SoSe 2023

Nicht einmal 15 Jahre liegen Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts zwischen deutschem Kaiserreich und Nationalsozialismus. Die von zwei Weltkriegen eingerahmte Zeitspanne, in der erstmals eine Republik in Deutschland entsteht, ist gesellschaftlich hoch aufgeladen und von politischen, kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Umbrüchen und Spannungen gekennzeichnet. Diese Tendenzen verdichten sich nirgends stärker als in den Städten: Die Großstadt wird zu einer zentralen Zeit- und Raumerfahrung, die sämtlichen kulturellen Erscheinungen ihren Stempel aufdrückt: vom Zeitungswesen über Radio und Film bis hin zu Planung, Architektur und Alltagsleben. Rückblickend gerne als „Goldene 20er-Jahre” verklärt oder nostalgisch-frivol als „Tanz auf dem Vulkan” gefeiert, bringt diese Zeit eine große Zahl an Innovationen hervor, die bis heute die Konzeption des modernen Lebens wie selbstverständlich prägen.

In dem Seminar soll diese Epoche mit Fokus auf die Hauptstadt der Weimarer Republik ergründet, indem verschiedene sozio-kulturelle Felder betrachtet werden. Neben Neuerungen des Alltagslebens wie der Emanzipation der Frauen und der Entstehung einer Unterhaltungskultur für breite Bevölkerungsschichten werden Blicke in die Literatur, den Film und die bildende Kunst geworfen, um Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung und Architektur vertiefend einzuordnen. Geplant sind im Rahmen des Seminars, neben der Lektüre von Texten und einem Gastvortrag, selbständige Rechercheaufträge sowie ggf. eine Exkursion nach Berlin.

Southern Urbanism: The southern turn in critical urban studies and planning

 The growing multidisciplinary work of critical urban studies and southern urbanism is increasingly influencing urban governance and planning theory (Parida & Agrawal, 2022). In this context, Satgé and Watson (2018) ask: “how different do planning theory and practice need to be when it happens in different parts of the world?” Moreover, “to what extent does planning require a deep understanding of the context in which it proposes to intervene, and how should this understanding shape what planners do?”. These questions will guide this compact seminar, as we will critically reflect on a crucial point in planning in southern regions, that is, the tendency to “learn” from the Nort-West and export/import place-blind “best-practices” or “traveling planning ideas” (Healey, 2012) across the globe.

It is often assumed that “mainstream global urbanism” might transform postcolonial cities into prosperous centres of global capitalism—according to the neoliberal precept that capitalist market mechanisms, combined with private property and “good governance” constitute the key to prosperity. However, globalisation has also gone hand in hand with growing marginalisation and displacement of large sections of society, mostly—though not only—in countries of the so called “Global South-East”. In this context, Southern scholarship challenges modernization-inspired assumptions and urban governance systems, their embedded planning visions and practices, as well as their underlying knowledge production.

Against this backdrop, this seminar will introduce students to the growing literature on Southern Urbanism and the “southern turn(s)” in critical urban studies and planning—largely influenced by postcolonial and decolonial critiques. Drawing on case-studies from different continents students will learn emerging concepts such as “insurgent citizenship” (Holston, 2007), “insurgent planning” (Miraftab, 2009), “subaltern urbanism” (Roy, 2014; Roy & Ong, 2011), “political society” (Chatterjee, 2004), “calculated informality” (Roy, 2005, 2009), “people as infrastructures” (Simone, 2004, 2021), “pirate towns” (Simone, 2006), and “rogue urbanisms” (Pieterse, 2011; Pieterse & Simone, 2013). These concepts will allow us to reflect on key issues emerging in Southeastern cities (e.g., increasing inequalities and socio-economic exclusions, environmental challenges, segregated and underserviced urban landscapes, but also subaltern agencies, productive networks and alliances); thereby the added value of different disciplinary approaches to understanding contemporary challenges of urbanisation in the “Global South-East” will be highlighted.

Comments

• Language: The seminar will be conducted in English; a willingness to read and communicate in English is expected.
• Structure of the seminar: The seminar will take place in three days: Mo 17.07 / We. 19.07 /  Fr.21.07; Further information and the seminar room will be announced per Moodle.
  

Suggested literature

• Chatterjee, P. (2004). The politics of the governed: reflections on popular politics in most of the world. Columbia University Press.
• Holston, J. (2007). Insurgent Citizenship. Princeton University Press.
• Healey, P. (2012). The universal and the contingent: Some reflections on the transnational flow of planning ideas and practices. Planning Theory, 11(2), 188–207.
• Miraftab, F. (2009). Insurgent Planning: Situating Radical Planning in the Global South. Planning Theory, 8(1), 32–50.
• Parida, D., & Agrawal, S. (2022). Southern urbanism: A systematic review of concepts, debates, and future directions, GeoJournal, 1–22.
• Pieterse, E. (2011). Introduction: rogue urbanisms. Social Dynamics, 37(1), 1–4.
• Pieterse, E., & Simone, A. (Eds.). (2013). Rogue urbanism: Emergent African cities. Jacana media.
• Roy, A. (2014). Worlding the South: toward a post-colonial urban theory. In S. Parnell & S. Oldfield (Eds.), The Routledge handbook on cities of the global south (pp. 31–42). Routledge.
• Roy, A., & Ong, A. (Eds.). (2011). Worlding cities: Asian experiments and the art of being global. John Wiley & Sons.
• Satgé, R. de, & Watson, V. (2018). Urban Planning in the Global South: Conflicting Rationalities in Contested Urban Space. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Simone, A. (2021). Ritornello: “People as Infrastructure”. Urban Geography, 42(9), 1341–1348.
• Simone, A. (2006). Pirate towns: Reworking social and symbolic infrastructures in Johannesburg and Douala. Urban Studies, 43(2), 357-370.
• Simone, A. (2004). People as infrastructure: Intersecting fragments in Johannesburg. Public Culture, 16(3), 407–429.
• Yiftachel, O., & Mammon, N. (Eds.). (2022). theoriSE: Debating the southeastern turn in urban theories. African Centre for Cities.