Parapolis

Approximately 1.7 million people currently live in Hamburg. 31% of these Hamburg residents statistically have a background of migration. In addition, in 2013, 5.8 million tourists entered the city, 325,000 people commute to Hamburg in a day-to-day basis, and there is also a growing number of refugees waiting in cramped lodgings for the outcome of their asylum proceedings. Who is where and when a resident? Who is a citizen? How is this loose connection gathered, prepared and negotiated with the name “Hamburg”? This year’s research focus examines the urban reality of translocal relationships and considers the city as a highly complex structure of increasing migration, escape, tourism, and commuter traffic, “the shape of the city can only by vaguely recognized and defined [. ..].” (Terkessidis 2010). “Parapolis” was the name given to this “much or minor city” by Mark Terkessidis and compares it to the constructed notion of a “European City” as a definable cultural unity. In analytical consideration we will learn to recognize and describe, to select and glean, the physical arrangements and materiality, the actors, practices and various places, and the complex spaces and rhythms, and to gather them together in a “Parapolis Atlas.”