Department of Urban Studies and Planning Fall 2003/IAP 2004

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2-0-4 (U)

11.194: Urban Field Experience—Lisboa, Portugal

In the 1997-1998 academic year, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning created an urban field experience trip for undergraduate majors in the department. That year, during March break, a number of our majors went to Montreal, Canada and participated in a variety of meetings and visits linked to their undergraduate studies in Urban Studies and Planning and arranged with the participation of Professor Larry Vale. In 1999 during IAP, the second such trip was conducted, this time to London, England under the guidance of Professor John de Monchaux. In 2000, Professors Mark Schuster and Dennis Frenchman were conducting a joint research project with the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and the urban field experience took place in Barcelona. In 2001, Fabio Carrera, Ph.D. candidate in the department and a native Venetian, took the class to Venice, with Prof. Bob Fogelson providing faculty oversight. In 2002, under the supervision of Prof. Diane Davis, the urban field experience took place in Mexico City and, last year, the class visited Madrid, led by Prof. Fogelson and Prof. Maria Fuente.

In most of the recent years, following student input, we have tried to make the experience a bit more formal, coupling it with an occasional seminar that would precede the trip and setting up course credit for the entire experience.

For the 2003-2004 academic year, the Urban Field Experience will take place in Lisbon, Portugal The course will be coordinated by Dr. Pedro Ferraz de Abreu, a DUSP Ph.D. graduate, DUSP post-doc fellow (and a native Lisboeta), but the content and schedule will be planned in conjunction with a committee of our undergraduate majors. 11.194 has been set up as a class that will begin in the fall semester and continue through the end of IAP. It will carry six units (2-0-4) of undergraduate credit.

The course meeting schedule will be defined together with students on the first class meeting. Though exact days remain to be set, the trip will probably bracket the end of the third week of January and the beginning of the fourth week.

The course - and trip - will take advantage of Dr. Pedro Ferraz de Abreu’s past and current research projects in Portugal. In consequence, there is a wide range of choices of substantive topics (information systems in planning, environmental planning, institutional reform, urban policy, public participation, etc.), and direct access to Portuguese planners, local government, public administration senior staff and NGO leaders and activists.

The Department of Urban Studies and Planning has committed a fixed budget of $5,000 for this trip. That amount is provided to the participating students to offset their costs of participation. Whether this will cover full transportation costs (or even accommodations, as well) will depend on the number of students participating.

The current departmental policy is that enrollment in 11.194 and participation in the IAP trip is limited to Urban Studies majors who are in their second, third, or fourth years at M.I.T. Exceptions to this policy (e.g., freshmen with a clear intent to declare a Course XI major) may occasionally be made, depending on the number of majors and the available budget.

A short reading list is being prepared, with the support of the Municipality of Lisbon. Students who are participating in 11.194 are also urged to search for interesting documentation / guidebooks to Lisbon. One of the best is:

José Antonio Gurriaran, Lisbon: an unforgettable city (Limite visual, 1998).