To present the main theoretical debates that take place in broad interdisciplinary field of urban studies at present, without forgetting the most important traditions in the disciplinary domains;
To encourage doctoral students to scientific interdisciplinarity through the diversification of theories and analytical points of view;
To sensitize students to the importance of concepts in the preparation of research process, adjusting them to issues to be developed over the course;
To promote critical reflection on urban processes, its interpretations by social and political agents involved in the processes of evaluation and decision;
To encourage understanding of long-term processes in the analysis of urban change and its consequences in specific territories;
To enable students to articulate between the theories presented and the processes in analysis, for its explanation in a sustained manner.

The syllabus is organized into 5 modules that synthesize complementary theories that focus on the analysis of urban phenomena.
It will be approached from Chicago School, to French School of Social Morphology, to social thinkers and planners of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to philosophers of the city, to the current theories on globalization and to urban revitalization and metropolitan segregation. A first module focuses on disciplinary traditions of sociology and anthropology, drawing on concepts which are relevant. A second deals with images and representations of the city in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the perspective of urbanism. A third module is marked on the look of the architect about the city, recurring to theory and practice of thinking about space. In fourth module it will be debated how power relations evolve urban territory and fifth module is a reflection of new forms of governance that impress contemporary dynamics in cities.

The evaluation of the student shall be the sum of the monitoring activities of asset classes and discussion of the texts presented (30%) and the final report resulting from a unique reflection of its development and discussed with the teachers (70%).

At the end, each student must be able to:
1. Reflect critically on the different dimensions of the ‘urban’, in terms of its spaces, temporalities, scales of observation, and models of analysis;
2. Identify and relate different urban research methodologies, contextualizing and relating them to specific disciplinary traditions;
3. Discriminate the various stages of a research project, understanding their sequence;
4. Plan the research process, in an open and multidimensional way, adapting it to the complexity of urban realities;
5. Integrate ethical and deontological principles of urban research.

The program is organized into four thematic modules that present ways of approaching urban complexity, from different angles of observation and analysis. Each module is made up of two to four sessions in which concrete research cases that clarify this methodological variety are discussed. In addition to these 5 modules, there is also an introductory and a concluding module.
P1. Presentation of the program: the city’s methodological challenge
P2. Urban landscapes and space syntax
P3. Temporalities and urban mobilities
P4. Urban planning and geographic information
P5. Urban Ethnography
P6. City, urbanity, and urban governance
P7. Final comments

Assessment is carried out throughout the semester. In addition to participating in classes and reading the recommended bibliography, each student must prepare a practical exercise, with tutorial support, which forms part of the methodological development of their doctoral project, using methods and techniques appropriate to their proposal. The student's assessment will be the sum of the following activities: a) active monitoring of the modules, including participation in the seminar discussion (20%); b) oral presentation of the draft of your methodological exercise (30%); final essay (50%).
This UC does not have a final exam.

OA1 - Design and develop a research project in urban studies demonstrating that dominates the literature and be able to select and process information from different sources.
OA2 - Master the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools to conduct original research in urban studies.
OA3 - Define the supports research literature.
OA4 - To develop the capacity for critical analysis and communication on the topics under study.

CP1 - Presentation and discussion of research development for the planning of the doctoral thesis project.
CP2 - Research to present should consider the following points:
- Delimitation of thema and search field to develop.
- Identification of the problem.
- Definition of the object of study and research objectives.
- Literature revision.
- Definition of a methodology.
- Definition of dissemination strategies of research findings.

The assessment is individual and will focus on:
1. Participation in seminars (intercalary presentations) - 20%.
2. Elaboration of a thesis project in the area of urban studies - 50%.
3. Presentation and discussion of the project in the final sessions - 30%.

This course aims to achieve:
- Systematization of the range of issues that have been analyzed by urban studies, focusing on the historical evolution of cities, their contemporary social and urban problems and challenges as well as the field of policies to tackle these problems and challenges.
- Advanced and in depth training concerning the issues that seem more relevant in the current context of intense social and urban transformation in close collaboration with research centers involved.

In pursuing these objectives we seek to help students acquire the following competencies:
- Ability to carry out an integrated and multidisciplinary reflection, and develop independent research on the main problems of urban studies.
- Master the advanced knowledge about the diversity of issues and debates on key perspectives and approaches to the city.

The vast body of research and theoretical and conceptual analysis of the field of urban studies can be systematized in three axes of issues: the axis of the processes of urbanization and transformation of cities, the axis of the various nodes of the urban issues and the axis of public urban policies in order to tackle those problems.
The program is structured in the following modules:
1.Urban change dynamics: historical perspective of the city and urbanization processes; diversity of current models of city
2.Consumption and urban culture: consumption as a structural axis of the current urban economies, implications for urban life; expression of urban cultures and city policies
3.Housing and ways of living: analysing the centrality of the housing function to produce the city, diversity and social and urban inequalities; ways of living, urban mobility and lifestyles
4.Urban policies: sectoral policies; globalization and integrated and systemic city policies.

The evaluation model is based on the student participation in those presentations (50%) and the writing of a paper, on the state of the art of one of the urban studies issues presented (50%).

This UC aims at framing, in seminars, the research work of each individual student. This individual work constitutes most of the ECTS. Being the process of doctoral research an individual one, the course of research of each student will be followed, in this thesis seminar, in a collective and guided manner, through the presentation of ongoing work and discussion. This UC also will include the presentation of consolidated research by guest speakers, national and foreign, according to the thematic lines defined from concrete investigations of doctoral candidates. One of the purposes of the thesis seminar is to train and prepare students to present a clear, concise, objective and compelling their interim results of research, both written, and oral and visual material. Ethical issues will be emphasized.

Being an interdisciplinary doctoral course of study, it is impossible to anticipate what the programmatic lines of the seminar which aims to theoretically and methodologically monitor the development of individual doctoral theses. At the beginning of each academic year a schedule of sessions will be organized, biweekly, based on survey on current research, including conferences by visiting scientists as part of the programmes of the research lines and of the ongoing projects, of research centres and institutions both associated with this course of study.

At the end of each year's work, the doctoral candidate must submit a progress report, in line with a publishable scientific paper. This report will be presented at the seminar and submitted to a national or international journal.