Syllabus

Short Course Description

Post covid, our lives continue to be situated in times of crisis - from climate change, natural disasters, cost of living, and local, regional and global conflicts. There is now great distrust of the media, and social and political institutions. Political upheaval, student unrest, and confusion are rampant, with birth rates at an all-time low. All is situated in a noisy world dominated by AI algorithms, digital transformation, unaffordable housing, housing scarcity, work from home, and cost of living stress. Cities and urban centres are becoming denser, and in need of urban renewal, as are public transit and other city infrastructure, with citizen levels of anxiety and stress increasing. This course takes a global urban outlook, and calls for a reconfiguration, and in doing so, interrogates how resilience policy, urban planning and governance, can recast our lives to create greater stability and harmony, despite challenges beyond our control, so that humans can flourish more meaningfully in urban settings. This is not an utopian thought exercise, rather a reshuffle of crisis, through the lens of resilience policy, governance, thought and action, to create more urban inclusive and affordable spaces, with heart and soul.