Along selected "classical" texts we want to trace and comprehend different lines of development of an anthropology in/of the city and (try to) connect them to one another: How is the city conceptualised wihthin different schools or lines of thought?Central to this text-based seminar are questions about the (possibility of) sensory experience in and of the city, the production of symbolic and social spaces and milieus, effects of processes of political negotiations and entanglements. Which are the possibilities and constraints of ethnographic approaches and representation?The seminar does not require previous knowledge on the subject, but will ask students to be well prepared in terms of weekly reading and occasionally writing reading notes. Joint readings will be complemented by short inputs of additional texts. The seminar will take place in English if there is at least one non-German speaker in the room. Most of the literature is in English in any case.
Takes place in the framework of the regular study program at the Institut for European Ethnology, ÜWPstudents can additionally take part.
Simmel, Georg (1903): The metropolism and mental life.Park, Robert E.; Burgess, Ernest W. (1984 [1925]): The City. Suggestions for Investigation of Human Behavior in the Urban Environment.Hannerz, Ulf (1980): Exploring the City. Inquiries Toward an Urban Anthropology.Sassen, Saskia (1991): The Global City. New York, London, Tokyo.Welz, Gisela (1991): Street Life. Alltag in einem New Yorker Slum. Low, Setha; Taplin, Dana; Scheld, Suzanne (2005): Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural DiversityFarías, Ignacio; Bender, Thomas (Eds.) (2009): Urban Assemblages. How Actor-Network Theory Changes Urban Studies.and more…
The seminar takes place at the Institute for European Ethnology, Mohrenstraße 41, room 312.
