Food Systems

Lewis Mumford on the City 1: The City - Heaven and Hell

This short documentary film is the first part of a larger series hosted by Lewis Mumford, an American historian, sociologist, philosopher, and literary critic, who wrote the book The City in History on which this film is based. The film originally aired in 1963. This first film in the series uses historic footage from all over the world for a kind of meditative effect, punctuated with Mumford's philosophical observations on the past, present, and future of cities.

Warning: Some graphic images appear in the last third of this film.

4.08

Classical Location Theory

This course traces the key theories and conceptual models that have been developed to explain why economic activities tend to locate where they do.

4.41

City Dreamers

The film "City Dreamers," directed by Joseph Hillel and released in 2018, tells the story of four women designers who worked to shape North American cities throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century.

4.51

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The 2011 documentary film “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” documents the rapid rise and fall of a housing complex in St. Louis. Pruitt-Igoe became a symbol for the failure of public housing policy in the late 20th century.

4.69

Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City

The life and achievements of architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham offer a chance to witness the application of the social agenda of the City Beautiful movement, of which Burnham was one of the most famous practitioners.

4.55

History of City Planning 5: The City of Tomorrow

Learn why city planning is crucial to the urban future and why the success of future cities will depend on the extent to which they are sustainable, equitable, and how they use technology to serve citizens. Evaluate the key challenges facing cities in the future and, importantly, potential solutions for those challenges.

4.40

History of City Planning 4: Planning in the Postmodern Age (1980-Today)

Survey the key economic, environmental, sociopolitical, and technological shifts responsible for the evolution of city planning from 1980 to contemporary times. Assess historical urban planning movements through a critical lens, as course instructor Jason Luger discusses the relevance of past successes and failures for cities today.

4.43

History of City Planning 3: Midcentury Modern (1940-1979)

Discover the impact of World War II and the Cold War in shaping city planning practices and how the tragic destruction and loss of life in World War II somehow created opportunities for planners to test new ideas.

4.36

History of City Planning 2: Modern Ideas of City Planning (1900-1939)

Explore the development of the city and city planning from 1900 to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Learn how the birth of city planning as a formal practice shaped the cities that defined the century.

4.41

History of City Planning 1: Ancient Times to the Modern Age (7,500 BC to 1900)

Understand the history of urban planning through the context of the development of the earliest cities. Learn about key developments, innovations, and debates in early city planning and apply an analytic lens to the birth of the modern city.

4.35

Understanding the Great Recession

This course explores the causes of the Great Recession, the recession's impact on local policy discussions, and how planners should think about economic impacts when thinking about long-term plans.

4.19

The American City, Part 4: Complexity and Pattern in the City

Understand how sustainable urbanism can be a crucial component of the urban pattern, or otherwise subverted by government regulations and business models.

4.22

The American City, Part 3: Learning from the Grid

This course demonstrates the well-defined formal composition and spatial processes of how American cities evolve over time.

4.16

The American City, Part 2: The Invention of a New Scale

Understand how the physical characteristics of block size and street length distinguish American cities from earlier models of urbanism, and the implications of these physical characteristics for sustainability in the 21st century.

4.30

The American City, Part 1: A Brief History of the Regular Grid

Learn why the regular grid has been a standard part of the town planning vocabulary around the world for nearly five millennia.

4.13

Land Use Planning to Support Economic Development

This course provides a general understanding of macro level socio-economic and related business and industry trends likely to influence economic development plans and associated land use policies over the next twenty years.

4.26

Economic Thinking for Planners: Cities, Externalities, and Governance

Through history, people have become better off as they urbanized. This course investigates how and why the quality of life has improved in cities.

4.17

Ethics: Balancing a Business Friendly Planning Environment, Part 2

Over the past several years, the private sector, led by developers, has increasingly courted, conflicted and collaborated with planning departments amid shrinking budgets. As business interests engage and influence public agencies and planning strategy, the role of ethics is of increasing importance for the practicing planner. This is the second of a two-part series that evaluates and analyses the role of planners, from public window staff to department heads, in an increasingly business-friendly environment.

4.47

Ethics: Balancing a Business Friendly Planning Environment

Over the past few decades and increasingly over the past several years, the private sector, led by developers, has increasingly courted, conflicted and collaborated with planning departments amid shrinking budgets. As business interests engage and influence public agencies and planning strategy, the role of ethics is of increasing importance for the practicing planner. This is the first of a two-part series that evaluates and analyses the role of planners, from public window staff to department heads, in an increasingly business-friendly environment.

4.34