The course has six primary aims:

• To engage at an advanced level with the most important and innovative ideas on cities and urbanisation
• To develop an interdisciplinary and historically informed understanding of the urban field
• To acquire a sensitivity towards social and spatial differences both at a global level, through the specific issues facing cities in the global South, and also at a local and regional level through an enhanced understanding of tensions and inequalities that shape the urban experience
• To understand better the complex relationship between theory and practice and the cultural, political and social context for processes of urban change
• To provide the advanced research and writing skills necessary for the undertaking of an independent research dissertation
• To improve the knowledge and skills necessary for careers in academia, public and private research, and other commercial and professional fields where an advanced understanding of cities and urban change is required.