Western societies need to make a rapid shift towards greater sustainability, also referred to as sustainability transitions. These processes have important spatial dimensions. Cities and urban agglomerations play a prominent role in this process, as they are not only major contributors to the current state of unsustainability, but also the places where change is likely to happen. According to the so-called multi-level perspective, change often starts in small niches and then expands to the level of technological and political regimes. Such niche activities can also be called real-world laboratories, urban living labs or experiments.
The overall aim of this course is to examine the spatial dimensions
of the current socio-ecological crisis as well as the implications of
the urgently needed socio-ecological transformations for cities,
landscapes and regions. Specifically, students will be introduced to
different aspects of sustainability labs and experiments in urban,
regional and landscape planning.
The seminar consists of three parts. In the first part, the notions of planetary boundaries, Anthropocene, sustainability transitions, transformations, living labs, etc. are introduced through lectures and group discussions. The second part is dedicated to student presentations based on 1-2 international journal articles each. These will cover topics such as
- Scaling and rescaling of niche experiments,
- Participation and social selectivity,
- Power in transformation processes, and
- Success factors and enabling conditions.
Finally, in the third part, students are to prepare small case studies. In doing so, connections are to be made between the findings from the international journal articles and existing transition labs in Kassel or other places.
Students are expected to (a) complete a small assignment related to the introductory lectures, (b) give an oral presentation on a specific aspect of the overall topic, (c) engage with the Kassel case, (d) write a small report (no more than 10 pages each) and, above all, (e) actively participate in class discussions.
The course will be held in English. However, depending on the composition of the group, participants may also take part in German.