This is the blogspot for the course, Divided Cities: Space, Race, Class & Gender, taught by Dr. Eileen Moyer. Divided Cities is a bachelor's level course in the department of sociology and cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.
Are cities places where people from diverse backgrounds come
together and new social life emerges, or are they sites of discord, division and
separation? Anthropological
research on the city shows they are both. The anonymity of contemporary cities promises a place where
people can leave behind old identities and embrace new ones; but
are all new identities available to all people? To what extent are urban subjectivities shaped by race,
class and gender? How does the
space of the city contribute to emergent social solidarities and
segregation? Do people shape cities
or do cities shape people?
This course offers an anthropological approach to the study
of everyday life in cities, providing students with tools to think critically
about the way urban subjectivities are informed by notions of belonging and
exclusion. In this course we attempt to make sense of this apparent
paradox by looking closely at the ways people live in cities and think
about urban life.
In addition, this class offers students a chance to investigate the city of Amsterdam through an ethnographic lens. Students work individually and in small groups to conduct short field assignments in diverse neighborhoods of Amsterdam as they learn how to “read” urban spaces for signs of cohesiveness and division, both past and present.
Through research we ask, what does the Amsterdam of today reveal about the values of Amsterdammers? How are today’s values embedded and entwined with the city’s history?
