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58597-01 - Course: Material Investigations (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Every fall sem. |
| Lecturers | Diogo Emanuel Pereira Faria (diogo.faria@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The process of urbanization is not only an economic, social, and political process, but also a transformation in "bricks and mortar." While understanding urbanisation as a dynamic process, social sciences often tend to regard the built environment as a passive reflection or side-effect of economic, social and political forces. Yet the city both shapes and is shaped by the production, circulation, consumption of materials and things, from gold to waste, from oranges to cell phones. Buildings and streets shape not only meanings and experiences, but also social identities and cultural differences; contextualising their urban role means also to address their material characters, in order to better understand their social meaning. This course introduces and explores material investigations as a method to analyze, uncover, and learn from the material dimension of the urban spaces we inhabit. Together we will question the places we move through, inhabit, and often overlook in everyday life, by bringing our attention to the materials that compose the streets, buildings, and surfaces around us. What are these materials? What histories, presents, and futures do they carry? And what do they tell us about the lives lived in and around them? As an attempt to answer these questions, the seminar draws on diverse intellectual traditions: from new materialism and actor-network theory to archaeology, sensory ethnography, and critical heritage studies, as well as theories of embodied experience, and the politics of space. Our principal focus is to relate these theoretical debates to concrete spaces and materials in the city. Each session is divided into two parts: the first is dedicated to collective discussion of the assigned readings; the second focuses on in-class tasks. Students will be asked to work on two main exercises: one is developed individually, while the other is a collective effort. The first exercise is a “material biography”, a critical text that analyses one material found in the city of Basel, its current uses, past histories and imagined futures. The second is the realization of a collective mixed-media collage, produced in groups of 4–5 students. Groups will organize around shared or adjacent material interests emerging from their individual projects. The collage should critically bring together the materials each student has identified across the city, weaving individual research threads into a collective argument about Basel's material landscape. |
| Learning objectives | • An understanding of different approaches to the material analysis of cities and landscapes • The ability to analyze materials, buildings, and environments not simply as static objects, but as dynamic agents that constantly shape and reshape the spaces we inhabit • An awareness of how urban materiality operates differently across bodies, and a critical vocabulary for analyzing whose experiences, histories, and futures are encoded in, or excluded from, the built environment • Familiarity with key intellectual traditions in material urban research, including new materialism, actor-network theory, sensory ethnography, and critical heritage studies, as well as theories of embodied experience, affect, and the politics of space • The capacity to develop a collaborative creative project, across media and formats, that integrates theoretical frameworks with hands-on material practice, understood as a form of situated, positioned knowledge-making. |
| Comments | This course is on a first come first serve basis with Master Students of Critical Urbanisms and Changing Societies being prioritized over students from other subject areas. Max. capacity 20. |
| Admission requirements | This course is on a first come first serve basis with Master Students of Critical Urbanisms being prioritized over students from other subject areas. |
| Course application | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 21.09.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 28.09.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 05.10.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 12.10.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 19.10.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 26.10.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 02.11.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 09.11.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 16.11.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 23.11.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 30.11.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 07.12.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Monday 14.12.2026 | 16.15-18.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 103 |
| Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Methodenkenntnisse MA (Master's degree subject: Science of Religion) Modul: Materialitäten (Master's degree program: Cultural Techniques) Module: Ways of Knowing the City (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Urban Studies |