Urban Territories 2: Designing Urban Research

After practicing a repertoire of methods in Urban Territories I, the course Urban Territories II: Designing Urban Research will expand students’ methodological toolbox and fieldwork research. The aim is to encourage the confident handling of the various methods and their interconnection. The focus will be on the interdisciplinary discussion of current approaches in qualitative urban research and the development of a coherent research design in relation to the annual theme and to the project in UDP2 as part of the annual theme “Sensing Zones”. The course Urban Territories II will take place weekly.

In an alternating rhythm of a three-hour lecture with practical elements and a two-hour seminar, practice-oriented theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the scientific exploration of social spaces are elaborated. The lecture introduces and discusses the different main topics based on the students' reading and exemplary interpretations. The seminar serves to deepen the respective contents, conduct research in the field, and interpret the collected materials.

We will concentrate on the following methodological approaches: Experimental and Critical zones, Sensory knowledge designs, Collective Healing, Playful knowledge productions, Speculative knowledge productions, Actor-Network-Methodologies and Un/Commoning, Collaborative knowledge productions, and a Re-accessing of Grounded-Theory Process by deepening the skills of Situational Analysis.