| Beschreibung |
This seminar invites students to delve into the socio-political and economic processes and power arrangements that shape contemporary city-making. We will do so by focussing on conflicts around urban (re-)development projects in different European cities (and beyond). Urban conflicts are promising entry points to engage with topical trends and challenges in contemporary cities, such as the crisis of democracy and neoliberal city-making, urban identities or urban heritage. Based on mandatory common readings and student presentations we will explore different theoretical and methodological approaches to study urban conflicts. Doing so we will shed light, amongst other, on the key actors from different scales and domains as they pursue their distinct, often contradictory interests, on the unequal power relations involved as well as on the effects of these power struggles and their (un-)intended outcomes. During the seminar the students will also apply the acquired theoretical-analytical tools for analysing selected urban conflicts. In so doing they can experiment with and test the approaches in research practice. By discussing conflicts from different European and non-European contexts we will seek to identify common trends, similarities and differences in contemporary urban development.
The seminar will be carried out fully online (via moodle): mandatory readings and presentations will be uploaded and discussed in chat rooms; conflict analysis will be carried out individually through online analysis (e.g. public media, social media platforms, policy documents, skype interviews etc.); individual and group consultations will take place with the help of big blue button; final submission via email. |
