Browse Hierarchy GEG6157: Epidemic Cities

Cities have long been discussed in terms of their potential to promote epidemic disease. Processes of rapid urbanisation, unplanned and poorly regulated urban growth, have compounded this epidemic potential, especially in areas lacking infrastructure and characterised by overcrowding, insanitary and unhygienic conditions. The urban health crisis that shaped life in the rapidly urbanising cities of the nineteenth century continues into the present day, although the effects of resulting epidemic disease are amplified as the world has become vastly more interconnected and populations significantly more mobile. This module explores these themes using a wide-range of case studies, and considers how disease shapes and is shaped by the lives of people living in the 'epidemic city'.