URBAN PORTFOLIO 45% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE
Neighborhood Profile (due by 5 pm on Friday, September 27) 10% of your grade Prospectus (due by 5 pm on Friday, November 1) 10% of your grade Urban Issue or Cultural Analysis (due by 11:30 am on Saturday, December 21) 25% of your grade
A persistent debate in urban sociology concerns how the demands of contemporary life have disconnected residents from the neighborhoods and communities in which they live. For your final assignment, you will be asked to draw on themes from this course to describe and analyze the cultural, social, and political dynamics of a neighborhood/community in your hometown (city, suburb, village, town) that fits one of the following criteria: (a) your local neighborhood/community (where you currently live), (b) a former neighborhood/community (where you once lived), or (c) a symbolic neighborhood/community (a neighborhood or community where you are not a resident, but you nevertheless feel a strong personal identification to the area’s community).
The project is to be completed in three parts: a neighborhood profile which provides descriptive characteristics of your neighborhood/community, a prospectus that offers a description of your final project, and the Urban Issue or Cultural Analysis.
Place Profile Your first paper is a brief profile (4 – 6 pages) of your neighborhood and community, drawing from resources introduced through our “Studying the City Workshop” (September 18). Your paper should offer an analysis of your community’s demographic characteristics, brief history of the neighborhood, and a brief discussion of your own relationship to the neighborhood community (how long have you “lived” there; what qualities attracted you to this neighborhood as a former, local, or symbolic resident, etc.).
Urban Issue or Cultural Analysis For the second paper, you will write a 10 – 12-page paper that addresses one of the following prompts:
Urban Issue: Select a salient urban issue that your community is currently facing (or has faced within the last five years). Drawing on at least five media sources (newspapers, local blogs, etc), you will address the following questions: (1) What is the issue you are addressing (context/background) and why is this an “urban issue”? (2) Is the issue contentious, and if so, what is the debate and who are the key parties involved? (3) How is the issue being handled in the neighborhood and what critique(s) do you have of how the issue is being handled? (4) What have you learned in the class that helps you better understand the issue or place it in the context (you will need to draw on at least three of the course readings to answer the final question)?
Cultural Analysis: What gives your neighborhood its cultural identity? What institutions/events embody the spirit of your neighborhood? What amenities would attract outsiders to your neighborhood/community? This final paper offers a cultural analysis of the neighborhood, anchored around a cultural event/place/phenomenon that you believe best defines the identity character of the neighborhood. You may select any venue that takes place within the boundaries of the neighborhood (festival, tourist attraction, local institution, parade, rally, natural space). This paper will be a 10 – 12 page discussion that accomplishes the following: (1) provides a broad overview of the neighborhood’s identity, highlighting a few examples that best embody that identity; (2) provides a discussion of your selected site (history, why this site best embodies the identity of your neighborhood/community), drawing on at least five outside sources; (3) offers a snapshot of the functions and activities that take place at this event/site; and (4) discusses what you have learned in class that helps illuminate the dynamics taking place there.
By 5 p.m. on Friday, November 1, you will submit a three-page prospectus of your final project. This prospectus will provide an overview of your research project (whether it is an urban issue or a cultural analysis), questions which may guide your research project, and a description of the data you will be mobilizing to address your question. You should also include some of the course readings which may inform your specific project. This prospectus provides you the chance to receive feedback from the professor for the final project. The prospectus counts for 10% of your final grade.
Your final paper constitutes 25% of your final grade. When submitting your final paper, you must clearly indicate which of the two prompts you will be addressing by titling your paper “URBAN ISSUE” (for prompt A) or “CULTURAL ANALYSIS” (for prompt B). Failure to do so will result in an automatic grade reduction (e.g. from an A- to a B+).
NB: All papers must be submitted via One Drive in a Word Processing Format (e.g. Word, Pages, or Google Docs). PDFs are not acceptable (and submitting a PDF will be penalized as a late paper).