What does it mean to be "urban" - is it enough to live in a city? What is the "European City"? Is the city losing its role as an economic and cultural centre in the process of globalization? How can we "read" a city? What role does urban culture play in urban systems - indicator or instigator of key developments? Based on selected classic and recent texts as well as visual material such as maps and photographs, the course provides an overview of key issues in urban geography, urban sociology, urban cultural studies and points out their interdisciplinary interfaces with urban economics, urban planning, urban management as well as urban technology.
Under the headings of "Form and Urban Space", "Economy, Functions and Urban Space" and "Urban Social Life, Urban Culture and Urban Space", we will introduce key issues in urban studies from a distinctly spatial perspective. These discussions will be complemented by an overview of classic definitions of urbanity and urbanism.
The course will equip students with the necessary foundations and frame of reference for further interdisciplinary urban studies.
A reader containing most texts to be discussed will be available in the copy-shop Reckhammerweg from early October. Further texts will be proved electronically in the course of the semester.
For the first session, participants are expected to have read the first text in the reader. |
