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Course 11: Urban Studies and Planning |
 | | | Undergraduate: 11.00-11.199 plus UROP, THU, THT | | | Graduate: 11.20-11.299 | | | Graduate: 11.30-11.999 plus THG | | |  |
Program Group Subjects11.301J Introduction to Urban Design and Development
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(Same subject as 4.252[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9 
Examines the physical and social structure of cities and ways they can be changed. Includes significant thinkers in urban form, 20th-century American city design, urban design and society, global urban design, and design of neighborhoods and streets. Core lectures are supplemented by student papers examining the relationship of contemporary projects to history and theory, and factors of high quality global urban design and development. Guest speakers present cases involving current projects or research illustrating scope and methods of urban design theory and practice. Intended for those seeking an introduction to fundamental knowledge of theory and praxis in city design and development. B. Ryan 11.302J Urban Design Politics
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(Same subject as 4.253[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: M EVE (3-6 PM) (10-401)
Examines ways that urban design contributes to distribution of political power and resources in cities. Investigates the nature of relations between built form and political purposes through close study of public and private sector design commissions and planning processes that have been clearly motivated by political pressures, as well as more tacit examples. Lectures and discussions focus on cases from both developed and developing countries. L. Vale No textbook information available 11.303J Real Estate Development Studio
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(Same subject as 4.254[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 6-0-12 Lecture: MW2.30-5.30 (10-485) Recitation: M EVE (6-7.30 PM) (10-485) +final
Focuses on the synthesis of urban, mixed-use real estate projects, including the integration of physical design and programming with finance and marketing. Interdisciplinary student teams analyze how to maximize value across multiple dimensions in the process of preparing professional development proposals for sites in US cities and internationally. Reviews emerging real estate products and innovative developments to provide a foundation for studio work. Two major projects are interspersed with lectures and field trips. Integrates skills and knowledge in the MSRED program; also open to other students interested in real estate development by permission of the instructors. K. Shen No textbook information available 11.304J Site and Environmental Systems Planning
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(Same subject as 4.255[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 6-0-9 Lecture: MW2.30-5.30 (9-217)
Introduces a range of practical approaches involved in evaluating and planning sites within the context of natural and cultural systems. Develops the knowledge and skills to analyze and plan a site for development through exercises and an urban design project. Topics include land inventory, urban form, spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, off-site impacts, and landscape strategies. Eran Ben-Joseph, Mary Anne Ocampo No textbook information available 11.305 Doing Good by Doing Well: Planning and Development Case Studies that Promote both the Public Good and Real Estate Value
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Prereq: None Units: 2-0-1 [P/D/F]
Seminar studies how the messy and complex forces of politics, planning and the real estate market have collectively shaped Boston's urban fabric and skyline in the last two decades. Using some of the city's most important real estate development proposals as case studies, students dissect and analyze Boston's negotiated development review and permitting process to understand what it takes beyond a great development concept and a sound financial pro forma to earn community and political support. Throughout the term, students identify strategies for success and pitfalls for failure within this intricate approval process, as well as how these lessons can be generalized and applied to other cities and real estate markets. K. Shen 11.307J China Urban Design Studio
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(Same subject as 4.173[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 0-21-0
Design studio that includes architects, urban designers, and city planners working in teams on a contemporary development project of importance in China, particularly in transitional, deindustrializing cities. Students analyze conditions, explore alternatives, and synthesize architecture, city design, and implementation plans. Lectures and brief study tours expose students to history and contemporary issues of urbanism in China. Offered every other spring at MIT in parallel with urban design studio at Tsinghua University, Beijing, involving students and faculty from both schools. Field visit to China will occur in January prior to studio. Limited to 10. Staff 11.308J Ecological Urbanism Seminar
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(Same subject as 4.213[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: M2-5 (9-451)
Weds the theory and practice of city design and planning as a means of adaptation with the insights of ecology and other environmental disciplines. Presents ecological urbanism as critical to the future of the city and its design, as it provides a framework for addressing challenges that threaten humanity — such as climate change, rising sea level, and environmental and social justice — while fulfilling human needs for health, safety, welfare, meaning, and delight. Applies a historical and theoretical perspective to the solution of real-world challenges. Enrollment limited. A. Spirn No textbook information available 11.309J Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry
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(Same subject as 4.215[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: W2-5 (10-401)
Explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, and as a medium of inquiry and of expressing ideas. Readings, observations, and photographs form the basis of discussions on landscape, light, significant detail, place, poetics, narrative, and how photography can inform research, design and planning, among other issues. Recommended for students who want to employ visual methods in their theses. Enrollment limited. A. Spirn No textbook information available 11.312 Engaging Community: Models and Methods for Strengthening Democracy
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Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: R9.30-12.30 (9-450A)
Examines the demographic complexity of cities and their fundamental design challenges for planners and other professions responsible for engaging the public. Working with clients, participants learn design principles for creating public engagement practices necessary for building inclusive civic infrastructure in cities. Participants also have the opportunity to review and practice strategies, techniques, and methods for engaging communities in demographically complex settings. C. Mcdowell No textbook information available 11.313 Advanced Research Workshop in Landscape and Urbanism
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Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
In-depth research workshop on pressing socio-economic and environmental design issue of our time, includes discussion and practices with real-world stakeholders experimenting with new development typologies and technologies. The goal is to generate well-grounded, design-based solutions and landscape infrastructural responses to the physical design problem being addressed. Specific focus and practicum status is adjusted on a year-to-year basis. Staff 11.315J Disaster Resilient Design
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Same subject as 4.217[J]) (Subject meets with 4.218) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-6
Seminar examines the linkages between natural hazards and environmental design. Engages theoretical debates about landscapes of risk, vulnerability, and resilience. Participants generate proposals for disaster resilience through combinations of retrofit, reconstruction, resettlement, commemorative, and anticipatory design. Methods include rapid bibliographic search, risk analysis, landscape synthesis, and comparative international methods. Projects vary and may focus on current crises or involve collaboration with the Aga Khan Development Network and other humanitarian organizations. Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. Limited to 15. Staff 11.318 Senseable Cities
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Studies how ubiquitous and real-time information technology can help us to understand and improve cities and regions. Explores the impact of integrating real-time information technology into the built environment. Introduces theoretical foundations of ubiquitous computing. Provides technical tools for tactile development of small-scale projects. Limited to 24. Staff 11.320 Digital City Design Workshop
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Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: F9-12 (9-217)
Students develop proposals, at the city and neighborhood scales, that integrate urban design, planning, and digital technology. Aims to create more efficient, responsive, and livable urban places and systems that combine physical form with digital media, sensing, communications, and data analysis. Students conduct field research, build project briefs, and deliver designs or prototypes, while supported by lectures, case studies, and involvement from experts and representatives of subject cities. Limited to 12. C. Ratti No textbook information available 11.321 Data Science and Real Estate
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Prereq: None Units: 4-0-8
Introduces the principles of data science and how data science is impacting cities and real estate, with a combination of fundamental lectures, guest speakers, and use cases. Explores how data science has been adopted by the real estate industry — from developers to city planners. Presents practical skills in data science and provides the opportunity for students to produce their own work and practice basic coding skills applied to real estate. TBD 11.323 International Real Estate Transactions
(); second half of term
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-3 Begins Apr 1. Lecture: F2-5 (9-354)
Focuses on analyzing a variety of unique international real estate investment and development transactions. Blends real estate investing and development decision-making with discussion-based learning from a multidisciplinary standpoint. Seeks to facilitate a richer understanding of domestic (US) real estate transaction concepts by contextualizing them in the general analytical framework underpinning international real estate investment decision-making. M. Srivastava No textbook information available 11.324 Modeling Pedestrian Activity in Cities
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(Subject meets with 11.024) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: TR2-3.30 (10-401)
Investigates the interaction between pedestrian activity, urban form, and land-use patterns in relatively dense urban environments. Informed by recent literature on pedestrian mobility, behavior, and biases, subject takes a practical approach, using software tools and analysis methods to operationalize and model pedestrian activity. Uses simplified yet powerful and scalable network analysis methods that focus uniquely on pedestrians, rather than engaging in comprehensive travel demand modeling across all modes. Emphasizes not only modeling or predicting pedestrian activity in given built settings, but also analyzing and understanding how changes in the built environment — land use changes, density changes, and connectivity changes — can affect pedestrian activity. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Staff No textbook information available 11.325 Technological Change & Innovation for Real Estate and Cities
(); second half of term
Prereq: None Units: 2-0-4
Seeks to examine the technological change and innovation that is disrupting the foundation of how we create the built environment. Through a series of educational workshops, students scout, catalog, and track technologies by looking at new real estate uses, products, processes, and organizational strategies at MIT labs and around the globe. Participants contribute to an interactive web tool, "The Tech Tracker," which provides technology intelligence to students and real estate professionals to enhance their understanding of technological progress. F. Duarte, J. Scott 11.328J Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City
(); first half of term
(Same subject as 4.240[J]) Prereq: None Units: 4-2-2
Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329. E. Ben-Joseph, M. Ocampo 11.329J Advanced Urban Design Skills: Observing, Interpreting, and Representing the City
(); second half of term
(Same subject as 4.248[J]) Prereq: 11.328 or permission of instructor Units: 4-2-4
Through a studio-based course in planning and urban design, builds on the foundation acquired in 11.328 to engage in creative exploration of how design contributes to resilient, just, and vibrant urban places. Through the planning and design of two projects, students creatively explore spatial ideas and utilize various digital techniques to communicate their design concepts, giving form to strategic thinking. Develops approaches and techniques to evaluate the plural structure of the built environment and offer propositions that address policies and regulations as well as the values, behaviors, and wishes of the different users. E. Ben-Joseph 11.330J The Making of Cities
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(Same subject as 4.241[J]) Prereq: 11.001, 11.301, or permission of instructor Units arranged Lecture: W EVE (5-8 PM) (5-233) +final
Examines the complex development of cities through history by tracing a diachronic accumulation of forms and spaces in specific cities, and showing how significant ideas were made manifest across distinct geographies and cultures. Emphasizes how economic, spiritual, political, geographic and technological forces have simultaneously shaped and, in turn, been influenced by the city. R. Salgueiro Barrio No required or recommended textbooks 11.332J Urban Design Studio
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(Same subject as 4.163[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units arranged
The design of urban environments. Strategies for change in large areas of cities, to be developed over time, involving different actors. Fitting forms into natural, man-made, historical, and cultural contexts; enabling desirable activity patterns; conceptualizing built form; providing infrastructure and service systems; guiding the sensory character of development. Involves architecture and planning students in joint work; requires individual designs or design and planning guidelines. R. Segal 11.333J Urban Design Seminar: Perspectives on Contemporary Practice
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(Same subject as 4.244[J]) Prereq: None Units: 2-0-7 Lecture: W9-11 (10-401)
Examines innovations in urban design practice occurring through the work of leading practitioners in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Features lectures by major national and global practitioners in urban design. Projects and topics vary based on term and speakers but may cover architectural urbanism, landscape and ecology, arts and culture, urban design regulation and planning agencies, and citywide and regional design. Focuses on analysis and synthesis of themes discussed in presentations and discussions. Staff No textbook information available 11.334J Advanced Seminar in Landscape and Urbanism
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Same subject as 4.264[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Explores theories, practices, and emerging trends in the fields of landscape architecture and urbanism, such as systemic design, landscape urbanism, engineered nature, drosscapes, urban biodiversity, urban mobility, megaregions, and urban agriculture. Lectures, readings, and guest speakers present a wide array of multi-disciplinary topics, including current works from P-REX lab. Students conduct independent and group research that is future-oriented. Staff 11.337J Urban Design Ideals and Action
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(Same subject as 4.247[J]) Prereq: None Units: 2-0-7
Examines the relationship between urban design ideals, urban design action, and the built environment through readings, discussions, presentations, and papers. Analyzes the diverse design ideals that influence cities and settlements, and investigates how urban designers use them to shape urban form. Provides a critical understanding of the diverse formal methods used to intervene creatively in both developed and developing contexts, especially pluralistic and informal built environments. Staff 11.338 Urban Design Studio
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Prereq: 11.328 or permission of instructor Units arranged
Examines the rehabilitation and re-imagination of a city, region, or territory. Analyzes human settlement at multiple scales: regional, citywide, neighborhood, and individual dwellings. Aims to shape innovative design solutions, enhance social amenity, and improve economic equity through strategic and creative geographical, urban design and architectural thinking. Intended for students with backgrounds in architecture, community development, urban design, and physical planning. Limited to 12 via application and lottery. B. Ryan 11.339 Downtown
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Subject meets with 11.026[J], 21H.321[J]) Prereq: None Units: 2-0-7
Seminar on downtown in US cities from the late 19th century to the late 20th. Emphasis on downtown as an idea, place, and cluster of interests, on the changing character of downtown, and on recent efforts to rebuild it. Topics considered include subways, skyscrapers, highways, urban renewal, and retail centers. Focus on readings, discussions, and individual research projects. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Staff 11.344J Innovative Project Delivery in the Public and Private Sectors
(); first half of term
(Same subject as 1.472[J]) Prereq: None Units: 2-0-4 Ends Mar 22. Lecture: TR4-5.30 (9-354)
Develops a strong strategic understanding of how best to deliver various types of projects in the built environment. Examines the compatibility of various project delivery methods, consisting of organizations, contracts, and award methods, with certain types of projects and owners. Six methods examined: traditional general contracting; construction management; multiple primes; design-build; turnkey; and build-operate-transfer. Includes lectures, case studies, guest speakers, and a team project to analyze a case example. C. M. Gordon No textbook information available 11.345J Entrepreneurship in the Built Environment
(); first half of term
(Same subject as 1.462[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 2-0-4
Introduction to entrepreneurship and how it shapes the world we live in. Through experiential learning in a workshop setting, students start to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills. Through a series of workshops, students are introduced to the concept of Venture Design to create new venture proposals for the built environment as a method to understand the role of the entrepreneur in the fields of design, planning, real estate, and other related industries. G. Rosenzweig 11.350 Sustainable Real Estate: Economics & Business
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Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: TR9-10.30 (9-354) Recitation: W EVE (6.30-8 PM) (9-354)
Offers insight into tension and synergy between sustainability and the real estate industry. Considers why sustainability matters for real estate, how real estate can contribute to sustainability and remain profitable, and what investment and market opportunities exist for sustainable real estate products and how they vary across asset classes. Lectures combine economic and business insights and tools to understand the challenges and opportunities of sustainable real estate. Provides a framework to understand issues in sustainability in real estate and examine economic mechanisms, technological advances, business models, and investment and financing strategies available to promote sustainability. Discusses buildings as basic physical assets; cities as the context where buildings interact with the built environment, policies, and urban systems; and portfolios as sustainable real estate investment vehicles in capital markets. Enrollment for MSRED, MCP, and MBA students is prioritized. Juan Palacios No textbook information available 11.351 Real Estate Ventures I: Negotiating Development-Phase Agreements
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Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to control, entitle, capitalize, and construct a mixed-use real estate development. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss, and negotiate the most important business issues in right of entry, purchase and sale, development, and joint-venture agreements, as well as a construction contract and construction loan agreement. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and Columbia University and New York University. Enrollment limited to approximately 25; preference to MSRED students. No listeners. W. T. McGrath 11.352 Real Estate Ventures II: Negotiating Leases, Financings, and Restructurings
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Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: R EVE (6-9 PM) (9-354)
Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to lease, finance, and restructure a real estate venture. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss and negotiate the most important business issues in office and retail leases, and permanent loan, mezzanine loan, inter-creditor, standstill/forbearance, and loan modification (workout) agreements. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and New York University and Columbia University. Single-asset real estate bankruptcy and the federal income tax consequences of debt restructuring are also addressed. Limited to 25; preference to MSRED students; no Listeners. W. T. McGrath No textbook information available 11.353J Securitization of Mortgages and Other Assets
(); second half of term
(Same subject as 15.429[J]) Prereq: 11.431, 15.401, or permission of instructor Units: 3-0-3 Begins Apr 1. Lecture: TR1-2.30 (9-354)
Investigates the economics and finance of securitization. Considers the basic mechanics of structuring deals for various asset-backed securities. Investigates the pricing of pooled assets, using Monte Carlo and other option pricing techniques, as well as various trading strategies used in these markets. Limited to 55. W. Torous No textbook information available 11.355 International Housing Economics and Finance
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Prereq: 11.202, 11.203, 14.01, or permission of instructor Units: 3-0-6 Credit cannot also be received for 11.145 Lecture: MW9.30-11 (9-217)
Presents a theory of comparative differences in international housing outcomes. Introduces institutional differences in ways housing expenditures are financed, and economic determinants of housing outcomes (construction costs, land values, housing quality, ownership rates). Analyzes flow of funds to and from the different national housing finance sectors. Develops an understanding of the greater financial and macroeconomic implications of mortgage credit sector, and how policies affect ways housing asset fluctuations impact national economies. Considers perspective of investors in international real estate markets and risks and rewards involved. Draws on lessons from international comparative approach, applies them to economic and finance policies at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels within country of choice. Meets with 11.145 when offered concurrently. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. A. Saiz No textbook information available 11.356 Healthy Cities: Assessing Health Impacts of Policies and Plans
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(Subject meets with 11.156) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines the built, psychosocial, economic, and natural environment factors that affect health behaviors and outcomes, including population-level patterns of disease distribution and health disparities. Introduces tools designed to integrate public health considerations into policy-making and planning. Provides extensive practical, budgeting, and programming training in the application of health impact assessment tools meant to integrate Health in All Policies, including Health Impact Assessment (HIA) methodology, which brings a health lens to policy, budgeting, and planning debates. Emphasizes health equity and healthy cities, and explores the relationship between health equity and broader goals for social and racial justice. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 30. Staff 11.360 Community Growth and Land Use Planning
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Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Seminar, workshops, and fieldwork on strategies to use municipal land use regulations to shape urban growth and equity. Practicum workshop builds skills in civic engagement, policy-relevant research, zoning regulations, and physical design and planning. The workshop begins with implementation of qualitative and quantitative research into the existing built environment, social, economic, and political context. It continues with the planning, design, and implementation of community engagement strategies to shape goals and vision for the projects. The practicum then explores land use scenarios, design and innovative zoning and regulatory techniques, to improve equity in the areas of housing, environment, economic development, mobility, and the public realm. Projects arranged with small teams serving municipal clients experiencing pressures of urban growth and change in Massachusetts. Preference to MCP second year students. J. Levine 11.365 Sustainable Urbanization Practicum
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Working with a city development client (city government/real estate developer/NGO) in a fast-urbanizing region, practicum provides students an opportunity to synthesize policy, planning or urban science solutions towards sustainable urbanization, within the constraints of a client-based project. Priority is given to MCP students. S. Zheng 11.367 Land Use Law and Politics: Race, Place, and Law
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(Subject meets with 11.067) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Explores conceptions of spatial justice and introduces students to basic principles of US law and legal analysis, focused on land use, equal protection, civil rights, fair housing, and local government law, in order to examine who should control how land is used. Examines the rights of owners of land and the types of regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use. Explores basic principles of civil rights and anti-discrimination law and focuses on particular civil rights problems associated with the land use regulatory system, such as exclusionary zoning, residential segregation, the fair distribution of undesirable land uses, and gentrification. Introduces basic skills of statutory drafting and interpretation. Assignments differ for those taking the graduate version. J. Steil 11.368 Environmental Justice: Law and Policy
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(Subject meets with 11.148) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Introduces frameworks for analyzing and addressing inequalities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, particularly by race and by class. Explores the foundations and principles of the environmental justice movement from the perspectives of social science, public policy, and law. Introduces basic principles of US constitutional and environmental law, with a focus on equal protection and civil rights. Applies environmental justice principles to contemporary issues in urban policy and planning, including effects of and responses to climate change and global heating. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. J. Steil 11.371J Sustainable Energy
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(Same subject as 1.818[J], 2.65[J], 10.391[J], 22.811[J]) (Subject meets with 2.650[J], 10.291[J], 22.081[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-1-8
Assessment of current and potential future energy systems. Covers resources, extraction, conversion, and end-use technologies, with emphasis on meeting 21st-century regional and global energy needs in a sustainable manner. Examines various energy technologies in each fuel cycle stage for fossil (oil, gas, synthetic), nuclear (fission and fusion) and renewable (solar, biomass, wind, hydro, and geothermal) energy types, along with storage, transmission, and conservation issues. Emphasizes analysis of energy propositions within an engineering, economic and social context. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. M. Golay 11.373J Science, Politics, and Environmental Policy
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(Same subject as 12.885[J]) (Subject meets with 12.385) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-6
Examines the role of science in US and international environmental policymaking. Surveys the methods by which scientists learn about the natural world; the treatment of science by experts, advocates, the media, and the public and the way science is used in legislative, administrative and judicial decision making. Through lectures, group discussions, and written essays, students develop a critical understanding of the role of science in environmental policy. Potential case studies include fisheries management, ozone depletion, global warming, smog, and endangered species. Students taking the graduate version complete different assignments. S. Solomon, J. Knox-Hayes 11.381 Infrastructure Systems in Theory and Practice
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Prereq: (14.01 and (11.202 or 11.203)) or permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Examines theories of infrastructure from science and technology studies, history, economics, and anthropology in order to understand the prospects for change for many new and existing infrastructure systems. Examines how these theories are then implemented within systems in the modern city, including but not limited to, energy, water, transportation, and telecommunications infrastructure. Seminar is conducted with intensive group research projects, in-class discussions and debates. D. Hsu 11.382 Water Diplomacy: The Science, Policy, and Politics of Managing Shared Resources
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Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Examines the history and dynamics of international environmental treaty-making, or what is called environmental diplomacy. Emphasizes climate change and other atmospheric, marine resource, global waste management and sustainability-related treaties and the problems of implementing them. Reviews the legal, economic, and political dynamics of managing shared resources, involving civil society on a global basis, and enforcing transboundary agreements. Focuses especially on principles from international relations, international law, environmental management, and negotiation theory as they relate to common-pool resource management. Staff 11.383J People and Profits: Shaping the Future of Work
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(Same subject as 15.662[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-1-8 Lecture: TR8.30-10 (E62-276)
Examines managing work in the 21st century in the interests of both people and profits through the context of rising inequality, technological change, globalization, and the growth of the gig economy. Students evaluate various business and policy interventions intended to improve work through critical analysis of the evidence, interviews with workers and evaluations of firms, and guest speakers. Guests include business leaders at leading-edge firms and labor leaders experimenting with new ways of providing workers a voice in the workplace. Draws on materials from the MIT Task Force on Work of the Future and the online course Shaping Work of the Future. A. Stansbury No textbook information available 11.387 Environmental Finance and Political Economy
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Examines the sociopolitical, cultural and economic dimensions of the financialization of environmental goods and services. Provides an introduction to key financial terms, practices, and institutions; analyzes the logics and origins of environmental finance, as well as the operation and implications of particular systems such as carbon-trading, REDD and ecosystem service pricing and swapping. Limited to 15. Staff 11.388J Dimensions of Geoengineering
(); first half of termNot offered regularly; consult department (Same subject as 1.850[J], 5.000[J], 10.600[J], 12.884[J], 15.036[J], 16.645[J]) Prereq: None Units: 2-0-4
Familiarizes students with the potential contributions and risks of using geoengineering technologies to control climate damage from global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Discusses geoengineering in relation to other climate change responses: reducing emissions, removing CO2 from the atmosphere, and adapting to the impacts of climate change. Limited to 100. J. Deutch, M. Zuber 11.401 Introduction to Housing, Community, and Economic Development
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(Subject meets with 11.041) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Provides a critical introduction to the shape and determinants of political, social, and economic inequality in America, with a focus on racial and economic justice. Explores the role of the city in visions of justice. Analyzes the historical, political, and institutional contexts of housing and community development policy in the US, including federalism, municipal fragmentation, and decentralized public financing. Introduces major dimensions in US housing policy, such as housing finance, public housing policy, and state and local housing affordability mechanisms. Reviews major themes in community economic development, including drivers of economic inequality, small business policy, employment policy, and cooperative economics. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version. J. Phil Thompson, Holly Harriel 11.402 Urban Politics: Race and Political Change
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines the place of US cities in political theory and practice. Particular attention given to contemporary issues of racial polarization, demographic change, poverty, sprawl, and globalization. Specific cities are a focus for discussion. Staff 11.403 Urban China Research Seminar
() Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 2-0-7
Examines the behavioral foundations and key policy issues of urban development, real estate markets, and sustainability in China. Discusses urban agglomeration economies, place-based investment, and urban vibrancy; economic geography of innovation and entrepreneurship; real estate dynamics and housing policies; land use and transportation; and urban quality of life and green cities, focusing on China but with some international comparisons. Staff 11.404 Housing Policy and Planning in the US and Abroad
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Explores the policy tools and planning techniques used to formulate and implement housing strategies at local, state and federal levels. Topics include America's housing finance system and the causes of instability in mortgage markets; economic and social inequity in access to affordable housing; approaches to meeting community housing needs through local and state planning programs; programs for addressing homelessness; and emerging ideas about sustainable development and green building related to housing development and renovation. Introduces comparative policy approaches from other countries. Staff 11.405 Political Economy & Society
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-6
Focuses on the connection (or not) between mind (theory) and matter (lived experience). Examines basic tenets of classical and recent political economic theories and their explication in ideas of market economies, centrally planned economies, social market economies, and co-creative economies. Assesses theories according to their relation to the lived experiences of people in communities and workplaces. Staff 11.407 Tools and Techniques for Inclusive Economic Development
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(Subject meets with 11.107) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Introduces tools and techniques in economic development planning. Extensive use of data collection, analysis, and display techniques. Students build interpretive intuition skills through user experience design activities and develop a series of memos summarizing the results of their data analysis. These are aggregated into a final report, and include the tools developed over the semester. Students taking graduate version will complete modified assignments focused on developing computer applications. A. Glasmeier 11.409 The Institutions of Modern Capitalism: States and Markets
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Prereq: None Units: 2-0-10
Investigates the relationship between states and markets in the evolution of modern capitalism. Critically assesses the rise of what Karl Polanyi and Albert Hirschman have referred to as "market society:" a powerful conceptual framework that views the development of modern capitalism not as an outcome of deterministic economic and technological forces, but rather as the result of contingent social and political processes. Exposes students to a range of conceptual tools and analytic frameworks through which to understand the politics of economic governance and to consider the extent to which societal actors can challenge its limits and imagine alternative possibilities. Sub-themes vary from year to year and have focused on racial capitalism, markets and morality, urban futures, and the global financial crisis. Limited to 25. J. Jackson 11.411 The Political Economy of Planning
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Introduces students to key planning ideas and practices that shape the political economy of planning: the way that planning interventions generate distributional effects that create winners and losers across different spatial and temporal scales. Highlights ways in which planning interventions seek to order society and shape spaces, as well as the ways these efforts have been contested and resisted. Takes a global and comparative perspective, surveying planning ideas and experiences across diverse contexts. Develops analytic tools to understand the broad field of planning theory and the asymmetries of power that these imply in planning practice. Planning is a complex and multifaceted set of endeavors, and as such the class is interdisciplinary, drawing from planning theory and history as well as sociology, political science, geography, history, and the design disciplines. Staff 11.413 The Economic Approach to Cities and Environmental Sustainability
() Not offered regularly; consult department (Subject meets with 11.113) Prereq: 11.220, 14.300, or permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Provides a systematic framework of the interplay (both tension and synergy) between urbanization and environmental sustainability from a global perspective. Enhances analytical reasoning and quantitative skills to assist evidence-based empirical study and policy design evaluation. Explores the causes and consequences of urban environmental quality dynamics, and provides econometric tools to quantify such relationships. Examines state-of-the-art research in this field by introducing empirical studies from both developing and developed countries (highlighting fast urbanization). Themes include urban production, households, transportation and form, as well as political economy and climate resilience. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. S. Zheng 11.422J Law, Technology, and Public Policy
()
(Same subject as 15.655[J], IDS.435[J]) (Subject meets with 11.122[J], IDS.066[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines how law, economics, and technological change shape public policy, and how law can sway technological change; how the legal system responds to environmental, safety, energy, social, and ethical problems; how law and markets interact to influence technological development; and how law can affect wealth distribution, employment, and social justice. Covers energy/climate change; genetic engineering; telecommunications and the role of misinformation; industrial automation; effect of regulation on technological innovation; impacts of antitrust law on innovation and equity; pharmaceuticals; nanotechnology; cost/benefit analysis as a decision tool; public participation in governmental decisions affecting science and technology; corporate influence on technology and welfare; and law and economics as competing paradigms to encourage sustainability. Students taking graduate version explore subject in greater depth. N. Ashford, C. Caldart 11.427J Labor Markets and Employment Policy
()
(Same subject as 15.677[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: R1-4 (E51-361)
Research-based examination of how labor markets work — and how they have evolved over time — through trends such as rising income inequality, technological change, globalization, falling worker power, and the fissuring of the workplace. Through reading and engaging with economics research papers, students use theoretical frameworks and rigorous empirical evidence to analyze public policy interventions in the labor market, including unemployment insurance, minimum wage, unions, family leave, anti-discrimination policies, and workforce development. Preference to graduate and PhD students. A. Stansbury No textbook information available 11.429J Real Estate Markets: Macroeconomics
(); first half of term
(Same subject as 15.022[J]) Prereq: 11.431 or permission of instructor Units: 3-0-3 Ends Mar 22. Lecture: TR1-2.30 (9-354)
Applies the latest economic thinking and research to the task of analyzing aggregate real estate market time series, assessing risk, and developing forecasts. Presents the premise that because of capital durability and construction lags, real estate markets exhibit some degree of mean reversion and as such are at least partially predictable. Examines the extent and causes of market volatility across different markets and types of property. Long-term aggregate trends impacting the real estate sector, from demographics to technology, discussed. Limited to 30. W. Wheaton No textbook information available 11.430J Leadership in Real Estate
(); first half of term
(Same subject as 15.941[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-3
Designed to help students deepen their understanding of leadership and increase self-awareness. They reflect on their authentic leadership styles and create goals and a learning plan to develop their capabilities. They also participate in activities to strengthen their "leadership presence" - the ability to authentically connect with people's hearts and minds. Students converse with classmates and industry leaders to learn from their insights, experiences, and advice. Limited to 15. G. Schuck 11.431J Real Estate Finance and Investment
()
(Same subject as 15.426[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 4-0-8
Concepts and techniques for analyzing financial decisions in commercial property development and investment. Topics include property income streams, discounted cash flow, equity valuation, leverage and income tax considerations, development projects, and joint ventures. An introduction to real estate capital markets as a source of financing is also provided. Limited to graduate students. W. Torous 11.433J Real Estate Economics
()
(Same subject as 15.021[J]) Prereq: 14.01, 15.010, or 15.011 Units: 4-0-8
Develops an understanding of the fundamental economic factors that shape the market for real property, as well as the influence of capital markets in asset pricing. Analyzes of housing as well as commercial real estate. Covers demographic analysis, regional growth, construction cycles, urban land markets, and location theory as well as recent technology impacts. Exercises and modeling techniques for measuring and predicting property demand, supply, vacancy, rents, and prices. A. Saiz 11.435 Mixed-Income Housing Development
(); first half of term
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-3 Ends Mar 22. Lecture: M EVE (6.30-9.30 PM) (9-451)
Provides an overview of affordable and mixed-income housing development for students who wish to understand the fundamental issues and requirements of urban scale housing development, and the process of planning, financing and developing such housing. Students gain practical experience assembling a mixed-income housing development proposal. Leslie Reid, Will Monson No textbook information available 11.437 Financing Economic Development and Housing
()
(Subject meets with 11.137) Prereq: None Units: 4-0-8 Lecture: TR2-3.30 (9-451)
Studies financing tools and program models to support and promote local economic development and housing. Overview of public and private capital markets and financing sources helps illustrate market imperfections that constrain economic and housing development and increase race and class disparaties. Explores federal housing and economic development programs as well as state and local public finance tools. Covers policies and program models. Investigates public finance practice to better understand how these finance programs affect other municipal operations. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 25. Staff Textbooks (Spring 2024) 11.438 Economic Development Planning
()
Prereq: 11.203, 11.220, and permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Focuses on the policy tools and planning techniques used to formulate and implement local economic development strategies. Includes an overview of economic development theory, discussion of major policy areas and practices employed to influence local economic development, a review of analytic tools to assess local economies and how to formulate strategy. Coursework includes formulation of a local economic development strategy for a client. Limited to 15. Staff 11.439 Revitalizing Urban Main Streets
()
Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 4-0-11
Workshop explores the integration of economic development and physical planning interventions to revitalize urban commercial districts. Covers: an overview of the causes of urban business district decline, revitalization challenges, and the strategies to address them; the planning tools used to understand and assess urban Main Streets from both physical design and economic development perspectives; and the policies, interventions, and investments used to foster urban commercial revitalization. Students apply the theories, tools and interventions discussed in class to preparing a formal neighborhood commercial revitalization plan for a client business district. Limited to 15. Jeff Levine 11.440 Housing and Social Stratification in the United States
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Investigates how housing — markets, policies, and individual and collective actions — stratifies society. Students develop structural frameworks to understand the processes of stratification. Grounding work and research in history, students identify the ways that housing markets and housing market interventions reflect, reinforce, and (occasionally) combat social inequities. Through extensive writing and rewriting, students frame their work in terms of overlapping crises, including gentrification, flight, shortage, and homelessness. D. M. Bunten 11.441 Planning, Economic Development, and Municipal Public Finance
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Explores the relationship between municipal planning initiatives and local public finance. Introduces a variety of tools, including annual fiscal year budgeting, development of capital improvement plans, user fees, and local property taxation. Municipal powers to levy taxes on items such as meals, hotel rooms, and sales and their effects on land use decisions are analyzed. Tools for economic development, such as tax increment finance, explored in the context of the potential benefits and drawbacks of such tools for a local economy. Also explores how planners can encourage more inclusive budgeting decisions through tools such as participatory budgeting. Students complete a final project on a municipal finance tool and its relationship to local planning goals. Staff 11.442 Geography of the Global Economy
()
(Subject meets with 11.142) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Analyzes implications of economic globalization for communities, regions, international businesses and economic development organizations. Uses spatial analysis techniques to model the role of energy resources in shaping international political economy. Investigates key drivers of human, physical, and social capital flows and their roles in modern human settlement systems. Surveys contemporary models of industrialization and places them in geographic context. Connects forces of change with their implications for the distribution of wealth and human well-being. Looks backward to understand pre-Covid conditions and then returns to the present to understand how a global pandemic changes the world. Class relies on current literature and explorations of sectors. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Staff 11.449 Decarbonizing Urban Mobility
()
(Subject meets with 11.149) Prereq: None Units: 3-3-6 Lecture: W2-5 (9-451)
Focuses on measuring and reducing emissions from passenger transportation. After examining travel, energy, and climate conditions, students review existing approaches to transport decarbonization. Evaluates new mobility technologies through their potential to contribute to (or delay) a zero emission mobility system. Students consider the policy tools required to achieve approaches to achieve change. Frames past and future emission reductions using an approach based on the Kaya Identity, decomposing past (and potential future) emissions into their component pieces. Seeks to enable students to be intelligent evaluators of approaches to transportation decarbonization and equip them with the tools to develop and evaluate policy measures relevant to their local professional challenges. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. A. Salzberg No textbook information available 11.450 Real Estate Development Building Systems
(); first half of term
Prereq: None Units: 2-0-1
Provides students with a concise overview of the range of building systems that are encountered in professional commercial real estate development practice in the USA. Focuses on the relationship between real estate product types, building systems, and the factors that real estate development professionals must consider when evaluating these products and systems for a specific development project. Surveys commercial building technology including Foundation, Structural, MEP/FP, Envelope, and Interiors systems and analyzes the factors that lead development professionals to select specific systems for specific product types. One or more field trips to active construction sites may be scheduled during non-class hours based on student availability. Y. Tsipis 11.452 Planning against Evictions and Displacement
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: W3-5 (9-450A)
Combines state-of-the-art research on evictions and displacement globally (in the context of the global crisis of evictions, land grabbing, and gentrification) with the study of policy and practical responses to displacement, assisted by selected case studies. First half covers explanations about the mechanisms and drivers of displacement, while the second half introduces and evaluates policy and legal responses developed by many actors. Analyzes the use of UN and national standards on displacement as well as the use of tools such as the Eviction Impact Assessment Tool. Limited to 15 graduate students. B. Rajagopal No textbook information available 11.454 Big Data, Visualization, and Society
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Subject meets with 11.154) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530, 6.C35, 6.C85, 11.154, 11.C35, 11.C85
Data visualizations communicate the insights found in data to non-technical audiences. Students develop technical skills to work with big data to expose societal issues and communicate the insights. Focuses on different topics each year. After framing that topic, the first half of the subject focuses on learning to analyze the data with Python. The second half of the subject focuses on learning web-based data visualization tools (JavaScript and D3). Students learn data storytelling concepts and produce web-based data visualizations for their final projects. Throughout, students learn ethical data practices. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. C. D'Ignazio, S. Williams 11.C85J Interactive Data Visualization and Society
()
(Same subject as 6.C85[J]) (Subject meets with 6.C35[J], 11.C35[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-1-8 Credit cannot also be received for 6.8530, 11.154, 11.454 Lecture: MW9.30-11 (45-230) Lab: R4 (32-082)
Covers the design, ethical, and technical skills for creating effective visualizations. Short assignments build familiarity with the data analysis and visualization design process. Students participate in hour-long studio reading sessions. A final project provides experience working with real-world big data, provided by external partners, in order to expose and communicate insights about societal issues. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. A. Satyanarayan No textbook information available 11.457 More than Data: Smart Cities, Big Data, Civic Technology and Policy
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: None Units: 3-0-6
Discussions of future directions in the 'smart cities' debate. Begins by framing the current smart city with past trends such as the efficient city movement of the 1930s and the Modernist city of the 1950s and 60s. Examines current trends in big data, civic apps, Code for America, the open data movement, DIY data collections devices, and their policy impacts. Staff 11.458 Crowd Sourced City: Civic Tech Prototyping
()
(Subject meets with 11.138) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Investigates the use of social medial and digital technologies for planning and advocacy by working with actual planning and advocacy organizations to develop, implement, and evaluate prototype digital tools. Students use the development of their digital tools as a way to investigate new media technologies that can be used for planning. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. C. D'Ignazio 11.461J Technocracy
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Same subject as STS.463[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Survey of the history of efforts to apply scientific methods and technological tools to solve social and political problems, with a focus on the United States since 1850. Topics include: city planning, natural resource management, public education, economic development, quantification and modeling in the social and policy sciences, technology transfer, and political economies of expertise. J. S. Light 11.466J Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development
()
(Same subject as 1.813[J], 15.657[J], IDS.437[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Investigates sustainable development, taking a broad view to include not only a healthy economic base, but also a sound environment, stable and rewarding employment, adequate purchasing power and earning capacity, distributional equity, national self-reliance, and maintenance of cultural integrity. Explores national, multinational, and international political and legal mechanisms to further sustainable development through transformation of the industrial state. Addresses the importance of technological innovation and the financial crisis of 2008 and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and inflation, as well as governmental interventions to reduce inequality. N. Ashford 11.469 Urban Sociology in Theory and Practice
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Introduction to core writings in urban sociology. Explores the nature and changing character of the city and the urban experience, providing context for the development of urban studies research and planning skills. Topics include the changing nature of community, neighborhood effects, social capital and networks, social stratification, feminist theory and critical race theory, and the interaction of social structure and political power. Subject will take place in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk with half of the class from MIT and half of the class from MCI-Norfolk. Limited to 25. J. Steil 11.472J D-Lab: Development
()
(Same subject as EC.781[J]) (Subject meets with 11.025[J], EC.701[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-2-7
Issues in international development, appropriate technology and project implementation addressed through lectures, case studies, guest speakers and laboratory exercises. Students form project teams to partner with community organizations in developing countries, and formulate plans for an optional IAP site visit. (Previous field sites include Ghana, Brazil, Honduras and India.) Recitation sections focus on specific project implementation, and include cultural, social, political, environmental and economic overviews of the target countries as well as an introduction to the local languages. Enrollment limited by lottery; must attend first class session. S. Hsu 11.474 D-Lab: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
()
(Subject meets with EC.715) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: T12-3 (N51-310)
Focuses on disseminating Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) innovations in low-income countries and underserved communities worldwide. Structured around project-based learning, lectures, discussions, and student-led tutorials. Emphasizes core WASH principles, appropriate and sustainable technologies at household and community scales, urban challenges worldwide, culture-specific solutions, lessons from start-ups, collaborative partnerships, and social marketing. Mentored term project entails finding and implementing a viable solution focused on education/training; a technology, policy or plan; a marketing approach; and/or behavior change. Guest lecturers present case studies, emphasizing those developed and disseminated by MIT faculty, practitioners, students, and alumni. Field trips scheduled during class time, with optional field trips on weekends. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 20. S. E. Murcott, S. L. Hsu No textbook information available 11.477J Urban Energy Systems and Policy
()
(Same subject as 1.286[J]) (Subject meets with 11.165) Prereq: 11.203, 14.01, or permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Examines efforts in developing and advanced nations and regions. Examines key issues in the current and future development of urban energy systems, such as technology, use, behavior, regulation, climate change, and lack of access or energy poverty. Case studies on a diverse sampling of cities explore how prospective technologies and policies can be implemented. Includes intensive group research projects, discussion, and debate. D. Hsu 11.478 Behavioral Science, AI, and Urban Mobility
()
(Subject meets with 11.158) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Integrates behavioral science, artificial intelligence, and transportation technology to shape travel behavior, design mobility systems and business, and reform transportation policies. Introduces methods to sense travel behavior with new technology and measurements; nudge behavior through perception and preference shaping; design mobility systems and ventures that integrate autonomous vehicles, shared mobility, and public transit; and regulate travel with behavior-sensitive transport policies. Challenges students to pilot behavioral experiments and design creative mobility systems, business and policies. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Staff 11.480 Urbanization and Development
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines developmental dynamics of rapidly urbanizing locales, with a special focus on the developing world. Case studies from India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa form the basis for discussion of social, spatial, political and economic changes in cities spurred by the decline of industry, the rise of services, and the proliferation of urban mega projects. Emphasizes the challenges of growing urban inequality, environmental risk, citizen displacement, insufficient housing, and the lack of effective institutions for metropolitan governance. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Staff 11.484 Project Appraisal in Developing Countries
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Covers techniques of financial analysis of investment expenditures, as well as the economic and distributive appraisal of development projects. Critical analysis of these tools in the political economy of international development is discussed. Topics include appraisal's role in the project cycle, planning under conditions of uncertainty, constraints in data quality and the limits of rational analysis, and the coordination of an interdisciplinary appraisal team. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Enrollment limited; preference to majors. Staff 11.485 Southern Urbanisms
()
Prereq: None Units: 2-0-10
Guides students in examining implicit and explicit values of diversity offered in "Southern" knowledge bases, theories, and practices of urban production. With a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, considers why the South-centered location of the estimated global urban population boom obligates us to examine how cities work as they do, and why Western-informed urban theory and planning scholarship may be ill-suited to provide guidance on urban development there. Examines the "rise of the rest" and its implications for the making and remaking of expertise and norms in planning practice. Students engage with seminal texts from leading authors of Southern urbanism and critical themes, including the rise of Southern theory, African urbanism, Chinese international cooperation, Brazilian urban diplomacy, and the globally-driven commodification of urban real estate. G. Carolini 11.486 Peace and Conflict Geographies
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Explores the spatialization of conflict and peace from perspectives within the humanities and social sciences. Examines claims on territory, resources, and homeland; traces the legacies of violence in landscapes both personal and public; considers the use of planning and architecture to build peace; and attends to experiences of displacement and dispossession. Discusses how conflict and peace geographies provide insight into various scales of power and repair that shape how individuals live together. D. Wendel 11.487 Budgeting and Finance for the Public Sector
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Subject meets with 11.147) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines globally relevant challenges of adequately and effectively attending to public sector responsibilities for basic services with limited resources. Particular attention to the contexts of fiscal crises and rapid population growth, as well as shrinkage, through an introduction to methods and processes of budgeting, accounting, and financial mobilization. Case studies and practice exercises explore revenue strategies, demonstrate fiscal analytical competencies, and familiarize students with pioneering examples of promising budget and accounting processes and innovative funding mobilization via taxation, capital markets, and other mechanisms (e.g., land-value capture). Students taking graduate version explore the subject in greater depth. Staff 11.490 Law and Development
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 2-0-10
Examines the role of law in development and introduces economic and legal theories. Topics include formality/informality of property, contracts and bargaining in the shadow of the law, institutions for transparency and accountability, legitimation of law, sequencing of legal reform, and international economic law aspects. Studies the roles of property rights in economic development, the judiciary and the bureaucracy in development, and law in aid policy. Includes selected country case studies. Limited to 15. B. Rajagopal 11.493 Property and Land Use Law for Planners
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines legal and institutional arrangements for the establishment, transfer, and control over property and land under American and selected comparative systems, including India and South Africa. Focuses on key issues of property and land use law regarding planning and economic development. Emphasizes just and efficient resource use; institutional, entitlement and social relational approaches to property; distributional and other social aspects; and the relationship between property, culture, and democracy. Staff 11.494 Cities of Contested Memory
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Explores relationships between built environments and memory to consider the spaces and spatial practices in which the future of the past is imagined, negotiated, and contested. Focuses on three areas of critical importance to understanding the nature of memory in cities today: the threats that rapid urban development pose to the remembrance of urban pasts; the politics of representation evident in debates over authorized and marginalized historical narratives; and the art and ethics of sensitively addressing the afterlives of violence and tragedy. Emphasizes group discussions and projects as means to explore collective and counter memories, the communities that are formed therein, and the economic, social, and political forces that lift up certain memories over others to shape the legacy of the past. Limited to 15. D. Wendel 11.495 Governance and Law in Developing Countries
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 2-0-10
Examines the multiple dimensions of governance in international development with a focus on the role of legal norms and institutions in the balance between state and the market. Analyzes changes in the distribution of political and legal authority as a result of economic globalization. Topics include the regulation of firms; forms of state and non-state monitoring; varieties of capitalism, global governance and development; and good governance, including transparency and accountability mechanisms, the role of the judiciary and legal culture, and tools for measuring governance performance. B. Rajagopal 11.496 Law, Social Movements, and Public Policy: Comparative and International Experience
()Not offered regularly; consult department (Subject meets with 11.166) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Studies the interaction between law, courts, and social movements in shaping domestic and global public policy. Examines how groups mobilize to use law to affect change and why they succeed and fail. Case studies explore the interplay between law, social movements, and public policy in current issues, such as gender, race, labor, trade, climate change/environment, and LGBTQ rights. Introduces theories of public policy, social movements, law and society, and transnational studies. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Limited to 15. Staff 11.497 Human Rights at Home and Abroad
()
(Subject meets with 11.164[J], 17.391[J]) Prereq: None Units: 2-0-10
Provides a rigorous and critical introduction to the history, foundation, structure, and operation of the human rights movement. Focuses on key ideas, actors, methods and sources, and critically evaluates the field. Addresses current debates in human rights, including the relationship with security, democracy, development and globalization, urbanization, equality (in housing and other economic and social rights; women's rights; ethnic, religious and racial discrimination; and policing/conflict), post-conflict rebuilding and transitional justice, and technology in human rights activism. Students taking graduate version expected to write a research paper. B. Rajagopal 11.499 Master of Science in Real Estate Development Thesis Preparation
(); first half of term
Prereq: None Units: 2-0-1 [P/D/F] Ends Mar 22. Lecture: T2.30-4 (9-354)
Designed to give students the tools and information needed to successfully complete a master's level thesis. Seminar topics include, but are not limited to: research data sets, different types and styles of theses, the writing and editing process, library services, and the use of humans as experimental subjects in research. CRE faculty share their areas of interest to assist in choosing an advisor. Seminar assignments guide students toward developing a thesis topic and realistic work plan to adequately achieve their research and writing goals. Objective is for each student to have sufficient knowledge to author a fully developed thesis topic and formal proposal by the end of the term. Limited to MS in Real Estate Development candidates. Albert Saiz No textbook information available 11.520 Workshop on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
(, ); second half of term
Prereq: 11.205 or permission of instructor Units: 2-2-2 Begins Apr 1. Lecture: MW2.30-4 (9-354) Recitation: M EVE (4.30-6.30 PM) (9-554) or T EVE (4.30-6.30 PM) (9-554) or R EVE (4.30-6.30 PM) (9-554)
Includes spatial analysis exercises using real-world data sets, building toward an independent project in which students critically apply GIS techniques to an area of interest. Students build data discovery, cartography, and spatial analysis skills while learning to reflect on power and positionality within the research design process. Tailored to GIS applications within planning and design and emphasizes the role of reflective practice in GIS. Enrollment limited; preference to MCP students. Fall: E. Huntley, C. Cong Spring: C. D'Ignazio, E. Huntley No textbook information available 11.521 Spatial Database Management and Advanced Geographic Information Systems
()Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: 11.205 and Coreq: 11.220; or permission of instructor Units: 3-3-6
Extends the computing and geographic information systems (GIS) skills developed in 11.520 to include spatial data management in client/server environments and advanced GIS techniques. First half covers the content of 11.523, introducing database management concepts, SQL (Structured Query Language), and enterprise-class database management software. Second half explores advanced features and the customization features of GIS software that perform analyses for decision support that go beyond basic thematic mapping. Includes the half-term GIS project of 11.524 that studies a real-world planning issue. Staff 11.522 Research Seminar on Urban Information Systems
() Not offered regularly; consult department Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 2-4-6
Advanced research seminar enhances computer and analytic skills developed in other subjects in this sequence. Students present a structured discussion of journal articles representative of their current research interests involving urban information systems and complete a short research project. Suggested research projects include topics related to ongoing UIS Group research. Staff 11.523 Fundamentals of Spatial Database Management
(); first half of term
Prereq: 11.205 or permission of instructor Units: 2-2-2
Develops technical skills necessary to design, build, and interact with spatial databases using the Structured Query Language (SQL) and its spatial extensions. Provides instruction in writing highly contextual metadata (data biographies). Prepares students to perform database maintenance, modeling, and digitizing tasks, and to critically evaluate and document data sources. Databases are implemented in PostgreSQL and PostGIS; students interface with these using QGIS. E. Huntley 11.524 Advanced Geographic Information System Project
() ; second half of term
Prereq: (11.205 and 11.220) or permission of instructor Units arranged
Provides instruction in statistical approaches for analyzing interrelation, clustering, and interdependence, which are often key to understanding urban environments. Covers local and global spatial autocorrelation, interpolation, and kernel density methods; cluster detection; and spatial regression models. Develops technical skills necessary to ask spatial questions using inferential statistics implemented in the R statistical computing language. Prior coursework or experience in geographic information systems (GIS) at the introductory level required; prior coursework or experience in R is preferred. E. Huntley 11.526J Comparative Land Use and Transportation Planning
(, )
(Same subject as 1.251[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: M9-12 (9-255)
Focuses on the integration of land use and transportation planning, drawing from cases in both industrialized and developing countries. Highlights how land use and transportation influence the social organization of cities, assigning privileges to certain groups and segregating or negating access to the city to other groups. Covers topics such as accessibility; the use of data, algorithms, and bias; travel demand and travel behavior; governance; transit-oriented development; autonomous vehicles; transportation and real estate; and social, environmental, and health implications of land use and transportation. Develops students' skills to assess relevant policies, interventions, and impacts. Fall: F. Duarte Spring: F. Duarte No textbook information available 11.529J Mobility Ventures: Driving Innovation in Transportation Systems
()
(Same subject as 15.379[J]) (Subject meets with 11.029[J], 15.3791[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-3-6
Explores technological, behavioral, policy, and systems-wide frameworks for innovation in transportation systems, complemented with case studies across the mobility spectrum, from autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility to last-mile sidewalk robots. Students interact with a series of guest lecturers from CEOs and other business and government executives who are actively reshaping the future of mobility. Interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to deliver business plans for proposed mobility-focused startups with an emphasis on primary market research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. J. Zhao, J. Moavenzadeh, J. Larios Berlin 11.540 Urban Transportation Planning and Policy
()
Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9
Examines transportation policymaking and planning; its relationship to social and environmental justice; and the influences of politics, governance structures, and human and institutional behavior. Explores the pathway to infrastructure, how attitudes are influenced, and how change happens. Examines the tensions and potential synergies among traditional transportation policy values of individual mobility, system efficiency, and "sustainability." Explores the roles of the government; analysis of current trends; transport sector decarbonization; land use, placemaking, and sustainable mobility networks; the role of "mobility as a service;" and the implications of disruptive technology on personal mobility. Assesses traditional planning methods with a critical eye, and through that process considers how to approach transportation planning in a way that responds to contemporary needs and values, with an emphasis on transport justice. Jim Aloisi 11.543J Transportation Policy, the Environment, and Livable Communities
()
(Same subject as 1.253[J]) Prereq: Permission of instructor Units: 3-0-9
Examines the economic and political conflict between transportation and the environment. Investigates the role of government regulation, green business and transportation policy as a facilitator of economic development and environmental sustainability. Analyzes a variety of international policy problems, including government-business relations, the role of interest groups, non-governmental organizations, and the public and media in the regulation of the automobile; sustainable development; global warming; politics of risk and siting of transport facilities; environmental justice; equity; as well as transportation and public health in the urban metropolis. Provides students with an opportunity to apply transportation and planning methods to develop policy alternatives in the context of environmental politics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. Staff 11.544J Transportation: Foundations and Methods
()
(Same subject as 1.200[J], IDS.675[J]) (Subject meets with 1.041[J], IDS.075[J]) Prereq: 1.000, (1.00 and 1.010), or permission of instructor Units: 3-1-8 Lecture: WF2.30-4 (1-135) Lab: M2 (1-150)
Covers core analytical and numerical methods for modeling, planning, operations, and control of transportation systems. Traffic flow theory, vehicle dynamics and behavior, numerical integration and simulation, graphical analysis. Properties of delays, queueing theory. Resource allocation, optimization models, linear and integer programming. Autonomy in transport, Markov Decision Processes, reinforcement learning, deep learning. Applications drawn broadly from land, air, and sea transport; private and public sector; transport of passengers and goods; futuristic, modern, and historical. Hands-on computational labs. Linear algebra background is encouraged but not required. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments. C. Wu No required or recommended textbooks 11.547J Global Aging & the Built Environment
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(Same subject as SCM.287[J]) Prereq: None Units: 3-0-9 Lecture: F2-5 (9-255)
Combines classroom lectures/discussion, readings, site visits, and field study to provide students with experience in various research techniques including stakeholder analysis, interviewing, photography and image analysis, focus groups, etc. Students examine the impacts of global demographic transition, when there are more older than younger people in a population, and explore emerging challenges in the built environment (e.g., age-friendly community planning, public transportation access, acceptance of driverless cars, social wellbeing and connectivity, housing and community design, design and use of public and private spaces, and the public health implications of climate change and aging). J. Coughlin No textbook information available 11.592 Renewable Energy Facility Siting Clinic
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| | | Undergraduate: 11.00-11.199 plus UROP, THU, THT | | | Graduate: 11.20-11.299 | | | Graduate: 11.30-11.999 plus THG | | | |
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