WELCOME TO URBAN STUDIES
Instructor: Idil Onen
Email: ionen@gradcenter.cuny.edu
Office hours: Thursdays 2:00 pm-3:00 pm or by appointment. Email me if you have any questions or would like to discuss the course materials or assignments. I’m also happy to meet with you over Zoom.
What is Urban Studies?
Urban Studies asks how people make places and how places make people.
- What city or neighborhood did you grow up in?
- How did that place shape you? (just a few words or a sentence)
Why is Urban Studies Important?
More people live in cities now than at any other time in history, and that number is increasing.
- In 1920, the United Nations estimates that 14% of the world’s population lived in cities.
- By 2050, experts estimate that 68% of all people will live in a city
- 56% of people in the world live in cities today
Cities with the largest populations
- Tokyo(Population: 37,435,191)
- Delhi(Population: 29,399,141)
- Shanghai(Population: 26,317,104)
- Sao Paulo(Population: 21,846,507)
- Mexico City(Population: 21,671,908)
- Cairo(Population: 20,484,965)
- Dhaka(Population: 20,283,552)
- Mumbai(Population: 20,185,064)
- Beijing(Population: 20,035,455)
- Osaka(Population: 19,222,665)
