200.103 (23W) City-making: space, place, and urban futures

Wintersemester 2023/24

Registration deadline has expired.

First course session
09.10.2023 12:00 - 16:00 N.1.04 On Campus
... no further dates known

Overview

Lecturer
Course title german City-making: space, place, and urban futures
Type Seminar (continuous assessment course )
Course model Attendance-based course
Hours per Week 2.0
ECTS credits 4.0
Registrations 4 (35 max.)
Organisational unit
Language of instruction Englisch
Course begins on 09.10.2023
eLearning Go to Moodle course

Time and place

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Course Information

Intended learning outcomes

The course aims to provide insights into how people make places and what cities do with it to create a better future. It proceeds from the theoretical (introduction of the main trajectories and concepts from urban anthropology, anthropology of place and space and anthropology of the future) to the more practical, using case-studies of contemporary urban issues. Students gain understanding of cities as dynamic spaces and can critically asses the interplay of bottom-up practices to top-down interventions which influence the visions of the future. They practice combining key concepts and findings from articles with fieldwork and/or discursive analysis of a city-making practice of their own choice. By presenting their individual research to class, they demonstrate an understanding of the practices that shape contemporary urban life and the ability to analyse and synthesize information from fieldwork, media and academic literature.

Teaching methodology

The course combines lectures and seminars where students discuss selected texts (see literature) and ethnographic films shown in the class. It introduces Edward de Bono’s methods to help students creatively imagine the future of places and phenomena. In the end, they present case-studies of their own choice. The format of the presentation is decided by students in agreement with the lecturer and can range from oral or written presentations to visual narratives. Students are expected to show understanding of basic theoretical approaches and are encouraged to use creative tools for analysis and presentation of their individual research.

Course content

“This Green Capital is my pet hate, I am allergic to it anytime I hear the city calling us to tell them what we are doing,” complained an initiator of a popular plants, crops and food exchange when the city of Ljubljana was heavily promoting its green policies and the European Green Capital Award. What happens when people do not share a vision of the city with the policy-makers? They want to grow food, but the city dictates where and how to do it. They want to socialize in a park, but a parking place is planned there for the near-by shopping mall. They want to use abandoned building for co-working and ateliers, but the city wants to build elite apartments. They advocate for cycling when the city plans the third lane of the central avenue. The course examines the phenomena of urban agriculture, cycling, dwelling, and other cases of place-making, relying on case-studies from the Alps-Adria region and encouraging the discussion of people’s future-thinking and future-making as well as cities’ future-proofing.

Literature

Gulin Zrnić, Valentina. "Ethnological and cultural anthropological approaches to the city: framework of the Zagreb city-making project." Slovensky narodopis 65.2 (2017): 203–221.

Low, Setha M. "The anthropology of cities: Imagining and theorizing the city." Annual review of anthropology 25.1 (1996): 383-409.

Pink, Sarah, and Juan Francisco Salazar. "Anthropologies and futures: Setting the agenda." In: Anthropologies and futures. Routledge (2020), pp. 3–22. 

Ringel, Felix. “Future-Making in Times of Urban Sustainability: Maintenance and Endurance as Progressive Alternatives in the Postindustrial Era.” In: In Search of Lost Futures. Palgrave Macmillan (2021), pp. 129–149.

Rodman, Margaret C. "Empowering place: multilocality and multivocality." American anthropologist 94.3 (1992): 640–656.

Examination information

Im Fall von online durchgeführten Prüfungen sind die Standards zu beachten, die die technischen Geräte der Studierenden erfüllen müssen, um an diesen Prüfungen teilnehmen zu können.

Examination methodology

Presentation of the individual research to class.

Examination topic(s)

Discussed topics.

Assessment criteria / Standards of assessment for examinations

The grade will be based on collaboration in discussions (texts, films, topics), the quality of the analysis of the presented case-study, and the final presentation.

Grading scheme

Grade / Grade grading scheme

Position in the curriculum

  • Master's degree programme Applied Cultural Analysis and Transcultural Studies (SKZ: 842, Version: 22W.1)
    • Subject: Gesellschaft und Kultur verstehen - Konzepte der Kulturanalyse (Compulsory subject)
      • 1.3 Interdisziplinäre Methoden der Kulturanalyse ( 0.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Master's degree programme Applied Cultural Analysis and Transcultural Studies (SKZ: 842, Version: 22W.1)
    • Subject: Gesellschaft und Kultur verstehen (Vertiefung) (Compulsory elective)
      • 5.3 Vertiefung: Interdisziplinäre Methoden der Kulturanalyse ( 0.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Bachelor's degree programme Geography (SKZ: 655, Version: 20W.1)
    • Subject: BW4 Raumplanung und Stadtforschung (Compulsory elective)
      • Raumplanung und Stadtforschung ( 0.0h XX / 10.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 3., 4., 5., 6. Semester empfohlen
  • Bachelor's degree programme Geography (SKZ: 655, Version: 20W.1)
    • Subject: Freie Wahlfächer (Optional subject)
      • Freie Wahlfächer ( 0.0h XX / 9.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 5., 6. Semester empfohlen
  • Bachelor's degree programme English and American Studies (SKZ: 612, Version: 15W.3)
    • Subject: Freie Wahlfächer (Optional subject)
      • Freie Wahlfächer ( 0.0h XX / 20.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
          Absolvierung im 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6. Semester empfohlen
  • Master's degree programme Geography and Regional Studies: Regional Transformations (SKZ: 855, Version: 22W.1)
    • Subject: Freie Wahlfächer (Optional subject)
      • Freie Wahlfächer ( 0.0h XX / 6.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
  • Master's degree programme Visual Culture (SKZ: 655, Version: 18W.2)
    • Subject: Kultur als Zeichensystem (Compulsory elective)
      • 9 Kultur als Zeichensystem ( 0.0h VO, SE, PM, VC, PS, KS, UE / 12.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 6.0 ECTS)
  • Master's degree programme Cross-Border Studies (SKZ: 584, Version: 22W.1)
    • Subject: Angewandte Kulturwissenschaft - 1 (Compulsory elective)
      • I.7.2 SE aus Gesellschaft und Kultur verstehen - Konzepte der Kulturanalyse ( 0.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)
        • 200.103 City-making: space, place, and urban futures (2.0h SE / 4.0 ECTS)

Equivalent courses for counting the examination attempts

This course is not assigned to a sequence of equivalent courses