If you are looking for summer reading ideas and want to take the Sciences Po 2nd year entrance exam, you can get ahead of yourself!
The two themes chosen for 2013 are the city and/or commitment.
Here is a good read on the city:
A well-written Que sais-je? On urban sociology, which will be highly useful to you on the day of the exam. What do I know: urban sociology?
Contents:
chapter 1 – Understanding, analyzing and theorizing the city
Urban sociology
Urban ethnology
From social ethnology to the psychosociology of space
chapter 2 – Developments, tensions and complementarity between the rural and the urban
Rural France: metamorphoses and evolution
Urban France: revolutions and development
The France of peri-urbanization: emergence and diffusion
Urban-rural relations reexamined
chapter 3 – Governing, regulating and managing the city
The “rise of the cities
Large ungovernable metropolises?
City government or urban governance
Urban governance and democracy
Is there an adequate territorial scale of government?
chapter 4 – Distinction, stigmatization and relegation in the city
The fragmentation of the city
The social segmentation of territories
Chapter V. —Uses, practices and rhythms of city dwellers
The spaces of the city dweller
The city dweller and his time
Conclusion. —Imagining, dreaming and inventing the city of tomorrow
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