works. What are housing needs? Who produces housing? What are conventional mechanisms of mortgage finance? There will be special emphasis on inner city housing: Who owns it? How much profit and in what form is it being made? The nature of landlordtenant relationships. The course then considers government intervention strategies intended to improve the housing situationwhat has been tried and with what results  including federal public and section 8 housing, density bonuses, code enforcement, rehabilitation loans and grants, rent control, housing, belowmarket interest rate subsidy programs for rental housing, moderate income homeownership programs. The final part of the course will examine community development looking at the economics, sociology, spatial aspects, and politics of large scale renewal. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/HED 582: Homelessness and Public Policy</u> (3 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Homelessness in the US has reached epidemic proportions. A personal crisis for homeless individuals, it is also an economic and moral crisis for the society which allows it to develop and fester. Who are the homeless, why are they homeless, and what can be done about it? This course focuses on understanding homelessness from a public policy framework: its incidence and prevalence, its etiology, historical and social, its consdequences, and strategies for its prevention and amerlioration. Given the fact that San Francisco is "home" to thousands of homeless people, that this city's homeless are among the most politicized and organized in the nation, and that the city has generated a wide range of policy responses, much of the class will be grounded in the experience of homelessness in San Francisco. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI 603/604: Public Service Internships and Seminar</u> (4 units, F/S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">See p. 17 for course description.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/GEOG 651: Urbs/Geog 651 San Francisco Bay Area Environmental Issues </u>(4 units, F/S) <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Introduction to the mission and work of environmental management organizations. Managing our air, water, soil, wildlife and aesthetic resources. Emphasis on land use and transportation concepts. Field projects are integral to the course. Classwork, three units; laboratory, one unit. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/GEOG 652: Environmental Impact Analysis</u> (4 units; S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The methodology of understanding, analyzing, and evaluating environmental impacts in a systematic way. Introductory framework for preparing, organizing, or reviewing environmental impact statements. An integrated approach to the understanding and evaluation of cultural and physical environmental inter- relationships. Synthesis of substantive materials on human environmental processes. Detailed review of the methodology used for evaluating impact proposals, including the systems approach. Reconciliation of physical resource potentials with human needs, including problems of social development impact and environmental quality protection. <br> <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/GEOG 655: Environmental Design</u> (4 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The major focus of this design course is to better understand the relationships among physicalspatial patterns and environmental behavior (especially in an urban context), in order to create design solutions which attain planning objectives. With this goal in mind, design philosophy and related planning assumptions will be surveyed and design techniques for analyzing development patterns will be introduced. Students will formulate diagrammatic plans for the geographic organization of activities. The spatial design of employment locations, residential areas, transportation networks, open space, and a variety of services will be analyzed and evaluated in the field and class.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/GEOG 658: Land Use Planning</u> (4 units, F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course presents the basic institutions, practice, and methodology of land-use planning. It analyses the relationships of planning to socioeconomic objectives within the context of market and political forces. The planning process includes descriptions of existing conditions, identification of problems, statements of objectives, collection of information, analysis of socioeconomic and location factors, simulation of changes, evaluation of alternative plans, implementation of development and conservation programs, and incorporation of feedback information. The history and scope of landuse planning, conservation, and development from local to regional levels is surveyed. The comprehensive plan, location analysis, zoning, and negotiated development are all discussed. In a systematic way, students learn how to work in public and private decisionmaking fields related to landuse planning conservation and development. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/SW 660: Nonprofit Organizations in Urban Life</u> (3 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">A growing number of urban needs are now met by nonprofit organizations. This course analyses nonprofit organizations as the "third way" to serve urban society in social services, the arts, housing, environmental and community advocacy. It covers management topics such as: the board, the law, consumers and donors, government relations, income, grants, volunteeers, decision-making, innovation and role change. It is designed for students who, through the pursuit of professional careers and/or social and political action, expect to be substantially involved with nonprofit organizations. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 680: Urban Studies Senior Seminar</u> (4 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">A research practicum for majors and minors in Urban Studies. Student consulting teams design and carry out client-oriented research projects which pull together the methodological skills and substantive knowledge gained during prior academic coursework. Each project is subject to instructor and group critique in draft stage and immediately upon completion. There is also opportunity for self assessment and career planning. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The course must be taken as close to graduation as possible: since it is offered only in the spring, students planning to graduate during the following fall must take it during the spring. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Because the Senior Seminar is essentially a culminating experience, students should have completed almost all of the core requirements before taking the Senior Seminar; in particular, students must have completed research methods (492), data analysis (493), the foundation course (policy analysis or land use planning), as well as at least two of the core disciplinary courses. It is also best if students have already completed an internship before taking the Senior Seminar since internships are an excellent source of project possibilities. Finally, because of the heavy workload in the Senior Seminar, students are urged to consult with their advisors regarding the appropriate course load during that semester. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 686: Fieldwork in Urban Analysis</u> (1-4 units; F/S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This is a flexible course intended for students who wish to undertake a directed fieldwork or other research project. It is intended to meet the needs of several distinct groups of students: a) Editors and article writers for URBAN ACTION, the Urban Studies student magazine who will be working on writing for and/or producing URBAN ACTION; b) students who want to apply their substantive knowledge and research skills to a specific piece of urban research, and c) small groups of students who wish to organize a one-time study group or project group. URBS 686 is for advanced upper division students who are familiar with research methods and the subject matter they wish to study in detail.<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS 699: Independent Study in Urban Studies</u> (1-3 units; F/S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">Independent studies may be undertaken by students interested in reading in a particular urban area not adequately covered in any available Urban Studies course. Students interested in an independent study must obtain the consent of and work regularly with a specific Urban Studies instructor. <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">CORE COURSES IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS <br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>SOC 480: Urban Sociology</u> (4 units, S)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">This course applies the sociological perspective to urban phenomena, looking at the process of urbanization and urbanism as a way of life. It starts with early urban forms and moves toward the city in the modern industrial nation. It covers such topics as the social structure of cities, the social psychology of urbanites, the ruraltourban shift, and the relationship between city form and social organization. </font></p> <p><font size="2">THE INTERNSHIP<br> <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>URBS/PLSI 603 and 604, Public Service Internship and Seminar</u> (4 units; F)<br> </font></p> <p><font size="2">The internship is a core requirement of the Urban Studies major. It has two major objectives: first, to supplement the academic curriculum by allowing students to apply and test what they have learned in the classroom against the practice of operating organizations; second, to enhance employment prospects by allowing students to learn more about the kind of work they want to do, by giving them experience and personal contacts in an area in which they might seek employment, and by helping them to obtain the kinds of skills and knowledge which are needed in their intended field of employment. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>Timing and placement process: </u>The internship should be done relatively late in a student's program, after s/he has enough coursework to have developed some useful job qualifications. The placement process should begin during the semester prior to the one in which the student plans to do the internship in order to allow time to develop a placement which best fits each student's individual interests. Students meet with the instructor, review placement possibilities, and together select a list of potential placement sites to interview. Several interviews are encouraged, both to ensure the best possible choice of placement and because the interview experience itself is a valuable part of the career-development process. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>Placement information</u>: The Urban Studies office maintains an abundance of information on possible internship placements: requests from organizations, reports by past interns, and so on. Students should make good use of this information. In addition there are application forms and handouts describing placement possibilities and placement procedures which students should get. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>Course requirements:</u> 12-15 hours of fieldwork for 15 weeks (180-200 hours); a 2-hour seminar every other week; and the submission of regular journals and brief discussion papers analysing selected aspects of the internship. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>Repeating the internship</u>: Students are encouraged to repeat the internship. It may be repeated for credit at either the same or a different placement. The written requirements will be modified as appropriate. <br> </font></p> <p><font size="2"><u>Recent placements</u> have included: city planning departments in San Francisco, San Mateo, Larkspur, Berkeley, Daly City, South San Francisco; neighborhood housing/planning organizations such as Chinatown Resource Center, Bernal Heights Community Foundation; private planning consultants such as Environmental Science Associates; transportation planning such as Metropolitan Transportation Commission; federal agencies such as the Government Accounting Office; legal internships such as SF Neighborhood Legal Assistance and the Public Defender's office; city government offices such as the SF Board of Supervisors' budget analyst, SF Department of Public Health, SF Mayor's Office of Housing, Brisbane City Manager; employment-oriented groups such as New Ways to Work, and Instituto Laboral de la Raza; nonprofit advocacy groups and public interest groups such as the ACLU; women's organizations such as the Women's Building.</font> </p> <h4 align="left"><br> </h4> </body>