Sustainable Cities and Communities Course Descriptor

Last modified on July 24th, 2023 at 7:40 am

Course code	LIDIS5232	Discipline	Interdisciplinary
UK Credit	15 credits	US Credit	4 credits
FHEQ level	5	Date approved	May 2023
Core attributes
Pre-requisites	N/A
Co-requisites	N/A
Exclusions	N/A

Course Overview

At a time of profound global change, in the heart of a world city, this course provides an engaged introduction to the challenge of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

Taking off from UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and drawing on perspectives from the public humanities, social sciences, and data science – including the emerging field of urban analytics – this course will engage with diverse local organisations to explore and help to strengthen resources to build sustainability in our context.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

K1b	Synthesise and discuss key information about sustainable cities and communities (e.g. design, regulation, and establishment) and situate them in the wider scholarly literature.
K2b	Critically engage with competing approaches in the scholarly literature relating to sustainable cities and communities.

Subject Specific Skills

S1b	Critically apply well-established analytical, evaluative or interpretative techniques or frameworks and vocabulary to address key sustainability challenges for cities and communities.

Transferable and Employability Skills

T1b	Communicate clearly and persuasively.
T3b	Demonstrate a sound technical proficiency in written English and skill in selecting vocabulary so as to communicate effectively to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Teaching and Learning

This course has a syllabus and online learning resources, including structured assignments to facilitate progress.

The teaching and learning activities for this course are:

40 scheduled hours (lectures, workshops, and scheduled assessment activities)
110 private study hours (with structured assignments)

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.

Students are to attend and participate in all the teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and private study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions or office hours.

Summative Assessments

AE:	Assessment Activity	Weighting (%)	Duration	Length
1	Set Exercises	40%	N/A	1,500 words (or equivalent
2	Written Assignment	60%	N/A	1,500 words

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on drafts or through email) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

O’Brien, Daniel T. (2018) The Urban Commons. Harvard University Press.
Bibri, S. (2021) ‘Data-driven smart sustainable cities of the future’. Sustainable Futuress.
Mikesell, L. Bromley, E., and Khodyakov, D. (2013) ‘Ethical Community-Engaged Research: A Literature Review’. American Journal of Public Health.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

UN SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Smart Cities and Urban Analytics
Recognizing and critiquing data sources
Data analysis and visualization
Ethics of community-engaged research

Version History

Title: LIDIS5232 Sustainable Cities and Communities Approved by: Academic Board Location:
Version number	Date approved	Date published	Owner	Proposed next review date	Modification (As per AQF4) & category number
1.1	July 2023	July 2023	Dr Edmund Neill	May 2028	Category 1: Corrections/clarifications to documents which do not change approved content or learning outcomes.
1.0	May 2023	June 2023	Dr Edmund Neill	May 2028