This activity is due by the end of class on Thursday of Week 6. It is to be brainstormed and informally presented orally in class. There is not a written assignment to be submitted; you will potentially use the claim as a starting point for the “Ideal Community” project.

Here is the description related to stating your claim (this assignment):

For the assignment you will work in a group of 3 or 4 to identify a claim about a topic you select pertaining to an ‘ideal city’. The choice of claim that you are going to investigate is a really important one because you will be working on this assignment for the next several weeks. You should choose something that you are actually interested in investigating. You will need to work with your group to come to a decision together about the claim you investigate.

Whatever you select, your focus for the assignment is to be an informed concept, design, or invention that you consider essential or potentially useful in imagining an ‘ideal’ city or community. In preparation for selecting a claim in your group, before class you might first individually consider categories of an ‘ideal’ community: foundational principles and laws or regulations; system of governance; the social structure; public education; infrastructure; equity and diversity, etc.Be prepared to substantiate your claim and anticipate critiques from classmates about a chosen feature of your imagined community. The teamwork prepares you to work both cooperatively and collaboratively through attention to your peers’ rationales (instead of prejudging ideas) and to build a common endeavor on ethical and conceptual foundations.

This assignment along with discussion of your Group Claims will take place in class.