Urban Activism in Berlin - Detailseite

ECTS Points: 5

Language requirements: min. English B2

Berlin has a multi-layered and contradictory landscape; high-rise buildings and gated communities next to squats, dense urban areas next to a huge urban park, etc. Over the course of the 1990s and 2000s, over 50 percent of the city’s public housing stock has been sold to private investors and the city has become a highly desirable destination for international property investment (Holm 2007). The lack of affordable housing and a rise in the speculative real-estate market spur new discussions about gentrification. Meanwhile, inhabitants and newcomers fight for their rights in the city. The focal point of this course is an examination of the changes associated with urban development in Berlin and “counter actions” as urban social movements. This interdisciplinary course explores urban activism in Berlin through several lenses, including: housing, urban environmental activism, community gardening and political power relations in the city. From the perspective of urban activism, this course offers an analysis of the origin, context, and structure of theory of right to the city, urban commons, social justice, participation, grassroot organizing, and urban development policy. Within the broad theme of “urban activism”, the course focuses on the ways in which neighbourhood/inhabitant experiences and citizens’ e orts collide to produce different forms of resistance within Berlin’s political sphere.

Harvey, David. “Henri Lefebvre’s Vision.” Chap. Preface In Rebel Cities: From the City to the Urban Revolution. 1-25. London, New York: Verso, 2012

Purcell, Mark. “Possible Worlds: Henri Lefebvre and The Right to the City”. Journal of Urban Affairs, 36 (1), 141-154, 2014.

Brenner, N. & Elden, S. Introduction. In N. Brenner and S. Elden (Eds.), State, space, world: Selected essays by Henri Lefebvre (pp. 1–48). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Sennett, Richard. “The Open City.” In The Endless City, edited by Ricky Burdett and Dejan Sudjic. 290-297. London: Phaidon 2008.

Ipsen, Detlev. “The Socio-spatial Conditions of the Open City: A Theoretical Sketch.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.” 29, no. 1, 644-53, 2005.

Allon, Fiona. “Litter and Monuments Rights to the City in Berlin and Sydney” Space and Culture, 16, no: 3, page(s): 252-260, September 2013

Castells, Manuel (1983): The City and the Grassroots, Berkeley, Los Angeles.

Harvey, David. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in Social Justice and the City, Second Edition. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011.

Miessen, M. & Basar, S.(Ed.) Did someone sad participation?, MIT Press, 2006.

Holm, A. & Kuhn, A. “Squatting and Urban Renewal: The Interaction of Squatter Movements and Strategies of Urban Restructuring in Berlin”, in: International Journal for Urban and Regional Research (IJURR), 35. Jg, Nr. 3, S. 644-658, 2011.

Novy, J. and Colomb, C., Struggling for the Right to the (Creative) City in Berlin and Hamburg: New Urban Social Movements, New ‘Spaces of Hope’?. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37: 1816–1838. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01115.x, 2013.

Vasudevan, Alexander, Metropolitan Preoccupations: The Spatial Politics of Squatting in Berlin. Wiley-Blackwell, 2015

Wunder, Stephanie. Learning for Sustainable Agriculture: Urban Gardening in Berlin. Support and Learning of Innovation for Sustainable Agriculture (SOLINSA), 2013.

Endlicher, Wilfried (Ed.) Perspectives in Urban Ecology: Ecosystems and Interactions between Humans and Nature in the Metropolis of Berlin, Springer, 2011.

Actors of Urban Change, Urban Change Newspaper Nr. 3, Robert Bosch Stiftung in Cooperation with Mitost E.V.

Borch C. & Kornberger M. Urban Commons: Rethinking the City. Routledge, 2015

Colomb, Claire. “ ‘DIY urbanism’ in Berlin: Dilemmas and conflicts in the mobilization of ‘temporary uses’ of urban space in local economic development” Paper presented ‘Transience and Permanence in Urban Development’ University of Sheffield, 14-15 January 2015.

Butler Judith. “Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street.” Vienna: European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies, 2011.

Evers, A. & Ewert, B. “How to approach social innovations. Lessons from Berlin.” Paper presented at the 1 st International Conference on Public Policy, 26-28 June, Grenoble, 2013.

Hauptmann, D. & Neidich W. (Ed.) Cognitive Architecture. From Biopolitics to NooPolitics. 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2010.

Batty, M; Axhausen, KW; Giannotti, F; Pozdnoukhov, A; Bazzani, A; Wachowicz, M & Ouzounis, G. “Smart cities of the future.” The European Physical Journal Special Topics , 214 (1) pp. 481-518, 2012.

Komninos N., Pallot M. & Schaffers H. Special Issue on Smart Cities and the Future Internet in Europe. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Volume 4, Issue 2, pp 119–134, June 2013.

This seminar carries 5 ECTS.

For international incoming students and HU students.

Language requirements English B2 minimum.

NO registration via Agnes.

Application via Berlin Perspectives ONLY: BP Module application

Internationale Programmstudierende / International exchange students.

HU-Studierende im ÜWP.