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How public is public?

Urban Studies

Urban Studies

Urban public space has become one, by several actors hotly contested resource. In this struggle, a new understanding...

Urban public space has become one, by several actors hotly contested resource. In this struggle, a new understanding of the legitimacy of the control over this resource emerged, which points also to the changing ideas about public sphere and public space. Today new forms and acts of participation of different actors are noticeable in urban public space and the same time an increasing questioning of the legitimacy of state control and/or violence can be observed. These new forms of access and resistance are nowadays more and more related to global and transnational emergent discourses, practices and experiences.
Every place in Berlin has a story to tell, and yet this capital is one of the most open to continuous changes and regeneration challenging the present and the past. It has repeatedly undergone rapid changes due to its political history throughout the past 100 years up to the present day, expanding, growing, suffering destruction, shrinking or being regenerated by planned or intended programmes.
Berlin is not one city, but lots of cities constituted by various fragments, partly interwoven and partly polarized in its social, historical, political, economic and formal dimensions.
With the participation of professors, researchers, and activists in social, political, urban, and economic fields, the course will study the intertwined visions of Berlin's urban challenges, examining different concepts of urban development. Readings, site visits, urban explorations, interviews with stakeholders and media wills support lectures and debates. Participants will be invited to draft a report and an essay on a specific topic discussed during the summer school, taking advantage of different forms of media according to their individual interests.

The course will study the intertwined visions of Berlin's urban challenges, examining different concepts of urban development. In the summer school 2013 we want to examine and discuss Berlin’s urban spaces understanding: how public is public?

 Lessons and excursions are from 9.00am – 3.00 pm; furthermore own study is requested.