Detailed Description

Amsterdam is known as the “Venice of the North” for its intimate relationship between land and water.  In fact, the whole of Dutch politics reflects a historical pre-occupation with consensus planning, borne of the fact that much of the country is below sea-level and people have traditionally needed to cooperate in order to survive and thrive. Perhaps because of this, the Netherlands has found innovative ways to solve environmental problems and prides itself on being highly progressive in terms of social justice and politics. As the American urbanist John Gilderbloom has noted, Holland has what many call a “radical,” “progressive,” “unique” and even for some a “sinful” approach to housing, drug laws, transportation, prostitution, crime and urban design. Amsterdam, and indeed Holland as a whole, is a laboratory of social and environmental innovation. This field course explores the so-called “Dutch Model” of society from a variety of perspectives, using environmental, sociological, cultural, economic, political, historical, design and planning approaches to ask whether it can provide lessons for the rest of the world.