Study Guides

SES # TOPICS Study Guides

Part I: Foundations

Key demographic, economic, and political trends affecting urban areas; major controversies tied to equity and equitable development.

1 Introductory Class: The "just city" in context: Trends, dilemmas, scales (neighborhood, city / town, region). No study guide available.
2 The Just City: Equitable development concepts and cross-national comparisons. Session 2 Study Guide (PDF)
3 Demographic shifts and neighborhood change: Segregation, migration, and aging. Session 3 Study Guide (PDF)
4 Income, wealth, and the political economy of inequality. Session 4 Study Guide (PDF)
5 Civic context: Engagement and political representation. Session 5 Study Guide (PDF)
6 The nature of community in 21st century America: Networks, places, social capital. Session 6 Study Guide (PDF)

Part II: Community-based Organizing and Development

Contrasting approaches to community development: Social movement building and program and policy development, debates and complementarities.

7 History and development: Politics and program. Session 7 Study Guide (PDF)
8 Institutional context: CDCs and other CBOs, intermediaries, government, foundations / donors, labor unions and other, private partners. Session 8 Study Guide (PDF)
9 Governance at multiple scales (neighborhood, city, region): Issues of representation, accountability, co-production, coalitions, power. Session 9 Study Guide (PDF)
Part III: Affordable and Inclusionary Housing and Homeownership
10 Housing markets and policy (A): Supply and demand fundamentals, shifting preferences, efficiency and affordability outcomes. Session 10 Study Guide (PDF)
11 Housing markets and policy (B): Homeownership. Session 11 Study Guide (PDF)
12 Rental housing. Session 12 Study Guide (PDF)
13 Housing as a market good: Gentrification and fair housing. Session 13 Study Guide (PDF)
14

Public housing, income concentration, and mixed-income housing.

Guest: Larry Vale, Ford Professor of Urban Design and Planning at MIT.

Session 14 Study Guide (PDF)
15 Affordable housing, smart growth, and regional land use. Session 15 Study Guide (PDF)
16 Alternative housing models: Land trusts and more. Session 16 Study Guide (PDF)
17 Mobility and the tensions between fair housing, affordable housing, and community development. Session 17 Study Guide (PDF)
Part IV: Local Economic Development
18 Introduction to LED. Session 18 Study Guide (PDF)
19 Workforce development and cooperative enterprise. Session 19 Study Guide (PDF)
20

Job quality and upgrading.

Guest: Paul Osterman, member of the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT.

Session 20 Study Guide (PDF)
21

Entrepreneurship and business development.

Guest: Karl Seidman, Senior Lecturer in Economic Development, MPP Harvard.

Session 21 Study Guide (PDF)
22 Fostering and upgrading manufacturing. Session 22 Study Guide (PDF)
23 Toward the healthy city. Session 23 Study Guide (PDF)
Part V: Wrapping Up
24 Course review. Session 24 Study Guide (PDF)
25 Final team briefings. Session 25 Study Guide (PDF)