Reclaim the city is one of the recent calls for an old phenomenon: The demand of people to appropriate, organize and form (parts) of their city. In this context a wide range of ideas are used and reused recently in theory and practice: Participation is becoming a mega trend in planning, inclusion is the one debate in social sciences and community building a popular strategy more and more used in developing neighbourhoods. Nowadays even new trends can be recognized: The times of climate change and rising rents brings up ideas of urban commons, cultural heritage is more and more approached as a multilayered asset and urban interventions challenge uses and shapes of public spaces.

In the Summer School 2014 we want to understand which are Berlin’s urban resources and how they are used for what purpose. Under other, we will have a look at abandoned areas, heritage sites and public spaces in the city. Perspectives from different academic disciplines will be discussed, activists as well as their practices will be introduced and the city of Berlin will be explored.