(BA) (4-year-programme) - The University of Hong Kong

131this evolution. Consequently, the study of cities provides a powerful perspective upon Europeanhistory. An essential part of the process of urbanisation involved the allocation of urban open spacesto specific social and cultural functions. A key focus for public and private life, the city’s openspaces – parks, gardens, streets and squares – had a fundamental influence upon the nature of urbanliving. As those in positions of power influenced the provision and purpose of these areas, importantdevelopments in European social, economic, cultural and political life were linked closely to theevolution of open spaces in cities.In this course the changing use and allocation of urban open spaces and the evolution of meanings ofpublic and private space will provide a lens through which the development of modern Europeancities will be analysed. The importance of open spaces will be addressed with recourse to a number ofkey themes, including the ‘greening’ of cities of the nineteenth century, the construction of idealFascist and Socialist cities in the 1930s, functionalism and post-war reconstruction, and the‘sustainable city’ of the 1990s. By the end of the course the students will not only be more familiarwith historical approaches to urban ‘space’ but will also have received an introduction to the evolutionof European cities and the changing cultural importance of public and private open spaces.Assessment: 100% courseworkHIST2048.The history of young people in modern Europe (6 credits)Responses to and representations of young people provide a valuable insight into the values of thesociety and the culture which generated them. The aim of this course will be to compare changingexperiences of growing up with evolving representations of the life-stages used to identify the young(childhood, adolescence and youth) in nineteenth- and twentieth century Europe. It thereforeconsiders what it has meant to be young in different times and places. Through comparison ofexperiences and representations the course will reconsider the validity of terms used to describe theyoung, highlight the social, political and cultural motives for advancing different roles andrepresentations of young people and generate a broad insight into regional patterns of similarity anddifference in the European history of this demographic group. This course aims to teach students theimportance of the historical context in shaping young people’s lives by addressing variables such asclass, gender and race. It will also introduce students to a variety of different methodological andtheoretical approaches to the topic.Assessment: 100% courseworkHIST2053.The Cold War (6 credits)This course focuses upon the emergence and development of the Cold War in the 1940s and 1950s. Ittakes into account the new scholarship based on evidence from former Soviet, Eastern European, andChinese archives since the early 1990s. Students are expected to make extensive use of documentarysources.Assessment: 100% coursework