USP 407/507 Research Into Comics (4) - Students in this class will explore comics as a deeply engaging medium for communicating complex stories and research findings. Students will learn about comics theory and gain hands-on experience in processes of independent and collaborative research for and with comics creation. Offering a range of approaches to research and comics creation, students of the social sciences, arts and humanities, the natural sciences, and professional fields will all gain critical skills for communicating research to wide audiences. No prior experience with comics creation or drawing skills necessary. This course is co-taught by Dr. Kacy McKinney, a critical human geographer and illustrator, and Ryan Alexander-Tanner, a highly accomplished comics creator. Syllabus. Last taught Fall 2023.
USP 410/510 TOP: Retrofitting Suburbia (4) Syllabus.
USP 510 TOP: Disaster Management (3) - This course introduces students to foundations of disaster management, including definitions of resilience and recovery, social vulnerability and social capital, business vulnerability, economic resilience, roles of non-profit organizations and faith-based organizations, and funding. This course also covers disaster preparedness, resilience, and recovery planning. Syllabus.
USP 410/510 Urban Rural Ambassadors Institute. Students develop the capacity to forge a path through the tension and stalemate that often characterize the urban-rural debate and to find strategies that fit local economies, values, and ways of life for the advancement of Oregon as a whole. See https://www.pdx.edu/policy-consensus-center/urban-rural-ambassadors-institute. Last taught Spring 2023.
USP 410/510 Arts & Community Change (4) - This new course exists at the intersection of urban studies, planning, community development, critical social theory, and the arts. We’ll go places together, including site visits and tours focused on public art and arts-based community organizations. We’ll engage in hands on creation with professional artists (no prior experience, skill, or training required). We’ll discuss a wide range of perspectives on public art, planning, and community change. We’ll engage in dialogue with city & county agencies about community engagement in arts planning & investment. Through these means, we’ll critically explore public art as it is connected to social infrastructure, well-being and healing, visibility and representation, commercialism, city planning, investment, public engagement, revitalization, memorialization, displacement. Syllabus. Last taught Spring 2023.
USP 510 TOP: Visual Communication for Planners (2) - Visual communication in urban planning has become a necessary and increasingly effective means of developing and expressing ideas and outcomes to a broad audience. Whether a diagram depicting a project schedule, a rendering showing a proposed future development, or an adopted graphic such as a code illustration or master plan, visuals have unique power to convey ideas and recommendations. In this class, we will explore a wide range of planning visuals and the software and graphic techniques used to create them. Syllabus. Now taught as 573.
USP 518 Energy and Society (3) - Consideration of the role of energy in human society, including energy and social change, energy and urban form, technologies of energy supply and demand, social institutions governing access to energy, and cultures of consumption. Current social issues involving energy efficiency, renewable energy technologies, and climate change are stressed. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2023.
USP 522 Practicum in Applied Demography (4)- Represents the capstone course for the graduate concentration in applied demography. The focus is on integrating a practicum experience with the methods of applied demography into a research paper. Students will develop, revise, and resubmit numerous drafts of a final research paper. Students will also provide professional peer review in evaluating the development of fellow student research papers. Syllabus. Last taught Spring 2006.
USP 531 Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Planners (4) - MURP Core. Introduction to principles and methods of collecting, organizing, analysis and visualizing geographic information. Explores types and sources of geographical data used in urban and regional studies and planning with an emphasis on Census data. Provides an overview of principles and components of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a primary tool of spatial data analysis and visualization. Attention is given to practical applications of GIS and to developing essential skills in desktop mapping and spreadsheet software. Syllabus. Taught as USP 536 as of Fall 2024.
USP 532 Data Collection (4) - The acquisition of data for research in an urban context. Emphasis is on the concepts, terminology, and methods related to the use of survey research and secondary data. Recommended prerequisite: USP 430 and/or an introductory undergraduate statistics sequence and USP 530. Syllabus.
USP 536 Policy Evaluation Methods (3) - Focuses on the methodological issues that must be addressed in attempting to evaluate programs and policies. Course offers an introduction to a variety of techniques useful in policy evaluation. Topics which may be covered include difference equations, Markov models, and queuing models. A section of the course considers the methodological issues that arise in cost-benefit analysis, such as present value calculations, determining the value of nonmarket benefits, and correctly evaluating costs. Recommended prerequisite: USP 515 or equivalent. Last taught Fall 2009.
USP 439/539 Workforce Development (3) - Introduction to policies and practices for workforce development. Topics discussed include labor market dynamics, failures and inequities; tools and methods for urban labor market analysis; and workforce development policies for skill investment, job matching and career development toward goals of household, business, community and regional economic development.. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2019.
USP 543 Geographic Applications to Planning (4) - Principles and models of spatial organization, behavior, and location in geographic space. Major conceptual models of urban structure and form, urban regional hierarchy, transportation flows and other forms of spatial interaction, and their applications to modern planning and other disciplines. Spatial data models (rasters, TINs, LRSs, other) and advanced analytical and modeling capabilities of GIS (surface, 3-D, and network analyses). Discussion of real-life GIS applications to transportation, land use, environmental planning, community development, and related areas. Syllabus. Last taught Fall 2010.
USP 445/545 Cities and Third World Development (3) - Critical survey of historical, economic, cultural, political, and urban aspects of Third World development, starting with the colonial era. Historical patterns of integration of the Third World with the emerging world market system. Covers problems of the post-independence period, focusing on urban sectoral issues and policy alternatives. Specific topics include trade, investment, industrialization, finance, technology transfer, political participation, land use, housing, transportation, information infrastructure, population growth, social services, militarism, and cultural conflict. Syllabus. Last taught Fall 2023.
USP 552 Urban Poverty in Critical Perspective (3) - Examines historical, empirical, and theoretical perspectives on urban poverty in the United States. It addresses the politics of poverty discourse by examining why explanations and policy prescriptions have emphasized morality and behavior: race, family and culture; and dependency and responsibility rather than systemic economic inequality. Last taught Spring 2011.
USP 554 Planning and Housing Markets (3) - Explores the interaction of planning and local housing markets and submarkets. In a market economy, non-public actors build, own, and operate the majority of the housing stock (along with other assets, including other types of real estate, businesses, even ideas). Planning has a role in framing and influencing the decisions and approaches of these actors. Last taught Fall 2009.
USP 457/557 Information Cities (3) - Focuses on the political, social, and cultural impacts of mass media and information technologies within the urban matrix. Contextualizes the "information society" in historical, institutional, political, economic, and global settings. Topics include flexible production, the segmentation of consumption, alternatives to mass media, the Web, the reorganization of work, the transnationalization of culture, commercial and political surveillance, and the development of urban information infrastructure. Last taught Spring 2011.
USP 562 Real Estate Development Workshop (3) - Students form a real estate development team and produce an original development plan, including the development concept, the market analysis, the conceptual design, economic analysis, capital and operations budget, and management plan. The student's plan will demonstrate and apply mastery of the development concepts and tools learned through the previous courses. Prerequisite: USP 523 or instructor's consent. Course may be taken twice for credit with instructor's consent. Syllabus. Last taught Summer 2011.
USP 564 Political and Administrative Issues in Aging (3) - Coverage of organizational dynamics as related to the elderly including the provision and use of services. Covers voting behavior and advocacy as well as administrative and legal issues that are particularly applicable to the elderly. Last taught Spring 2010.
USP 566 National Urban Policy (3) - Examination of the federal government's involvement with urban issues from a historical and political perspective. Focus on policies pertaining to social welfare and economic development, with an overview of other policy arenas such as housing, health, and education. Critical analysis of how and why the federal government responds to urban crises with national policy initiatives, and how changes in political regime correspond with changes in policy emphases and perspectives. Last taught Winter 2009.
USP 573 Housing Economics (4) - Looks at the economics of real estate and housing, including land rent, interest rates, apartment rents, and housing prices, using an economic framework. Basic concepts in urban economics such as land rents, externalities, and public goods are reviewed. Explores the technique most commonly used in real estate and housing economics: hedonic pricing. Explores the rationale and impact of government intervention in the private real estate market. Expected preparation: USP 515 or RE 521. Syllabus. Last taught Spring 2012.
USP 574 Socio-Technical Change in the City (4) - At the core of the urban sustainability challenge is how societies build, maintain and reform socio-technical systems—linking actors, institutions and values to the built and natural environment. Drawing from science and technology studies, this course analyzes socio-technical systems and the challenges to navigating them along more sustainable trajectories. Last taught Spring 2016.
USP 577 Urban Environmental Management (3) - An accelerated survey of principles, concepts, and techniques employed in the management of urban environmental problems, with particular emphasis to "best practice" and emerging ideas. Selected topics may include: watershed stewardship, brownfield development, green spaces, protection of urban wildlife, stormwater management, urban agriculture, residential toxics. Last taught Winter 2008.
USP 480/580 Political Economy of Nonprofit Organizations (3) - Considers theories of altruism, trust, and social capital. Examines the connections between wealth and social responsibility and between elite status and social reproduction. Explores the broad scope of nonprofit activity in the economy, the interdependence of government and nonprofit organizations in the modern state, and the role of think tanks in shaping public policy. Surveys the dramatic rise of non-governmental organizations in developing countries and the future of nonprofits in a global economy. Syllabus. Last taught Fall 2012.
USP 581 Environmental Psychology (3) - Examination of the relationship between people and their physical environments. Specific topics include human spatial behavior (personal space and territoriality), the contribution of the behavioral sciences to architectural and urban design, community and neighboring in the city, and environmental cognition. Last taught Winter 2007.
USP 582 Sustainable Transportation (3) - This course covers the sustainability dimensions of transportation, considering historical trends and future prospects. Topics covered in the course include energy use and alternative energy sources, technological change, traffic safety, vehicle emissions, environmental justice, the role of transportation in the economy, and the role of land use and urban design. Last taught Winter 2015.
USP 586 Urban Social Networks (3) - Analysis of the social psychological and anthropological literature on social networks: the structure and content of interpersonal networks (including kinship, friendship, instrumental) in an urban setting. Specific topics will include: the nature of interpersonal ties in the city, urban migration and networks, access to urban resources, methods of analyzing personal and group networks. Last taught Fall 2012.
USP 588 Sustainable Development Practices (3) - Introduction to analytic and management approaches intended to limit the social and environmental harms associated with most past patterns of development. Builds upon basic understanding of socio-environmental change and provides a foundation for subsequent in-depth studies of particular sustainable development strategies and analytic techniques. Students study a broader range of sustainable development topics, tools and techniques. Syllabus. Last taught Spring 2023.
USP 493/593 Public Participation GIS (3) - Offered as a studio-based GIS class. The objective is for students to apply GIS skills acquired in previous GIS courses to a specific real-world spatial problem. Tasks will involve problem definition, primary data collection, advanced GIS analysis, and presentation of results. This format will give students practical experience in implementing GIS technologies with specific emphasis on planning problems. Students will be required to work in small groups in a simulated professional planning practice environment. Expected preparation: USP 531 and USP 543 or USP 591 and 592. Syllabus. Last taught Spring 2019.
USP 594 Planning in the Pacific Northwest (3) - This course will utilize the work of Pacific Northwest historians, writers, critics and others as a vehicle for equipping planners with a somewhat systematic and certainly eclectic cultural overview of the region they hope to serve. This course will attempt to prepare them to be members of a place and of a culture of place and to embrace the art and literature of the Pacific Northwest as part of their ongoing professional development. Though focused on the Pacific Northwest, the general approach used in this course should be applicable to other regions as well. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2017.
USP 595 Reshaping the Metropolis (3) - Examination of the contrast between classic models of metropolitan settlement and new patterns emerging in the late twentieth century. Land use changes in the context of new patterns of economic activity; ideas about the physical form of the good city and the societal implications of development patterns; issues of residential choice, community change, globalization, and environmental protection as affected by metropolitan growth. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2016.
USP 607 Sem: Advanced Planning Theory (3) - This seminar will explore several planning theory-related issues such as the just city, the healthy city, the right to the city, urban planning in a global context, and urban planning in the context of climate change and complexity. PhD students, as well as MURP students who have completed History and Theory of Planning and MUS students are welcome. Last taught Spring 2021.
USP 607 Sem: Advanced Community Development Seminar (3) - This advanced seminar considers theoretical and policy debates around uneven development and the community organizing/development response. It is open to MUS, MURP, and PhD students who have completed core community development courses. This course is offered in even number years. Syllabus. Last taught Fall 2024.
USP 616 Cities in the Global Political Economy (3) - Introduction to political theory and the political economy of globalization. Begins with core political ideas from classical economy (Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Mills, Marx, Marshall, Keynes, Friedman, and Rawls) and proceeds to an analysis of the rise of transnationalism and globalization. Looks at changes in the global economy, revolutionary changes to capitalism, the fall of communism, and impacts of the globalization of cities, communities, the state, work, social mobility, welfare, cultural diversity, and the environment. Syllabus.
USP 619 Development Partnerships (3) - Considers public and private partnerships to develop real estate in terms of the benefits to the wider urban community and policy goals such as affordable housing, community redevelopment to economic development, and sustainability. The course looks at how public and private organizations can meet policy goals, create economic returns, and mitigate risk. Expected preparation: USP 523. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2014.
USP 625 Green Buildings II (3) - Applies green building concepts to advanced real estate problems, including the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of existing real estate properties. Properties being covered include retail, office, hotel, industrial, and residential properties. The class will examine techniques for increasing density, recycling materials, improving energy efficiency, and creating healthy work and living environments. The course will look at property management and portfolio management from a green building perspective. Prerequisite: USP 529. Last taught pre-2000.
USP 636 Political and Economic Decision-making (3) - Examines the philosophical and conceptual assumptions embodied in alternative decision-making theories in the fields of economics and politics. Designed to show students the differences in individual and collective decision-making processes and the technical and social challenges faced in decision-making processes in the market place and the realm of politics. Examples cover local, national, and international policy topics. This is the same course as PS 559 and may be taken for credit only once. Recommended prerequisite: USP 515/615. Last taught Fall 2008.
USP 655 Advanced Data Analysis: Structural Equation Modeling (3) - Introduces students to structural equation modeling, a regression-based technique that incorporates elements of path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Topics covered include path analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural models with cross-sectional, longitudinal, and multiple groups. The general goal is to provide a thorough background in the conceptual aspects, statistical underpinnings, and application of this method. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2015.
USP 656 Advanced Data Analysis: Multilevel Regression (3) - This course is intended to introduce students to multilevel regression techniques (also known as Hierarchical Linear Models or HLM), presenting the conceptual underpinnings and application of the techniques for the two most common applications of multilevel models: hierarchical and longitudinal data sets. Multilevel regression is a statistical model that extends multiple regression to data that are hierarchically structured and is used for the estimation of growth curves with longitudinal data. Hierarchical data are common in many kinds of organizational and regional research, because data occurs in natural groupings such as administrative units, geographic regions, or schools. Syllabus. Last taught Winter 2016.
USP 660 Policy Process (3) - Focuses on the politics of the policy process. It examines the role, influence and interaction of legislatures, executives, bureaucracies, courts, policy communities and citizens. Follows the stages of policy development: problem definition, agenda setting, budgeting, authorization, implementation and oversight. Case material is taken from federal, state, and local governments with special consideration given to the intergovernmental aspects of the policy process. Last taught Winter 2008.
USP 663 Program Evaluation (3) - This course is designed as a graduate introduction to the field of evaluation research and program evaluation. Topics covered include contemporary and emerging theoretical perspectives on evaluation research, experimental and quasi-experimental design, internal and external validity and reliability, measurement, analysis of change, ethical issues in evaluation, administration of program evaluation. Last taught Fall 1996.
USP 674 Spatial Analysis (3) - The use of geographically coded data to identify and anticipate future patterns of human activity in metropolitan areas and systems of cities. Emphasizes techniques to establish whether the characteristic landscapes associated with static and dynamic models of behavior are present. Diffusion processes, expanded location theories, and models of decision making from spatially arrayed cues receive particular attention. Recommended prerequisite: USP 532. Last taught pre-2000.
USP 676 Activity Location (3) - The location of human activities in urban systems. Location of economic activities where profit maximization is desired, and location decisions with equity maxima. Last taught Fall 1999.
USP 679 Metropolitan Fiscal Structure (3) - The course will focus on the following topics: the tax burdens, fiscal resources and expenditure patterns of local governments in metropolitan areas. The impact of revenue sharing and categorical grants. The spatial distribution of local government services, transfer payments, and tax burdens. Review of literature on the urban-suburban exploitation thesis, the Tiebout-Oates model, etc. Last taught Winter 2006.
USP 682 Sustainable Transportation (3) - This course covers the sustainability dimensions of transportation, considering historical trends and future prospects. Topics covered in the course include energy use and alternative energy sources, technological change, traffic safety, vehicle emissions, environmental justice, the role of transportation in the economy, and the role of land use and urban design. Last taught Fall 1998.