“Both courses directly related to my internship as well as to my experience in the city. They allowed me to better understand what was going on around me.”
Sara Goldstein, Kalamazoo College
Fall 2005
Women Organized Against Rape, Court Advocate
City Seminars
Urban Political and Social Systems, Issues and Practices
Deborah Leibel, MSW
Urban Political and Social Systems, Issues and Practices offers an opportunity to critically examine our selves and positions as well as our relationship with others in connection with a variety of urban policies, programs and concerns. Looking at how certain factors, and we as individuals, affect major urban policies and practices, we will explore their histories, trends, conflicts, controversies, responses, and prospects. Students are encouraged to clarify their positions, challenge conventional assumptions, develop a more comprehensive view based on integration of practical and political concepts and to explore options for action/change as we find meaningful ways to apply new awareness and knowledge.
This course moves from examining identity and self, to other, community, institution and society. We will look at the political processes that underlie policy and practice concerning issues of social justice and economic human rights. Specifically, we will explore difference and its consequences; how social problems are identified, defined and addressed; the pervasive nature of social inequality; the ways in which systems are structured and function, (and in whose interests they operate); and how we might facilitate positive social change. This examination will be illustrated by selected topics relating to urban people such as poverty, education, homelessness, substance abuse, crime and punishment.
Our inquiry will be exemplified experientially by site visits to relevant institutions and organizations, presentations by local professionals and activists, and seminar discussion and explora¬tion. Some field opportunities may include touring a prison, speaking with a community of people who are homeless, examining juvenile and adult criminal courts, exchanging with students in an urban high school, exploring an economically disadvantaged community with local activists/advocates, experiencing minority status in a setting where you are outside of the mainstream culture, investigating the process of applying for a social service, and meeting with representatives of grassroots community efforts.
Upon completion of this course, students will develop a greater understanding of:
• The social and political processes by which cities, states, and the nation are governed, as well as their role as a citizen-participant
• What is meant by “the system”
• How to develop credible sources, honest and personal reflection and critical thinking as the basis for a larger and more adequate view
• Which factors influence policy—how decisions about policy and people are made
• How the dynamics of complex social processes relate
• What influence one’s socialization and social identities have on perception and the differential treatment one receives as a result of social group memberships
• How to critically evaluate social institutions and discern the hidden advantages and penalties embedded in a purportedly fair and neutral system
• How to evaluate messages about “the other” coming from the media and other sources of cultural information
• How to identify and challenge what may have been previously unexamined beliefs about self and others and gain insight into how those beliefs were established and supported based on hierarchies of privilege and power
• How specific forms of oppression are manifested in everyday life through interpersonal interactions, institutional practices and cultural norms
• How we as individuals within communities can help to effect progressive social change