This seminar combines approaches from urban and architectural history and theory in order to investigate the complexity of the built environment in the long 20th century. Starting in the late colonial period, moving on to the ruptures of decolonisation and changing spatial orders of the Cold War, the seminar will also examine how the legacies of these governance regimes continue to shape cities today. Aiming to challenge the entrenched positionalities of Eurocentric research traditions, the regional focus is shifted to the so-called "Global South" (as contrasted with "Global North"). Over the course of three full-day meetings, several themes and topics shall be discussed with reference to different temporal frameworks and geographical scales, such as:
- development and implementation of colonial urban policies/ processes of spatial segregation/decolonisation;
- circulation of planning knowledge and practices;
- globalisation of construction industries;
- discourses on tropical architecture;
- conflicts related to urban/architectural heritage.
Thus, by investigating flows of ideas and know-how, labour or capital, the material history of globalisation shall be traced by the students. The main goal of the course is to develop a critical reflection on the processes shaping the built environment and to analyse them from different viewpoints (e.g. material culture studies, postcolonial theories).
In the first meeting students will choose the topics of their assignment (presentations of max. 20 minutes) which will be delivered and discussed in the meetings in January. Own suggestions for topics are encouraged.
Because the number of participants is limited to 10 for this physical block seminar, if you are inte-rested, please submit a short letter of motivation (max. 300 words in English or German) to monika.motylinska@leibniz-irs.de until 28 October 2020, 12pm (noon), indicating your matriculation number. Should the pandemic situation worsen, the seminar will take place online on given dates. |
