UNCERTAINTY – TEMPORALITY, PUBLIC SPACE & INEQUALITY

In dialogue with the annual theme “(The) Urban Unknown – Planning in Times of Uncertainty”, this seminar critically engages with discourses on temporality, public space and inequality: Building on the Transformations I module, we mobilize theoretical and historical knowledges and approaches from the field of urban studies.
Based mainly on the academic disciplines of critical urban geography, planning theory, and urban sociology, the module has three key aims. First, it gives students from different undergraduate studies a collective background to navigate the interdisciplinary academic field of urban studies. The close reading, written reflection and commenting of key texts in the seminar allows students to bring their specific understandings of urban theories and concepts to class and thus puts their preconceptions on ‘the table’. In addition, the presentations allow connecting those concepts to spatial, urban realities.
The second aim of the module is to supports students in developing their academic reading and writing skills. This refers to not only reading and analyzing academic texts. Students will prepare position papers and a final essay, preceded by an abstract.
The third aim of the module is rather an aspiration: to make theoretical thinking part of the toolbox for students of urban design beyond the theory class. It is set out to collectively recognise that urban transformations are always led by assumptions around what ‘the good city’ is. Thus, if we want to study and contribute to the transformation of cities we need to choose specific knowledges to build upon.