Urban and Environmental Policy Program
2002-2003
Urban and Environmental Policy
UEP 410/411
(ext. 2712; gottlieb@oxy.edu)
Monday-Wednesday 12:30-1:55; UEPI Conference Room
1. Background to the Seminar
The advanced seminar in urban and environmental policy (UEP 410) is organized around two sets of activities. The first involves participation through the readings, seminar presentations and discussions, speakers on major public policy and planning issues, and possible field trips or event participation. The second involves initiating work on senior projects -- the year long research and writing effort that should be considered the culmination of one’s academic work at Occidental. The work on the senior project during the fall has direct bearing on the work undertaken in the spring in UEP 411; that is, the work on the project in the fall is crucial to the overall process of completing a strong comp’s project.
The class time on Mondays will be divided into segments. These will include: discussions and presentations on the topics from the reading assignments; presentations by speakers; presentation groups; a debate over secession/breaking apart Los Angeles; and participation/observation and evaluation of ArroyoFest, UEPI’s major event in Fall 2002. The Wednesday class will primarily focus on the organization and development of the senior project, including identifying your research question, project topic, and research plan. We will also have sessions evaluating prior comps or thesis projects as well as teams of two presenting and evaluating each other’s initial research question and project topic.
For the seminar aspect of the class, there will be four different areas and related topics, with readings, discussions, and presentation sessions organized around each area. These include:
1. Understanding and Governing Los Angeles: Issues of Secession, Politics, and Power (with a focus on the secession debate, policy agendas, social movements and power elites);
2. Freeways in our Lives (With a focus on the impact of freeways on neighborhoods, transportation realities, and the environment, with attention to the upcoming ArroyoFest event and the reauthorization of the federal transportation legislation)
3. Healthy Communities, Healthy People, Healthy Kids (with a focus on the debates over tobacco policy and regulation and food and nutrition politics).
4. Globalization (with a focus on labor issues, the global food system, branding, and other policy implications of the global penetration of markets, culture, and politics)
While these topics cover a lot of territory, the readings and the discussion/presentation sessions should provide some broad conceptual knowledge about these different policy areas as well as a specific focus on one or more major contemporary issue or debate.
Each student will be assigned to lead the discussions on one or more of the readings; however, reading discussion sessions will involve participation by the whole class. There will also be teams established for the presentation sessions. Everyone of course will be encouraged to do all the readings, but it will be the responsibility of the teams to organize their presentation sessions and solicit discussion as the seminar leaders for that segment of the class.
For each of the topics, there will be a speaker elaborating on the themes associated with the topic. Speakers will also include practitioners (that is, folks who are directly involved in the issues and may articulate particular positions). Students should therefore try to engage each of the speakers, and not simply assume that the positions they elaborate represent the full picture. Speaker sessions should be lively and interactive. In addition, if the logistical issues can be addressed, we’ll try and arrange field trips and/or event participation where they can be linked to the topics.
This is an important segment of the class. There will be several hard deadlines established for the development of the senior project during the fall semester. These include:
Selection of Project Topic (deadline September 25)
Selection of the research question and bibliography (deadline: October 9);
Initial work plan and research strategy (deadline: November 4);
Final work plan and research strategy (deadline: November 25);
Presentations of research to date (December 2 and December 4);
Completion of research paper/section of comps (deadline: December 11).
We will devote class time on Wednesdays for group and individual discussions on the process and substance of your research for your senior projects. We will also discuss the mechanics of pulling together a successful senior project, including a review of other projects. Each student will review at least one of these “model” projects and discuss both the substance and form of the project as part of the senior project discussion sessions. There will also be a presentation/discussion session led by each student concerning the topic that they have selected, the research questions that need to be addressed, and the policy issues involved. The initial work plan should provide a detailed time line and initial literature search. The final work plan should also include a description of the range of research sources and materials that will be used. The final research paper should be directly related to your senior project. It could be the introductory chapter of your overall senior project, which would include a preliminary literature review and discussion of the broad themes and research questions. It could also take the form of a “work in progress,” but this work in progress must include some preliminary substantive work. The presentations should provide an overview of the research paper/work in progress paper.
Final grades will reflect the work in each of the segments. These include: participation in readings and presentation sessions and class discussions – 40%; memos, ability to meet deadlines, and development of senior project – 30%; final paper – 30%.
2. Class Organization
I’ve organized each class session by date according to topic, readings, debate sessions, and senior project sessions. My office hours will be Monday 10:30-12:00 and Wednesday 10:30-12, but I will also be on campus and available to meet with you most other days if you need to see me and we work out a time. Please feel free to contact me above and beyond any formal office visit, particularly on the progress of the senior project.
Readings and Topics.
Session #1 – September 9-September 23
Southern California: An Island on the Land, Carey McWilliams, (Epilogue), pp. 374-378
“Seceding from Responsibility? Secession Movements in Los Angeles,” Julie-Anne Boudrean and Roger Keil, Urban Studies, Vol. 38, No. 10, 2001
“Drive to Secede Proves Persistent,” Sharon Bernstein and Matea Gold, Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2002
“Breaking Up is Hard to Do” (Series of commentaries in the Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2002
“City Would Emerge Fully Formed from Valley,” Sharon Bernstein, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2002
“The Other Face of Secession,” David DeVoss, Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2002
“The Jarvis Effect,” Bill Boyarsky, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2002
“Secession Means Nada,” Frank del Olmo, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2002
The Next Los Angeles: A Century of Struggle for a Livable City, Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos, Regina Freer, and Peter Dreier, Chapters 1, 6, & 7
TOPIC: Freeways in our Lives
L.A. Freeway, David Brodsly, pp. 1-59; 96-109
“The Evolution of Transportation Policy in Los Angeles,” Martin Wachs, in The City, edited by Allen Scott and Ed Soja
“Will More Freeways Bring More Traffic?” Hugo Martin, Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2002
“Redesigning Cities for People,” Lester Brown, in Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, pp. 187-208
“Transit-Oriented Development: Moving from Rhetoric to Reality,” Dena Belzer and Gerald Autler, Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, June 2002
Readings:
Tobacco
“The Politics of Tobacco Regulation in the U.S.,” Robert Kagan and William Nelson in Regulating Tobacco, Edited by Robert Rabin and Stehpen Sugarman, pp. 11-38
““Reducing the Supply of Tobacco to Youths,” Nancy Rigotti, in Regulating Tobacco, pp. 143-175
“Smoking Goes from Bad to Worse, New Research Finds,” Thomas Maugh, Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2002
“Annual Smoking – Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Economic Costs – United States, 1995-1999,” J.L. Fellows, Centers for Disease Control, April 12, 2002
“’Light Cigarettes Don’t Cut Health Risks, Study Says,” Robert Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times, November 28, 2001
“High School Smoking Drops to its Lowest Level in a Decade,” Associated Press article, Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2002
“Students Use Peer Pressure to Douse Teen Smoking,” Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2002
“Big Tobacco: Uncovering the Industry’s Multibillion-Dollar Global Smuggling Network,” Mark Schapiro, The Nation, May 6, 2002, pp. 11-20
“Philip Morris Plans Name Change to Altria Group,” Myron Levin, Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2001
Food
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Marion Nestle, pp. 1-28 (Chapter 1); 137-218 (Chapter 6)
“Surgeon General Takes Stern Stance on Obesity,” Robert Rosenblatt, Los Angeles Times, December 14, 2001
“Food Firms Hope You Can Never Have Too Much of a Sweeter Thing,” Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2002
“Size Matters in Fast, Fatty Fare,” Marc Ballon, Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2002
“America Rubs Its Stomach, and Says Bring it On,” Greg Winter, New York Times, July 7, 2002
“What if it’s Been a Big Fat Lie?” Gary Taubes, New York Times Magazine, July 7, 2002
“She’s Getting the Skinny on Food Labeling,” Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2002
“Next Wave of Beverages,” Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2002
“I’d Like to Buy the World a Shelf-Stable Children’s Lactic Drink…,” Seth Stevenson, New York Times Magazine, March 10, 2002
“A Corn-Fed Farm Policy,” Greg Critser, Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2002
“In Bid to Improve Nutrition, Schools Expel Soda and Chips,” New York Times, May 20, 2002
“The Price of Pudge (Retail),” Greg Critser, Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2002
“Bush Joins New War: Battle of Bulge,” Francine Kiefer, Christian Science Monitor, June 20, 2002
Session #4: November 18-25
“The Discarded Factory,” and “A Tale of Three Logos: The Swoosh, the Shell, and the Arches,” in No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, Naomi Klein, pp. 195-230; 365-396
“Striking the Golden Arches: French Farmers Protest McD’s Globalization,” David Morse, in McDonaldization: The Reader, George Ritzer, editor, pp. 245-249, and “The McLibel Trial Story,” pp. 233-244
“The Transformed Workplace,” Richard Barnet and John Cavanagh, in Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and the New World Order, pp. 311-338
“Global Monoculture: The Worldwide Destruction of Diversity,” Helena Norbverg-Hodge, in Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, Edited by Andrew Kimbrell, pp. 13-15
“Labor, History and Sweatshops in the new Global Economy,” Allen Howard, in No Sweat, edited by Andrew Ross, pp. 151-172
“Capitalists: Savor This Moment,” Geoffrey Colvin, Fortune, July 24, 2000
Presentation Sessions: November 29-December 4