Global London and Urban Britain - Leading, Inventing and Re-inventing

label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Maria Dumitru
British cities, some thousands of years old, face a turning point. At once historic, modern and global, they are rapidly changing, with riots and protests in 2011 bringing tensions to the surface.The British City, birthplace of industry and modern democracy, the theory of gravity, the prose of Shakespeare and the pipe of Sherlock Holmes, can reveal much about other cities around the world and about ourselves.This course treats British cities as laboratories, unpeeling their layers. Through lectures, workshops and field trips around London and beyond, we will explore the British urban story of invention, reinvention and creativity; literature, images, texture, sights, sounds, and smells.It will challenge you to think outside the box by exposing you to the beautiful and troubled in the British city. Academic texts, literature, film and pop culture will all be teaching tools in a whirlwind tour of urban Britain.Together, we will turn London into our laboratory and venture further afield to Brighton, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester as part of an ideal course for anyone interested in sociology and anthropology to leadership, politics and governance.This course builds on King's College London's Strand and Waterloo campus's sublime central London location to turn London into a laboratory; we will study the city in the classroom and venture out into a number of neighbourhoods, meeting with planning officials at City Hall in a roundtable discussion. The course also ventures further afield, to Brighton, the great Victorian beach city, and to 'The North', for an exciting overnight (optional) to Chester, Liverpool, and Manchester. Each of these cities represents something different: the ancient (Chester), the industrial and post industrial (Manchester), and the Empire (Liverpool). The course includes a guided tour of Manchester City Football club and a talk with regeneration experts in Manchester - the first modern city. We will see 'Penny Lane' in Liverpool and come to understand the relationship between football, the DJ, and the modern British city. You will also engage with one another, by discussing your own experiences, playing roles in debates and forums, and finally, give presentations as 'mock' city planners mapping out a strategy for a city of your choice.

Period
07-07-2014 - 25-07-2014 (3 weeks)

Target group
Open to anyone; this course will be of particular interest to those with urban interests, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, cultural theorists, and architects. To anyone interested in leadership, politics, and governance or fans of British literature or film, music or culture.

Course aim
It is hoped that by the end of this course you will:- Understand the geography, history, politics and cultural aspects of major British cities;- Be experts on London and know how to get from Brixton to Brighton;- Understand the role of leadership, creativity and ingenuity in cities;- Be able to explain how cities can flourish, decline, and reinvent themselves;- Familiarise with the contemporary issues facing Britain and British society- Make the link between industry, class structure, poverty, music, sport, literature, and the economy;- Be able to relate the British experience with your home city, town, state, country and apply what you have learned as scholars, practitioners, leaders and shapers.



Credits
0.0 ECTS credits

Course fee
GBP 1430[Convert to USD]tuition fee only

Course leader
Jason Luger

King's College London
Address: Strand, London
Postal code: WC2R 2LS
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/summerschool
E-mail: summerschool@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7848 1533