Urban Sociology in Theory and Practice
This MIT OpenCourseWare seminar examines the relationship, and sometimes friction, between sociology and urban policy and design. Readings and discussions cover changing ideas of community, how neighborhood characteristics shape individual outcomes, the role of social capital and networks, the roots of categorical inequality, and the interplay between social structure and political power. Students trace the major theoretical paradigms that have shaped sociology since its founding and consider what shifts in that theory mean for urban research and planning practice. The course was taught jointly at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, with half the seminar drawn from MIT and half from incarcerated students through the Boston University Prison Education Program, a structure meant to generate new perspectives on persistent socioeconomic inequality. Materials include the syllabus, readings list, and assignments as published on MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered.