As an educated citizen of the increasingly urbanized  21st century, how can technology produce better cities for the common good? This course will give you the background, skills, and space to produce critical thinking and suggestions to this question.

Welcome to The Digital Image of the City.

As over half the world’s population now dwells in cities, revolutionary advances in technology such as big data have caused policymakers and activists alike to shift their focus toward a movement of smart urbanism. Smart urbanism includes interventions in urban issues through better uses of technology and data, from gentrification to pollution, access to public spaces to improved walkability. How do these changes support or inhibit the growth of equal and just cities? And how can we use data and data visualizations to represent the multiple experiences of the city to affect public policy for the common good?

Through individual and group field research, techniques of social and spatial analysis, and close readings of classic and cutting-edge readings about cities, students will gain a general introduction to urban studies. Students will develop ways to speak about and to urban public policy through data visualizations, namely geographic information systems (GIS), mental mapping, participant observations, and transect walks. This interdisciplinary course focuses on modern cities in the US, namely New York City and Portland, Maine, to connect global urban issues to the intimate experiences of everyday life.