This seminar offers a critical review of archaeological approaches to place, space, landscapes, cities, and infrastructures in comparative perspective. In our post-industrial world, the second circuit of capital (real-estate speculation and public works) increasingly dominates political discourse. Archaeological research demonstrates that political economies grounded in the construction of place is not a modern phenomenon but has defined hierarchical polities ever since their inception. In this course, students will examine the emergence and organization of ancient cities and pre-industrial infrastructure projects through a detailed investigation of social theory on space and the urban condition. We will explore competing interpretations of urban process and examine how physical infrastructures shaped the political institutions, economies, and ideologies of cities past and present. Students will have the opportunity to consider a broad range of subjects, including mechanisms of city genesis; urban-rural relations; the intersections of city and state; infrastructures and the politics of place-making; and historical variation in urban landscapes, worldviews, and political economies. Discussion will focus in part on the spatial practices, social inequalities, and political institutions linking ancient urbanism with industrial and post-industrial cities. In turn, an examination of competing theories on capitalist and "postmodern" urbanism is intended to advance our understanding of the distinctive socioeconomic characteristics of pre-modern complex polities.