A networked computer for accessing University VLE (Blackboard), web sites and electronic journals.
Course texts.
Learning pack

A. one 2400-word essay (40%) (Learning outcomes 1, 2, 4, 5)
B. newspaper article(s) on urban governance (30%) (1800 words) (Learning outcomes 2, 3, 4, 5)
C. one electronic seminar presentation (30%) (1800) (Learning outcomes 1, 4, 5)

Additional Assessment Details:
A. The research essay will allow you to show your overall appreciation of the key concerns of the module, and demonstrate your understanding and capability in applying concepts and theory to the analysis of information derived from researching textual sources.
B. The writing of the newspaper article(s) provides an alternative format to communicate and analyse the wider public debate regarding urban sustainability and urban governance.
C. The seminar presentation provides the opportunity to debate and analyse specific issues and case studies of the challenge posed by new urban governance.

Formative Assessment:
You will be encouraged to submit for (i) a draft virtual seminar presentation (ii) a plan and annotated bibliography for your essay for formative assessment. In addition, the directed activities will offer opportunity for formative assessment and feedback.

280 hours independent study: 20 hours contact

The module will run over 16 weeks, and will normally include 4 weeks for you to complete the assessments to be graded. Over this period, you will work through self-instructional course material in a VLE which structures your learning by outlining a programme of specific activities and tasks. To complete these you will be reading and critically engaging with key texts, papers and other documentary resources. This work will be undertaken on an individual basis, but at various points you will be expected to interact and share material with other students in a designated learning group.

Particular emphasis is made in this module to provide a varied diet of learning, and linked assessment, strategies. Alongside the research and writing skills employed to address the essay question, you will be required to engage in the main debates in a manner that can be communicated to an intelligent, yet `non-academic' audience in the newspaper medium. As an alternative, the electronic seminar presentation allows you to focus on the presentation of material and debates for an academic audience.

This module explores issues surrounding sustainable development in the cities of both the North and the South, and identifies opportunities for effective urban governance. Recent fundamental changes in attitudes to urban growth and management in the developed and the developing world are identified and explained, while informal and formal approaches to urban management are compared. Impacts of urban growth and activities on rural environments, and cities' dependence on rural sources for supply of food and water and other inputs, are examined within a consideration of urban sustainability. Each student applies some of these ideas to a city with which s/he is familiar, in order to focus them in the context of a single urban setting.

The programme of study has a particular emphasis on the theory and practice of `new urban governance'. This is associated with the need and demands for a broader and more inclusive notion than government, applying to both the formal structures of governments and the diversity of institutions represented by `civil society'. The concept's widespread promotion in recent urban sustainability literature is considered and critically analysed. The main elements of the new urban governance are discussed: the creation of new mechanisms, processes and institutions based on partnerships and a wider variety of service delivery organisations dealing with housing provision, infrastructure development, basic services and amenities. Beyond these immediate responses to the `urban crisis', new urban governance has also attempted to develop new forms of local democracy and representation and notions of citizenship; these are explored in a critical manner, attempting to consider the potential for new urban governance to contribute to the sustainable development of urban areas.

Hardoy, J.E., Mitlin, D. & Satterthwaite, D. (2001) Environmental problems in an urbanizing world London: Earthscan
McGranahan, G. et al (2001) The citizens at risk: from urban sanitation to sustainable cities [London: Earthscan
Satterthwaite, D. (ed.) (1999) Earthscan reader on Sustainable Cities London: Earthscan
U.N.C.H.S. (Habitat) (2001) Cities in a globalizing world: global report on human settlements 2000 London: Earthscan

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