This is a must course for the first year students in the department of City and Regional Planning. The main aim of this course is to introduce concepts and terms relevant for an explanation of urban dynamics (e.g. social class, social inequality and socio-spatial differentiation, residential segregation, as well as suburbanization, metropolitan growth, post modern urbanism etc.). Also the course will cover such issues as: major theoretical debates over space and society in urban sociology, the relatedness and interdependency of urban space; and the social organization of life in the city. In addition, this course aims to provide as much comparative material as possible, in order to view local conditions (e.g. Turkey, Ankara, Istanbul) within a wider context (the world), and expose the similarities, variations or differences between processes.