In this case study, two academics from The Bartlett, UCL’s global faculty
of the built environment, think through how two modules can bring
together research and teaching in interdisciplinary education. They use
‘real life’ as a resource to bring together a whole range of knowledge and
activities by having students explore cities and organizational networks.
Assessment is particularly tricky in such courses, as is also argued by
Jessop and Hughes in Chapter 5; interdisciplinary learning is messy and
complicated, as Davies outlines in Chapter 8; and global perspectives
must be embedded for such courses to be meaningful, as Kraska, Bourn
and Blum highlight in Chapter 6. The authors turn these challenges into
a chance for students to learn not just dry, isolated and theoretical ideas,
but rather to engage publicly, for instance through blogs. There are many
benefits to such education: the students see the city and organizational
networks around them in a new light, and tackle realistic skills such as
working in groups along the way
