Letter of motivation Urban Studies: Understanding Diversity and Inequality “The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights”. David Harvey Building healthy cities is the challenge of the current era. It is a human right to live in cities that are creating human happiness and equal access to resources. As a Research …show more content…
In the 21st century, planning and public health are reconnecting to address the new health challenges of urbanization and globalization — from racial and ethnic disparities to land use sprawl to providing basic services to the millions of urban poor around the world living in informal slum settlements. It is fundamental to reconnect the fields of planning and public health to address these and other 21st-century urban health challenges. Other centers of excellence within the Sociology field at the Erasmus University have caught my attention, for instance, DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute For Transitions), which is creating leading alternative thinking. I am sure the program in Urban Studies: Understanding Diversity and Inequality will give me the tools to think critically and apply knowledge to pressing problems using interdisciplinary research and practice methods and experiential …show more content…
Studying Public health in the renowned department of the Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, side by side with internationally known names of Political and Social Epidemiology, as J. Mackenbach, I am strongly motivated to start this Master of Urban Studies at the Erasmus University. With already a good background in qualitative and quantitative research, good knowledge of research methods and statistics (as I am involved in a Master program and in research projects), I possess a good basis for starting this new path. It would be an honor for me to study with excellent professors in the field of Sociology and Urban Studies. Furthermore, I am very pleased to live in Rotterdam, and the Netherlands in general, as a very special example of social innovation and urban experiments, trying to implement and create better spaces for its own people and leading in their interest of creating an equal society. My special interest is in green spaces and green cities and their effect on health. Especially how green can lead to both a process of gentrification or equality in quality of life. I am currently involved in a project at the Epidemiology Department of Erasmus MC, looking into the effect of quality of life and health outcomes and the inequalities per socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics, such as
"Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans" ("Healthy People 2020", 2015, p. 2). It monitors and evaluates whether the goals of improving health indicators are met or getting worse. Community health problems should be analyzed in order to comprehend and effectively resolve the problem ("Analyzing Community Problems", 2015). Levels of prevention are phases wherein healthcare professionals can intervene in the health of individuals and communities. Primary prevention involves seeking ways to prevent a person from having a disease they can be prone to.
In Baltimore, there were two distinct communities, the poor black communities, and the affluent, green grass, white communities. Both very different. As a result of being born African American, Coats had to confine living in black neighborhoods, never being able to live in a white neighborhood. There was almost an invisible law that kept people of dark skin from ever being able to move into a white neighborhood. That said, people living
The book argues that by promoting inclusivity and diversity, social differences cannot stand in the way of ethnic groups interacting in positive ways. Some other key themes in The Cosmopolitan Canopy include the importance of diversity and inclusivity; the role of public spaces in promoting social cohesion; the challenges of creating a cosmopolitan canopy in different urban settings; and the need for people to interact with those who are different from themselves in order to reduce social tensions and promote understanding. In addition, Anderson utilizes folk ethnography to explore the dynamics of public spaces in different urban settings, and to understand how people from different backgrounds interact with each other in these
In the documentary “The ten Town That Changed America” Geoffrey Baer illustrates the evolution of ten popular cities of the 21st century America. Done in chronological order, the documentary explores how these US cities were developed by visionary citizens who combined, urban planning, design, and architecture to change the way people lived. According to the documentary, these planners had passion and great insights for urban development, although driven by different inspirations and motivations. But one thing was central to these people: to build an environment that would change the way people live in America.
Large cities that promote “green” transportation do not improve the lives of their dwellers. In “The Walkability Dividend” Jeff Speck presents his views of beneficial effects caused by alternative transportation in cities. He argues that cities can benefit better from investments in sidewalks and public transportation rather than building better roads and highways for automobiles. Speck says that suburbs are not beneficial for the economy and decrease the quality of life for individuals. His argument for more compact, integrated cities and smaller freeways is exactly why people are moving to suburbs in what is popularly called “Urban Sprawl.”
Discrimination has been a prevalent malpractice for centuries now. This has had adverse impacts on the victims and retaliations have impacted the perpetrators harshly in the modern-day scenario as well. Discrimination happens in all social segments of the society and it is often initiated an early age. Media portrayal normalizes this abnormal behaviour to a large extent, often rendering the viewer helpless to execute such petty behaviour. This can clearly be taken into account while noticing housing practices in the modern-day Toronto.
Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen, explains that the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States is greater than it has been in thirty years (Hilfiker & Edelman, 2002). Furthermore, every forty three seconds, a child is born into poverty (Hilfiker & Edelman, 2002, p. IX). Those citizens most affected by these realities are African Americans (Hilfiker, 2002). These people face unique hardships and oppression as compared to the rest of the population. A 1990 survey of non-black respondents found that sixty five percent of those surveyed believed that blacks were lazier than other races.
What is Research? It is a careful investigation of a problem in a scientific manner, especially to search for new facts in any side of knowledge. And it is searching for theory or opinion for testing them or for solving issues. And a scientific way for answering questions and testing hypotheses.
During the Holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the Nazi process of separating, persecuting, and ultimately destroying Europe 's Jews. KEY FACTS Ghettos were set up to segregate Jews from the rest of the population. They were designed to be temporary; some lasted only a few days or weeks, others for several years.
Introduction As the world’s population continues to migrate and live in urban areas, planners, engineers, and politicians have an important role to ensure that they are livable and sustainable. But what defines an urban area and what makes it so attractive? In my opinion, urban areas are places that consist of a variety of land uses and buildings, where services and amenities are easily accessible to the general public, and includes an established multimodal transportation network. Also, it should be a place where people can play, learn, work, and grow in a safe and collaborative manner.
segregation in the today’s life time . or pass even. the thing that most people don’t realize is we all have effect about are appericesor the way we first approach someone. when it was my senior year the teacher have a assignment for us to get a partner and go a project . then their was a guy that had glass next to me he did not have a partner for the project
But, living in a multicultural city is by itself a very beneficial exercise not only on a personal level but also in terms of cultural exchange, economic exchange and generating new ideas. One experiences what is called cultural variety when living in a diverse area. He is somehow introduced to new kinds of foods, architectures, arts, music, festivals, religions, mythologies, writings and more of general day-to-day life. These new things would easily open one’s heart and mind to new places, new ideas and new people. According to (Wolfstone, 2010) nowadays all people around the world happily go out and eat Chinese food, use Japanese technology, drive German
In The Just City, Susan Fainstein begins to “to develop an urban theory of justice and to use it to evaluate existing and potential institutions and programs” in New York, London, and Amsterdam (p. 5). She wants to make “justice the first evaluative criterion used in policy making” (p. 6). While her book centers on idealism as a way to combat inequity and issues of justice in policy and planning, some may say that this is an unrealistic perspective. Throughout this book she explains the relationship between “democratic processes and just outcomes” (p. 24) which involve equity, diversity and democracy which are the main concepts of this book. Fainstein stresses that these things are important in public policy and urban planning because policy
The diversity and globalization of Central is something I really look forward to. I've always had a diverse group of friends in high school that, through all honestly, my Christian parents never really approved of. It was never because they did anything bad, but it was the way they dressed, what they chose to believe in, and sexual preferences. I never minded I always thought it made them even more unique and it was who they were. I accepted them and they accepted me.