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80556-01 - Course: From Rupture to Relation - Engineering Possibilities in the Afropolis (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers |
Adam Hearn (adam.hearn@unibas.ch)
Yassine Rachidi |
| Content | “If you make a motor turn in reverse, you do not break it: you build a refrigerator.” - Michel Serres, The Parasite (1980) African cities are routinely described as unsustainable: public infrastructure falters, services are patchy, governance is uneven and formal planning often fails to reach the people it claims to serve. Mainstream sustainability discourse often responds with imported technologies and calls for resilience that leave existing power structures intact. Yet, to see this as a mere dysfunction is to miss the generative possibilities that are embedded in failure. When things break down, new innovations and solutions arise; new forms of life emerge. Where the state does not provide, dwellers not only adapt, but they also invent. This course, proposes a comprehensive study of different forms of dysfunction in African cities where failure and decay are not just the flip side to progress but, rather, offer an opening or rupture into alternative material relations and imaginings. Inspired by Achille Mbembe's invitation to "write Africa from its wounds," this course will retrace the continent's fractured yet generative urban trajectories, attending to the ways political dysfunction and infrastructure failure have produced alternative ways of knowing the city. It interrogates the epistemic value and material conditions through which African cities are continually produced, drawing from a range of fields: design study, social anthropology, urban theory and postcolonial theory. The course is structured around seminars, collective discussions and group presentations. In order to connect theoretical and abstract concepts to real-world experience, we will invite guest lecturers and discuss practical case studies. The role of the case study as a tangible counterpoint to theoretical concepts, is a fundamental learning instrument of this course. Students are therefore invited to contribute to the range of case studies by identifying, either individually or in a group, a example of failed infrastructure in and around the city of Basel, which will serve as a focus for their final presentation. |
| Learning objectives | • To develop an analytical and contemplative reading of African cities in their current form. • To reflect on how urban research relates to ongoing processes of city-making and future-making life in Africa. • To introduce students to “failure” as a productive concept, and how infrastructural failure can generate grassroots low-carbon innovations. • The course fosters interdisciplinary dialogue by integrating insights from design study, anthropology, energy study and sustainability science. |
| Comments | The course is open to Master students from other programs with a priority for MA Students in Critical Urbanisms and in Changing Societies on timely registration. Max. capacity 20. |
| Admission requirements | register / deregister |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Module: Core Competences in Social Sciences (Master's Studies: Sustainable Development (Start of studies before 01.08.2026)) Module: Fields: Governance and Politics (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) Module: Topics and Methods in Sustainable Development: Social Sciences (Master's Studies: Sustainable Development) |
| 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 |