In this three-week programme students will explore the fundamental issues that are shaping the development and evolution of cities in the 21st century. With a focus on real urban places, set in both contemporary and historical contexts, the course will examine subjects such as neighborhood development and regeneration, housing finance and policy, city planning and sustainability, and the impact of household and demographic change on urban lives and spaces.

In this program students will explore housing, planning and policy issues in European cities as well as consider how these apply in other regions of the world. With a focus on real urban contexts, the course will examine subjects such as neighbourhood development and regeneration, housing finance and policy, urban planning and sustainability, and the impact of household and demographic change. Amsterdam is one of Europe’s most vibrant and attractive cities, providing a fascinating laboratory for the exploration and examination of urban issues.

This programme includes lectures on the following topics:

• City spaces and urban places
• Homes, housing and household issues
• Neighbourhoods
• Housing and Finance
• City living and social segregation
• Non Profit Housing Associations
• Housing/urban planning/Issues in other countries
• Urban development and redevelopment in a European context

Participants will also have the opportunity to go on excursions throughout Amsterdam, and to neighbouring cities to gain insight into different urban environments, putting theories learned in class in practice. 

Prof. Dr. Richard Ronald is a core member of the Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam and Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is the Academic Director of the Urban Studies: Planning and Living in Cities programme. Among other functions, he is the editor of the International Journal of Housing Policy, coordinator of the Home Ownership and Globalization Working Group of the European Network for Housing Research and Co-editor of the Palgrave book series The Contemporary City. He has published widely on housing in relation to social, economic and urban transformations in Europe and Pacific Asia including a number of monographs and edited volumes. Richard has held Japan Foundation as well as Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowships at Kobe University in Japan (2002-2006), and been a Visiting Professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea (2010-2012) as well at the Asia Research Institute as National University Singapore (2015). He is originally a graduate of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University in the UK.

Dr. Rowan Arundel is Assistant Professor in Geographic Information Science (GIS) in the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development at the University of Amsterdam. Within the research institute AISSR, he is a member of the group Urban Geographies. His interests cover many areas of urban geography, planning and housing studies with a focus on dynamics of housing inequalities and interactions between housing, labour and welfare, as well as more broadly spatial analysis and macro and micro quantitative methods

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