城市与科技

The modern city cannot survive and thrive without technologies, may it be massive infrastructure systems or small electronic appliances at home. In fact, the history of urbanization was imbued with technological advances. The challenges that historical cities faced prompted the invention of new technologies, which then reshaped the social and spatial form of cities, though not always in intended ways and often resulting in new problems. Understanding this intertwined relationship between urbanization and technology is crucial to making sense of the evolution of human society and cities and our collective future. Today, about 55% of world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 over two-thirds is projected to be urban. Rapid urbanization brings many daunting challenges, social, economic, and ecological. It is crucial for young students in China, a country that has experienced remarkable urbanization in the past four decades, to understand what a good city should be like, the main problems contemporary cities face, and possible ways to solve them through technologies. The good city in the future cannot come into being without smart and responsible citizens. This course is designed for these purposes – to enable students to understand the past and the present but also to prepare for the future.