CitiesX: The Past, Present and Future of Urban Life
A far-ranging look at the past, present and future of cities.
Join Harvard Professor Edward Glaeser in this online course to explore what makes cities energizing, amazing, challenging, and perhaps humanity’s greatest invention.
5-7 hours a week
What You'll Learn
For the first time in human history, more than fifty percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Cities allow for the exchange of ideas, and generate remarkable innovations in business, art, and ideas. Cities are also home to millions living in poverty. Urban living can provide a pathway to a better life, but that’s not always the case for many people around the world.
CitiesX will give you a far-ranging look at the past, present and future of cities, with the aim of teaching you how to better understand, appreciate and improve urban areas. The course will explore key concepts of urban development by examining cities around the world, including London, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, Shanghai, Mumbai, Kigali, and many more.
The course includes a historical exploration of cities: how urban centers like ancient Rome resulted from consolidation of imperial power, how cities like Sao Paulo grew as important hotbeds of industry, and how cities like Seattle became hubs of technology and human capital.
CitiesX also dives into pressing social and urban planning issues like public health, transportation, zoning, gentrification, cost of living, crime, and congestion. The course includes interviews and insights from academics, policy makers, urban leaders and city residents.
The analytical framework of the course comes from economics, but is enhanced by conversations with experts from other disciplines (including Sociology, Urban Planning, Journalism, Anthropology, History, Art & Music) to provide learners with a greater understanding of all aspects of urbanism.
Support for CitiesX is generously provided by Tishman Speyer.
The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world. By the end of the course, participants will learn:
- A deeper understanding of what urbanism looks like around the world
- A historical perspective on the rise of cities throughout the world
- The role local and national governments play in developing and distorting cities
- The cultural contributions cities make to how we live, love, and learn
- The role of transportation in creating a liveable city
- Different approaches to analyzing public policy in cities
- What the future might hold for urban life
Your Instructor
Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1992. He regularly teaches microeconomics theory, and occasionally urban and public economics. He has served as Director of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and Director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. He has published dozens of papers on the economic growth, law, and economics of cities. In particular, his work has focused on the determinants of city growth and the role of cities as centers of idea transmission. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1992. His books include Cities, Agglomeration, and Spatial Equilibrium (Oxford University Press, 2008), Rethinking Federal Housing Policy (American Enterprise Institute Press, 2008), Triumph of the City (Penguin Press, 2011), and Survival of the City (Penguin Press, 2021).