Universität Wien

240527 SE The City and its Discontents (P4) (2022S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Continuous assessment of course work

Participation at first session is obligatory!

The lecturer can invite students to a grade-relevant discussion about partial achievements. Partial achievements that are obtained by fraud or plagiarized result in the non-evaluation of the course (entry 'X' in certificate). The plagiarism software 'Turnitin' will be used for courses with continuous assessment.
Moodle

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).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Update 23.02.2022: The course terminates already at 1pm on March 30th.

If possible, the course is to be conducted in presence. Due to the respective applicable distance regulations and other measures, adjustments may be made.

  • Wednesday 30.03. 11:30 - 13:00 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Wednesday 06.04. 11:30 - 14:45 Übungsraum (A414) NIG 4. Stock
  • Tuesday 26.04. 11:30 - 14:45 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
  • Tuesday 10.05. 11:30 - 14:45 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
  • Tuesday 24.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum A, NIG 4. Stock
  • Wednesday 08.06. 11:30 - 14:45 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Wednesday 22.06. 11:30 - 14:45 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

City life is regulated by various ideas, norms, rules, and projects. This class will focus on how these ideas, norms, and rules are politically and legally contested by a myriad of actors and institutions operating at different scales. We will use sites of contention as lenses to look into the complex entanglements between power, inequality, rights, and legality and the interconnected relations of dispossession and accumulation in cities. Who owns the cities? Who moves in the city? Who has the right to be represented, and how? Who are the actors that contest and challenge the status quo in cities? Through which methods and discourses? With such questions, the course intends to foster a critical engagement with the role of law in urban politics in both preserving and contesting inequalities and the relations between right-claiming and city-making.

The sources we discuss vary from sociology and history, ethnography, political economy, and geography. In the end, students will reflect on the potential of an anthropological perspective to analyze the contention and the discourses around the right to the city.

At the end of the course, the students will

1) Gain theoretical insight about the concepts of “right to the city” and “political contention,”
2) Be reflexive about how they can put law and legality to work in their urban research agenda in a critical and empirically grounded way to identify and understand the actors of political contention,
3) Advance their own research agendas through readings, presentations, and in-class discussion of personal projects.

Assessment and permitted materials

This is a seminar course in which the active participation of students in discussions is essential.

Each student is expected to come to class prepared (having read the assigned material) with 2-4 clearly articulated questions to be debated collectively. Questions will be uploaded on Moodle one day before each meeting.

In addition to writing a final paper, throughout the semester, students are expected to present one article and act as a discussant to a presentation by another student.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

This course is intended for graduate students who have a research project or research plan on the above-mentioned political and social processes in cities and a commitment to advance their engagement with these topics with the help of a case study through the class. Familiarity with the field of urban studies is not a requirement but would facilitate class participation.

The breakdown of grading is as follows:
Presentations 30%
Questions and participation 30 %
Final Paper 40 %

To pass the course, a minimum of 61 points is required.
91-100 = 1, excellent
81-90 = 2, good
71-80 = 3, satisfactory
61-70 = 4, sufficient
0-60 = 5, fail.

Attendance at the first meeting is mandatory. Students may miss only one session without an excuse.

Failure to submit a final paper will result in a failing grade.

Examination topics

Submission of a final paper, presentation of a chosen article, oral discussion of a preferred article through a case study, discussion questions, active participation in class discussions through a critical engagement with the mandatory readings.

Reading list

The complete reading list will be uploaded on Moodle by the beginning of class. Students can expect at least two readings per class meeting. Examples include:

Goldstein, D. 2012. Outlawed: Between Security and Rights in a Bolivian City. Durham: Duke University Press.
Sassen, S. 2014. Expulsions. Harvard University Press.
Wilde, M. 2022. Eviction, Gatekeeping and Militant Care: Moral Economies of Housing in Austerity London. Ethnos, 87(1), 22–41.
Meskell, L. 2018. A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Fr 18.03.2022 00:06