Small-group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 11.941 and 11.955 are taught P/D/F.

A team-based policy research subject focused on evaluation of energy technologies and their implementation within developing countries. Focuses on one or more specific nations, carries out a resource assessment, and develops an energy strategy that is congruent with technical potential, cultural requirements, and environmental constraints.

This course explores the challenges and risks faced by senior managers of construction, engineering and architecture companies in entering global markets in general, and sponsoring concessions in particular. The course includes a discussion of innovative approaches to nation building, partnering, finance, utilization of specialized delivery systems, privatization, outsourcing and concessions; opportunities created by advanced information technology; and appropriate strategies for entering attractive and rapidly expanding international fields and markets.

Focuses on how the housing and human service systems interact: how networks and social capital can build between elements of the two systems. Explores ways in which the differing world views, professional perspectives, and institutional needs of the two systems play out operationally. Part I establishes the nature of the action frames of these two systems. Part II applies these insights to particular vulnerable groups: "at risk" households in transitional housing, the chronically mentally ill, and the frail elderly.

"The course is designed to provide a better understanding of the built environment, globalization, the current financial crisis and the impact of these factors on the rapidly changing and evolving international architecture, engineering, construction fields. We will, hopefully, obtain a better understanding of how these forces of globalization and the current financial crisis are having an impact on the built environment and how they will affect firms and your future career opportunities. We will also identify, review and discuss best practices and lessons that can be learned from recent events. We will explore the "international built environment" in detail, examining how it functions and asking what are the managerial, entrepreneurial and professional opportunities, challenges and risks in it, especially growing crossover and multi-disciplinary opportunities; and we will seek to understand what makes this "built environment" so different from other sectors."

Examines the evolving structure of cities and the way that cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas can be designed and developed. Guest speakers present cases, involving current projects, which illustrate the scope and methods of urban design practice. This is a class about how cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas change. It is an introductory subject for undergraduates that examines both the evolving structure of the American metropolis and the ways that it can be designed and developed. Topics range from grand ideas proposed by single individuals to smaller more incremental processes carried out through collaboration by a variety of contending parties. You will see how cities and suburbs have been changed in the past and how you and others may help change them in the future.

Throughout the advanced industrial world, labor unions, once seen as key institutions in economic and social life, vehicles for social integration, political participation, and economic redistribution, are in crisis. How did this change in organizational fortunes occur? Is this decline inevitable or can unions reform themselves as important and viable institutions? What role can labor play in the new economy? Drawing on bodies of literature from different fields (industrial relations, sociology, history, and political science) and focused on different national cases, this graduate reading and research seminar examines these and other related questions. Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor.

During the last fifteen years, nations across the globe embarked on a historic transformation away from centrally planned economies to market-oriented ones. However, in the common pursuit for economic growth, these transition economies implemented widely different reform strategies with mixed results. With over a decade of empirical evidence now available, this new course examines this phenomenon that has pushed the discourse in a number of disciplines, requiring us to reconsider fundamental issues such as: - the proper relationship between business, government, and the public interest; - the possible synergies and tensions between economic growth and equity; and - how economic transition has reshaped cities. The premise of the course is that the core issue in transition involves institution-building and re-building in different contexts.

Management methods of relevance to public transportation systems. Topics: strategic planning management; labor relations; maintenance planning and administration; financing; marketing and fare policy; and management information and decision support systems. Shows how these general management tasks are dealt with in the transit industry and presents alternative strategies. Identifies alternative arrangements for service provision, including different ways of involving the private sector in public transportation.