Dhakar, Bangladesh

For the Research Paper assignment, students are to critically analyze a developing country city., in this case Dhakar, Bangladesh THE PAPER SHOULD HAVE A THESIS STATEMENT. The purpose of the paper is to develop in depth political knowledge of one city understood to be ‘in transition’ or ‘developing’. The paper must provide a strong and critical understanding of the general issues and challenges in that city as they relate to social, ecological, economic and political factors. The paper must clearly explain the administrative and political dynamic, challenges or tensions in the city (framed as ideas, interests and institutions), and the impact of these characteristics on one specific policy issue, such as housing, water, security, transportation, environment, etc. The paper must assess existing and relevant published information about the identified city and problem(s). Students will be expected to provide general context about the city and the paper must emphasize the relationship between politics, society, and urban well-being. When preparing this assignment, students might find it useful to take the perspective that they have been hired as a consultant by an international agency to critically analyze the city. The journal ‘Cities’ has ‘city profiles’, which might provide a useful guide for writing. The assignment can be organized any way students would like. Given the length of the paper, however, students should pay very close attention to the organization and presentation of their ideas. The challenge of the assignment is to communicate a lot of information about a particular locale in a succinct manner – something that is in high demand by international organizations. Use charts and tables in the appendix as possible, to free up writing space for analysis. Students must use a bare minimum of 5 peer-reviewed sources in their paper. Students should make every effort to use journal articles for information. Websites of reputable organizations may also be used, but any information drawn from websites must be referenced in its entirety, including author of site, full website address, title of website, and date material retrieved. The author-date system of referencing is preferred, but consistency is most important. Students must choose a city they have not previously profiled or conducted research on for another class.
Students should carefully consider the availability of historic and contemporary information on a potential city in advance of the due date of the outline, so that they can develop a structure.

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