Urban scholars often work with communities in their efforts to combat social and urban inequality. Breaking the asymmetry between scientific/academic and popular/experiential knowledge has helped urban social movements to gain ground across neighborhoods, cities, and nations. This course is for students interested in learning how to work in urban communities and engage in community-led efforts promoting social and spatial justice. Students will learn theoretical and practical approaches to investigate and analyze challenges being faced in urban communities. They will also gain skills to engage with and support change efforts led by those living and shaping those urban environments, including residents, community leaders, grassroots groups, and non-profit organizations. Using participatory-action research as a framework, students will learn multiple research techniques and tools to understand and transform urban communities, and to develop an ethical, self-conscious knowledge of their position and agency in processes of urban transformation. This course involves fieldwork and visits from activist scholars.