Urban Communication: Image, Space, and Media Autumn 2017 Wednesday 11:30 AM AVC Lecturer: Tae-Sik Kim Office Hour: Wed 10:00 – 11 40 AM & 2:00 – 3:40 PM Contact Information: beinkid@mail.muni.cz Ø Course Objectives This course examines communication patterns in the urban environment. A city is a typical interdisciplinary space where humans, technologies, and cultures interactively form a variety of communicative actions. Grounded in the understanding of the role of urban space as media, this course looks closely at how urban spaces represent (are represented by) everyday communications. This course covers a variety of issues in urban communication, ranging from urban branding to neoliberal exclusion in urban space. Throughout the course, students will discuss how urban spaces connect/disconnect/reconnect people. By reading a variety of research articles assigned in the course and participating in class discussions, students learn to widen their perspectives on urban space, society, and communication and to develop their own research projects focusing on communicative activities in the urban environment. § Comprehend the role of urban space as media. § Develop strategic ways of thinking to improve urban communicative capability. § Review and analyze a variety of research articles on urban communication. § Find important themes and methods of urban research. § Lead insightful discussions. § Develop a research project by applying sociocultural experiences. Ø Syllabus Week 1. Course introduction Week 2. Urban Communication: Theories and Practices Week 3. Theme 1. Fieldwork - Fieldwork 1. Brno’s Communicative Space Week 4. Fieldwork 2. Brno’s Un-Communicative Space Week 5. Fieldwork 3. Brno’s Collective Memory Week 6. Individual Fieldwork: Brno as a Medium Week 7. Theme 2. Urban Representation – 1) Urban Semiotics Week 8. 2) Urban Borders Week 9. Film Screening “Urbanised” Week 10. Theme 3. Branding Cities Week 11. 2) Branding Sustainability Week 12: 3) Creating Story Week 13. Class Conference Ø Literatures Reading Articles: See, below. Ø Teaching Methods The format of the course is a combination of brief lectures and controlled discussions of various assigned readings. All students are expected to read all articles assigned and to develop appropriate discussion questions. Each student is a class leader for an assigned week. Fieldwork is an main method of this course. Students should develop their own fieldwork project under the instructor’s supervision. Ø Assessment Methods Attendance (100 – 3 Unexcused Absences will lead to loss of credit) 3 Small Papers (100 x 3 = 300) 1. Position paper on Week 7&8 Seminars (Due - Midnight 7. Nov) 2. Movie Critic (Due – Midnight 21. Nov) 3. Position paper on Week 10, 11, & 12 Seminars (Due -Midnight 12. Nov) One Class Leader Project (100) Group Fieldwork (500, Work with 3-4 Colleagues, 1 Midterm Report, 1 Final Report) Total: 1000 A: 900-1000 B: 800-899 C: 700-799 D: 600-699 E: 500-599 F: -499 Ø Study Materials All materials, with the exception of book chapters available in the library and articles available online, will be provided in PDF format. Week 2. Urban Communication: Theories and Practices Georgiou, M “Media and the city: Making sense of place” International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 6.3 (2010) Crang, Mike. ’Cyberspace as the new public domain.’, in Urban diversity : space, culture and inclusive pluralism in cities worldwide. (2010) Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press ; Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, pp. 99-122. M. De Certeau Walking in the City Week 7. Theme 2. Urban Representation – 1) Urban Semiotics Pauwels, L. (2016). Visually researching and communicating the city: a systematic assessment of methods and resources. International journal of communication.--, 10, 1309-1330. Kim, Tae-Sik. "Three faces of Chinese modernity: nationalism, globalization, and science." Social Semiotics 21.5 (2011): 683-697. Shortell, Timothy and Krase, Jerome, “Place, Space, Identity: A Spatial Semiotics of the Urban Vernacular in Global Cities” ESA Research Network Sociology of Culture Midterm Conference: Culture and the Making of Worlds, October 2010. Week 8. 2) Symbolic Border Howell, Ocean. "Skatepark as Neoliberal Playground Urban Governance, Recreation Space, and the Cultivation of Personal Responsibility." Space and culture 11.4 (2008): 475-496. Smith, Michael Peter. "Transnational urbanism revisited." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31.2 (2005): 235-244. Smith, M. P. (1992). Postmodernism, urban ethnography, and the new social space of ethnic identity. Theory and society, 21(4), 493-531. Week 10. Theme 1. City Branding – 1) Making a Place Attractive Kavaratzis, Mihalis, and Gregory J. Ashworth. "City branding: an effective assertion of identity or a transitory marketing trick?." Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 96.5 (2005): 506-514. Crewe, L., & Martin, A. (2017). Sex and the city: Branding, gender and the commodification of sex consumption in contemporary retailing. Urban Studies, 54(3), 582-599. Kavaratzis, M. (2004). From city marketing to city branding: Towards a theoretical framework for developing city brands. Place branding, 1(1), 58-73. Week 11. 2) Branding Sustainability Kokosalakis, Christina, et al. "Place image and urban regeneration in Liverpool." International Journal of Consumer Studies 30.4 (2006): 389-397. Gold, John R., and Margaret M. Gold. "Olympic cities: regeneration, city rebranding and changing urban agendas." Geography compass 2.1 (2008): 300-318. Joo, Y. M., & Seo, B. (2017). Transformative city branding for policy change: The case of Seoul’s participatory branding. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2399654417707526. Week 12. 3) Urban Storytelling Morris, B. (2010). Shibuya Un / Wrapping: Place, Media, and Punctualization. Space and Culture , 13 (3): 285-303. Davis, D. (2011). Intergenerational digital storytelling: a sustainable community initiative with inner-city residents. Visual Communication, 10(4), 527-540. Makagon, D., & Gould, MR (2016). Learning the City Through Stories: Audio Documentary as Urban Communication Teachers. International Journal of Communication , 10 , 1263-1276.