This seminar examines a range of approaches to urban politics and their implications for the study of community organizing, planning and development. The course is designed to provide a basic introduction to theories of urban structure, policy and politics drawn from sociology, political science and urban studies. We will also examine how these theories inform a variety of empirical investigations, from historical accounts to contemporary case studies, of the relationship between urban politics and community-level efforts to address such problems as inequality, poverty, disinvestment and displacement. The emphasis throughout the course will focus on the connections between theory, methodology and empirical investigation in the field of urban community research.