240093 SE Gardening together, growing together (P4) (2015S)
Urban gardening as possibility for socio-cultural integration and/or "new identities"?
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Participation at first session is obligatory!
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Su 01.02.2015 00:01 to Su 22.02.2015 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Su 15.03.2015 23:59
Details
max. 40 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Friday 06.03. 15:00 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
- Friday 20.03. 15:00 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
- Friday 17.04. 15:00 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
- Friday 29.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
- Friday 19.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
- Friday 26.06. 09:45 - 13:00 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Urban gardening has been rising in Vienna in the last years, as elsewhere in major urban areas all over the world. Nowadays, urban gardening has many faces, such as "green care", gardens for educational purposes, guerrilla gardening and private gardening. In this course we will focus specifically on community gardening as a possibility for socio-cultural integration.
Assessment and permitted materials
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
In this seminar students are invited to explore some of the socio-cultural implications connected to community gardening and try to find answers to questions such as:
- In which ways does urban gardening connect people of different gender, generation, social and ethnic background and what are the consequences?
- How do urban gardeners appropriate different spaces and make them into planted places? Which notions of "public" and "private" are connected to this?
- Which values and forms of behaviour towards plants, animals (both "friends" and "foes" of the plants) and other people are communicated in urban gardening?
- Which notions of growth, life and death are expressed in gardening? Are these connected to religious or spiritual ideas and practices?
- In which respect does urban gardening create conflicts (among the gardeners or between gardeners and non-gardeners)?
- And, last but not least, does urban gardening create "new identities" in urban areas?
The seminar gives students a chance to plan, carry out and evaluate an empirical anthropological research project in small research teams on a sub-topic of urban gardening of their choice.
- In which ways does urban gardening connect people of different gender, generation, social and ethnic background and what are the consequences?
- How do urban gardeners appropriate different spaces and make them into planted places? Which notions of "public" and "private" are connected to this?
- Which values and forms of behaviour towards plants, animals (both "friends" and "foes" of the plants) and other people are communicated in urban gardening?
- Which notions of growth, life and death are expressed in gardening? Are these connected to religious or spiritual ideas and practices?
- In which respect does urban gardening create conflicts (among the gardeners or between gardeners and non-gardeners)?
- And, last but not least, does urban gardening create "new identities" in urban areas?
The seminar gives students a chance to plan, carry out and evaluate an empirical anthropological research project in small research teams on a sub-topic of urban gardening of their choice.
Examination topics
Students will carry out explorative empirical research in small groups among different urban gardeners in Vienna over the course of the spring term. They will develop their research questions, carry out background research, formulate hypotheses, find adequate research methods such as participant observation, photo elicitation, one-to-one interviews and group interviews. (I will help students find institutions and groups where they can carry out research in English and/or other languages than German, if necessary.) They will analyse their data and present their findings in innovative formats.
The seminar is highly interactive. We will shift between plenary sessions, work in small groups and individual work. The exact time schedule is communicated to the students at the beginning of the seminar. Based on the premise that students and lecturer form a community of research and learning, a special focus is put on a) constructive criticism of each other’s work and b) on the evaluation of the seminar (reflective paper on one seminar session, short feedback sessions at the end of most seminars, final seminar evaluation).
The seminar is highly interactive. We will shift between plenary sessions, work in small groups and individual work. The exact time schedule is communicated to the students at the beginning of the seminar. Based on the premise that students and lecturer form a community of research and learning, a special focus is put on a) constructive criticism of each other’s work and b) on the evaluation of the seminar (reflective paper on one seminar session, short feedback sessions at the end of most seminars, final seminar evaluation).
Reading list
Conan Michael (1999), "From Vernacular Gardens to a Social Anthropology of Gardening" in: Perspectives on Garden Histories, www.doaks.org/etexts.html
Reynolds Richard (2008), On Guerrilla Gardening. A Handbook for Gardening without Boundaries. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Stephen L., Jean J. Schensul, Margaret Diane LeCompte, 1999, Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews and Questionnaires, Sage: Thousand Oaks. Spradley James
Reynolds Richard (2008), On Guerrilla Gardening. A Handbook for Gardening without Boundaries. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC.
Stephen L., Jean J. Schensul, Margaret Diane LeCompte, 1999, Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews and Questionnaires, Sage: Thousand Oaks. Spradley James
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:39