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74784-01 - Seminar: Urban Complexity: Asian and Rhineland Perspectives (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Jérémie Frédéric Descamps (jeremiefrederic.descamps@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | From Asia to Europe, from China to Switzerland, from Shanghai to Basel, urban construction and, by extension, the city, are escaping from those who occupy it, practice it and live in it. Object of large-scale financial speculation, real-estate deals, political springboards, demographic strategies and resource pre-emption, the city is at the mercy of what French geographer Michel Lussault calls the operators of geopower (a notion borrowed from Foucault's biopower), who are constantly trying to monopolize it. The result is an inhospitable, infinite and expensive urban environment that distances the city from the common good it is supposed to serve. Worse still, the hypothesis that global urbanization is a major player in the Anthropocene (the era when humans become a geological force in their own right), but also a blind spot in its analysis, now seems very real. Thus, this course postulates that the city, with all its defining attributes, is in the process of turning against itself, as if in a senseless gesture: it is now faced with a more complex and uncertain urban, a notion that we will also have to define. How to navigate this new globalized urban complexity, based on contextual situations, is the overall ambition of the seminar. The course is divided into three parts, which should be seen as a journey, with all the questions, forks and ramifications that this entails. The aim of the seminar is, firstly, to introduce master’s students to the rise of contemporary Chinese and Asian cities as a possible “non-democratic genesis of the city”, as formulated by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, a momentum that is taking place in the context of accelerated and compressed urbanization, particularly after the 1980s in China. China's rapid urbanization poses a challenge, not to say a risk, not only to the sustainable development of its territories, but also to the fight against global climate change. The increasingly intense metabolization of our Western urban models, with their “sinicization” in China's particular case, should not, however, blind us to a sensitive urban planning culture that has been rooted for three millennia, and which certain actors outside the spheres of the party-state—intellectuals, academics, architects, journalists, artists, inhabitants, netizens—are keen to revive, precisely to combat the deregulated urban. This intensity of development has generated new ways of making the city and different urban forms that cohabit altogether, leading to an urban complexity which we will decipher. Secondly, drawing on experiences in China and the Rhineland, the era of complex space and multiple transitions calls for an in-depth renewal of the ways in which knowledge about cities and territories is built up and disseminated. The dissemination of urbanism knowledge must be strengthened, not only for professionals, but also for inhabitants who are often excluded from the processes of discussion, decision-making and the creation of space. The public's role as a countervailing power is also the guarantee of a sustainable transition of territories, in line with local needs, resources, uses, or habits. At a microscopic level, thirdly, this era also implies a renewal of the forms of investigation used by urbanists, to better reveal the sensitive character of the urban, as a counterweight to the dominant technicist and standardized approaches to the city. In this respect, approaches that hybridize art and the humanities and social sciences, and research-creation applied to the field of urbanism, are a serious avenue for in-depth analysis of sensitive representations of the urban. Basel and the Dreiland region, located on either sides of the Rhine and renowned for its subtle complexity, is a fantastic field for exploration and experimentation. The course thus comprises three distinct but interrelated parts: the first introduces the rise, models and challenges of contemporary Asian and Chinese cities (Asia and China: a non-democratic genesis of the city? - 6 weeks /12 hours); the second focuses on the tools needed to build a culture of the urban through informing the public (The urbanist is an informant - 4 weeks / 8 hours); the final part looks at art-science practices and research-creation as new approaches to urban planning research and practices (Investigating the urban with the image - 4 weeks / 8 hours). |
| Learning objectives | The seminar is structured around three main objectives: • To develop knowledge of the global production of the city through the approach from Asia and China. More specifically, describe Chinese urban policies and observe the articulations of the triptych Urbanization-Cities-Projects and its effects on territories and populations. Learn to differentiate concepts, such as city / town / urban; urbanism / urban planning; urbanism / urban studies; place; urbanity... (constructivist geography approach). • To develop the ability to inform oneself and others about the city. How to disseminate a new urbanism culture and for what purposes; which dissemination tools to develop, from current media (exhibitions, debates, etc.) to ICTs; cultural and scientific information watch, Web publication: how to organize urban information. Making your own media from Dreiland (practical session). • To develop the ability to research and creatively analyze the urban. New “art-science” and “research-creation” approaches in humanities and social sciences applied to urban issues. Visual and artistic collaborations and devices: experimenting in the Dreiland (practical session). |
| Bibliography | A selective bibliography will be provided during the first lecture. Texts as well as interviews and film extracts will also be discussed during sessions. |
| Comments | Open to MA students from other programs with the priority for CU and CS MA students on timely registration. |
| Admission requirements | register - de-register |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 17.02.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 24.02.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 03.03.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 10.03.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Fasnachstferien |
| Monday 17.03.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 24.03.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 31.03.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 07.04.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 14.04.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 21.04.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Ostern |
| Monday 28.04.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 05.05.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 12.05.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 19.05.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Monday 26.05.2025 | 14.15-16.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 106 |
| Modules |
Modul: Materialitäten (Master's degree program: Cultural Techniques) Module: Europeanization and Globalization (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Module: Migration, Mobility and Transnationalism (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | pass/fail |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Urban Studies |