Urban Studies- Writing Assignment
INSTRUCTIONS: Write carefully and thoughtfully on the following topic, answering the questions and including the criteria established in an essay of 3-4 pages. NO PLAGARISM, NO GOOGLE SEARCHES! Use citations for all evidence and ideas that are not your own (MLA, Chicago, or another consistent format style of your choice is fine). Remember, this writing assignment will be your final exam.
Topic: Policing, Prisons and Militarization
Over the last three decades, cities across the United States have undergone a profound shift in methods of social control, from the massive expansion of the carceral system and the militarization of public space, to the adoption of new sentencing laws, public and private-led gentrification and new forms of policing/security. Write 3-4 pages on this topic using citations from the class readings listed below. For full credit, your essay must address each of the following questions:
-What does it mean to say that these are methods of social control?
-Explain each of the methods listed above to the best of your ability --how do they work, what do they look like? Give examples and evidence for each method. (eg: Some questions you will want to answer in explaining the expansion of the carceral system include: What is the carceral system and how has it changed in the last several decades? Give historical background! Using statistical data presented in class and in readings, describe the growth and makeup of the prison population. What do race, class and hyperincarceration have to do with it?)
-How do these methods of social control differ from those used in the previous era of Fordism.
-How do Christian Parenti and Loic Wacquant agree or disagree on the role of the carceral system today?
Readings to Use:
Parenti, Christian. The New Criminal Justice System: State Repression from 1968 to 2001
Wacquant, Loic. Class, Race, & Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America.
Smith, Neil. Which New Urbanism? New York City and the Revanchist 1990s
Davis, Mike. Fortress L.A.