Singapore University of Social Sciences

Urban Sociology studies the significance of cities in the social, economic, and political lives of contemporary societies. It introduces students to the discipline of urban sociology, to facilitate students’ learning on how to examine the city through the perspectives of various social theorists and urban scholars. In doing so, this class combines theoretical materials with students’ experiences in living in Singapore as one of Asia’s global cities. The challenge to conduct an urban sociology class in Singapore is that the existing theories on cities largely originated from Europe and the United States, while cities have geographically and culturally distinct features that render them unique. Therefore, students are expected to learn about the influences of those distinct features on urban life, to understand the impact of globally interlinked cities, to discover how social problems arise and how to identify the root causes in the urban context.