UGRD > UPCD
Urban Planning and Community Development Courses
UPCD 120L Boston: Social Justice and the City +
Description:
This course applies the city of Boston as the object of study for an trans-disciplinary introduction to Community Development and Environmental Studies. The largest city in New England, Boston has anchored economic transformation, political importance, and social creativity since the 1600s; it has also presided over the dramatic reworking of the region's geography over those centuries. In particular, Boston has become a city transformed over the last few decades, more-so than in any era since its founding. Whether its rapidly increasing population, its revitalized and innovative economy, or the renewed appreciation for the natural environment and its unique location, the city is changing quickly. At the same time, Boston faces significant challenges stemming from its unique history and present-day condition, for instance: the rising cost of housing alongside gentrification and displacement, traffic and transit congestion, underinvestment in essential urban infrastructure, and the impacts of climate change and sea level rise on its coastal location. This course examines these issues by focusing on particular neighborhoods and communities to understand the opportunities and obstacles facing the creation of a sustainable, equitable, and resilient Boston. After introducing key concepts in understanding cities, communities, and the environment, the course uses place-based, neighborhood case studies to understand Boston today and into the future. Readings and lectures will provide a conceptual and critical framework to merge classroom learning with fieldwork out in the city itself. With this foundation, the course will also introduce field research methods of observation and analysis. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 130L Sustainable Urban Development in Local Contexts Globally +
Description:
This survey course explores multiple dimensions of global sustainable urban development and provides strategies for planning, building, managing, and living in cities while protecting the environment. This survey of the contested nature of sustainable urbanization is accomplished through diverse topics which include but not limited to: the city and vulnerable populations; gender equal cities; strengthening resilience in cities to reduce the risk and the impact of disasters; the inter-connected crisis in infrastructure, urbanization, poverty, social injustice, and sustainable growth of smart cities. sustainable Urban Development in Local Contexts Globally will specifically and directly address race, gender, socio-economic class, and cultural (ethnicity and national origin) diversity as a central theme through a category of difference, as a system of relationality or intersectionality, and as a global/transnational system. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 179GL First-Year Seminar in the School for the Environment +
Description:
This is a one semester four-credit version of the School for the Environment's First-Year Seminar requirement. Course content will vary by instructor, but will focus on current issues in sustainable human, built, and natural systems of coastal New England. Using this approach, students will become increasingly familiar with the experienced in interdisciplinary discourse, the different ways of knowing, and the interplay between the arts, humanities, economic development, and natural and social sciences that comprise the study of sustainable human, built and natural systems. Successful completion of this course will fulfill the students First-Year Seminar requirement which focuses on the capabilities of careful reading, clear writing, critical thinking, information technology, oral presentation, teamwork, and academic self-assessment. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 201 History and Theory of Community Development +
Description:
This course is an introduction to Community Development. It traces the origins of community development as process and practice. It examines the way different social actors formulate solutions to ameliorate the impact market forces, private and public policies, and other forces have had on communities and neighborhoods. The course reviews the history and theories of community development by examining the way capital (industrial, real-estate, and financial), labor, and government interact, and how their interaction is recorded in space. The course takes as its central question poverty: How it is produced in the US; the way different sectors of society have analyzed and explained it; and the ideological apparatus framing solutions to ameliorate poverty and inequality in American Society. Thus Community Development incorporates ideas, concepts and theories from Social Work, Urban Planning, the Social Sciences, and Cultural Studies. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 210 Community Health and Environment +
Description:
American communities face many community health challenges, among them poverty and unemployment, substance abuse, inadequate housing, unhealthy environments, underfunded public schools and colleges, environmental contamination, inefficient and inadequate delivery of health care to residents, and natural and human-induced disasters. A variety of social, political and environmental forces - from free-market policies to unsustainable environmental practices - test the ability of communities, states, and the nation to deal with these and other challenges. This course focuses on the efforts by citizens, organizations, and governments to prevent disease, promote and maintain health, and protect the environment. It emphasizes concepts and principles of community health and their relationship to the physical, mental, and social well-being of a community, which incorporates individual, families, and groups. It also examines issues of power, class, and race, as well as larger political economic forces, as they affect a community's ability to promote and sustain the health of its members. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 280 Lower Level Special Topics in Community Development +
Description:
This course covers a variety of areas in community development at the 100 or 200 level. The topic is announced during preregistration period. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 301 Introduction to Research Methods and Community Analysis +
Description:
This course provides an introduction to social research as a tool to understand and develop interventions to address social, physical, and economic problems. Students develop analytic skills and apply them to identify problems, select action strategies and test best practices in community development. Students develop the analytic capabilities to select the appropriate research methods to study, represent, and understand communities. Students develop basic skills in designing and implementing appropriate community studies, and in organizing and interpreting findings and presenting them to multiple audiences. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 303 Quantitative Methods for Community Development +
Description:
The ability to read and understand statistics is important for many professions. Issues concerning the environment, housing, education, health, jobs, land use, revenue generation, organizational structures, transportation, and many others require understanding the logic and results of quantitative analyses. Planners, analysts, and researchers collect and use information to examine societal problems. Individuals concerned with planning and policy decisions rely on statistics to formulate agendas and make decisions. Organized quantitative information is central to understanding a community and to measuring the impact of community health and development strategies. Whether you choose to work in government, nonprofit organizations, business, or as a policy analyst, you will benefit from a good understanding of statistical analyses. This course builds upon knowledge of descriptive and inferential statistics and probability theory, and the application of statistics in social scientific research. This course has two main foci. The statistical focus includes understanding descriptive and inferential statistical concepts and the interpretation of statistical results. The second is applied quantitative data management and analysis in SPSS, a tool for the statistical analysis of data. It allows researchers to perform a wide variety of statistical procedures. A primary goal of the course is to provide students with a basic knowledge of the program in order to be able to use it in social research. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 315L Introduction to Environmental Health +
Description:
Course introduces students to physical, chemical, and biological hazards found in the environmental and health risks associated with workplace and community exposure to them. Risks to special populations and mechanisms of reducing or controlling these risks are discussed. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 321 Fundamentals of Housing +
Description:
This course examines the institutional setting of housing in the United States with a focus on moderate and low-income communities. Using a combination of historical, sociological, financial, and political economy perspectives, students will examine the role and interdependence of institutional actors in housing development. These institutional actors include different levels of governments, private for-profit corporations, and nonprofit organizations. Students will learn the approaches undertaken by different configuration of these institutional actors to address housing issues in a variety of political, economic, and social contexts. Finally, students will examine various housing issues (affordability, discrimination, gentrification, homelessness) and attempts to address these issues, paying particular attention to the ways that these issues differentially impact groups across lines of race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 340L Planning and Land Use Law +
UPCD 351L Architecture and Human Built Environment Interactions +
Description:
This course introduces students to the connections between architecture and human-made places and spaces and emphasizes student engagement and creative problem-solving. This course is a multidisciplinary and multilayered exploration of how architecture and urban design respond to, and interact with, the numerous forces, such as the culture and environmental contexts, that shape their development and uses case studies from the United States and around the world as examples. Moreover, a broad range of the works of socially-mined architects will be discussed for increasing the awareness of the built environment. Topics will include environmentally conscious architecture, regionalism in architecture, the critical role of architects in reconstruction the built environment after catastrophes, and, how architecture and urban design can foster healthy urban environments. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 353L Community Economic Development in the U.S.: Class, Race, Ethnicity +
Description:
This course provides a framework to understand and assess local economic development issues, as well as approaches and strategies to address them. The focus is on different types of community capital central to sustainable community economic development. These community resources include physical capital, business development and entrepreneurship, financial capital, social capital, household asset accumulation, education, and workforce development. Special attention is given to challenges and opportunities of local economic development among low-income, minority, and immigrant groups in urban communities. The local economic development among low-income, minority, and immigrant groups in urban communities. The local economic development strategies involve different configurations. of policies initiated at the federal, state, and local levels - engaging governmental, corporate, and community organizations, as well as complementary social services. Students will have the opportunity to investigate in depth the economic development conditions and evolving efforts to strength sustainable economic development in a particular community.UPCD 353L and ASAMST 353L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 356L Economic Development and Environmental Justice +
Description:
This course looks at the interaction between human and ecological systems and economic development. We begin with an historical overview of the effect of human communities on the environment. We will also try to understand all of this in the context of onademics and racism, particularly anti-Black racism. We will examine the environmental impacts of European expansion from the 1600s to the present, as well as native communities land management systems and relationship to the environment. By analyzing the discourse of sustainable development, we will be able to understand how emerging international political agendas are linked or not to reconciling the goals of economic development, environmental quality and social/racial justice. We will also review case studies that highlight the theories and practices of economic development and environmental justice. The cases include settlement systems/settler colonialism, environmental factors and conflict, sustainable systems, vulnerability, and water and food issues. Through this process we hope to draw lessons and create new knowledge relevant to the different experiences of women and people of color in the global environment and economy. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 364L Environmental Justice +
Description:
Environmental justice is defined by the state of Massachusetts as the equal protection and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies and the equitable distribution of environmental benefits. This course provides an overview of environmental justice as an aspect of U.S. environmental policy. The goal of the course is to give students the ability to develop and articulate informed opinions about environmental justice, to understand how the concept came into use, and to think critically about measuring and solving environmental justice problems. The course uses written assignments, case studies, and role-playing exercises to help students develop the analytical skills necessary to tackle this topic.ENVSTY 364L and UPCD 364L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 371 Organizational Behavior for Public and Nonprofit Organizations +
Description:
This course introduces students to a systems approach to understanding human behavior and operations within organizations. Students will have an opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the work of non-profit organizations and public agencies. This is achieved through the study of goal-setting, organizational culture, formal and informal leadership, organizational structure, formal and informal communication, advanced technology, and strategic management. Students will be introduced to both resource dependency and population ecology approaches to public management. This course is intended for Community Development majors, but upper level students interested in social, economic, and/or management issues are welcome. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 375L Urban Planning +
Description:
A case method approach to urban planning. Students are supplied with a standard ''request for a proposal'' for a master plan. As an end product, they must present and submit a proposal for review. Class work focuses on how to use the planning process to design a master plan and on various approaches to designing zoning ordinances and land-use controls.ENVSCI 375L and UPCD 375L are the same course. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 380 Upper Level Special Topics in Community Development +
Description:
The course covers a variety of upper level areas in community development. The topic is announced during preregistration period. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
UPCD 457 Internship in Community Development +
Description:
The internship requires a total of 135 hours with a minimum of 100 hours of service doing community development work with government, non-government, corporate, or other organizations. Most internships are found by students or faculty, but the program may assist students in finding appropriate internship placements. Each internship must be approved by the undergraduate program prior to signing up for credit by filling out the appropriate forms. Students are expected to conduct a series of assignments during the internship. Students will do a workplace culture assessment, will conduct a work culture interview, will keep a daily journal, will write a final reflective report, and will be evaluated at mid-term and at the end of the internship. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 459 Capstone in Community Development +
Description:
The Capstone is the culminating research project in the Community Economic Development curriculum. It entails developing a substantive project that draws from the knowledge and skills accumulated through the UMB experience. During the course of studies in Community Development students have been exposed to an array of concepts, ideas, issues, and challenges impacting human communities across the US and globally. The capstone provides the opportunity to pursue an in-depth analysis of a topic chosen by the students. It requires students to sharpen their ability to assess different frameworks and approaches to a community economic development issue, formulate relevant questions, develop a coherent position, and be able to explain their knowledge to others. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 478 Independent Study in Community Development +
Description:
Research or reading in a selected area of community development, guided by a faculty member. More Info
Offered in:UPCD 498 Honors in Community Development +
Description:
This is an honors capstone research course with the ultimate goal being the production of an honors thesis/paper consistent with the field of community development in which students must have a 3.3 or higher GPA in their Community Development major. This capstone honors project must be integrative of the content, skills and perspectives developed in the curriculum of the major, demonstrating a high level of competency consistent with the honors designation. Prior to enrolling in this course, students must develop, in consultation with his/her faculty research sponsor, an appropriate integrative project proposal that is approved by the Undergraduate Program Director. More Info
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