The course aims to present the main theoretical and research traditions of the sociology of the city, following a diachronic perspective that focuses on the analysis of urbanization cycles. The course explores the social structure of urban space from the second urban revolution to the advent of the so-called planetary urbanization. Part of the course will be dedicated to the analysis of urban policies, meaning by this expression a set of public activities concerning the use, development, and transformations of the territory implemented by public and private actors in the urban planning and regeneration processes