There are not previous requirements

- To offer students theoretical and practical resources to develop a critical and diverse reading of the city. - To promote a multidisciplinary understanding of the city, encouraging dialogue, fundamentally but not only, between history, geography and the arts. - To approach to the knowledge of those other institutions and practices, creatives, subaltern and non-dominant, that also construct the city.

Students are able to¿ 1.1 ¿review and describe some of the historical, social, political and economic processes and structures that have shaped the world. 2.1 ¿review different approaches to sustainable living and development, and identify their likely impact on stakeholders, regions and diverse communities. 4.1 ¿review and describe the underlying concepts, principles, academic literature and contemporary issues associated with urban sustainability. 6.1 ¿evaluate the appropriateness of different approaches to solving problems, analysing data and drawing sound conclusions in accordance with basic theories and concepts.

Rather than having a linear progression structure, this seminar includes a series of interconnected themes that offer different perspectives on the city. The interdisciplinary nature of the subject provides ideas and possible methods for understanding it from multiple angles (historical, social, political, cultural). It focuses on urban forms and their meanings, as well as on the main actors who, throughout history, have been involved in the development of the city, in order to understand the causal processes underlying the social and environmental problems and how to transform the structures of inequality into more inclusive, equitable and sustainable cities. The programme of this subject comprises the following contents: 1. The city as an object of study: complexity and diversity of a definition of city. This introductory session addresses the multiple approaches to the concept and the study of city for understanding what a "city" is. 2. The process of urban development in Spain. This theme will focus on the historical process of urbanization in Spain. It will cover the main factors of the beginning of urban development, the key phases of it and its resulting urban shapes and landscapes. 3. The urban landscapes of power and capital: a critical historical review. This session will critically examine the link between forms and socio-political processes of construction. It will focus on those urban spaces whose architectural image expresses political and economic power, past (and present) ideals and dominations. 4. Urban conflicts and citizen response to the neoliberal city After a quick review of some of the tensions within neoliberal city, this theme will focus on how citizens, usually through grassroot movements, promote and struggle for another city model, based on the right to city, right to culture and equality. 5. Public Space, Art and Community In this topic, public space is approached as an opportunity for change. Defined as a common good by communities and critical movements, the art is used as a tool against the material and symbolic capitalist accumulation of the urban territory. 6. 6. Alternative governance and political innovation: new institutionalism. The last topic will deal with those cultural institution ¿ museums, arts centres- which generate sustainability work spaces of mediation with diverse groups, entities and actors on a collaborative way in local urban contexts.

Due to its seminar format, this subject will address its contents, mainly, in a practical way, using the city of Madrid as an example or case study. This format gives considerable weight to student participation in both the theoretical sessions and the practical one, and may include both the invitation to the classroom of experts and external actors and outside classes or field work to know real cases and its involved actors. Theoretical-magisterial sessions. Lectures delivered by the professor with the support of multimedia (computer, audio-visual tools¿). In these sessions the main concepts and relevant theories of the subject will be covered. Reading materials and bibliography will be provided to complement the students' learning. Practical sessions. Study, debate and discussion of real cases, specifically from Madrid, either presented by the professor or by a guest speaker. Analysis of complementary readings. Out classes or field-works.