290011 UE Practical Exercises in Urban Geography and Planning (2025S)

The teaching language of this exercise is English. However, the students are free to provide evidence of performance and contributions to the discussion in German or English.

Cities are increasingly prioritizing resilience policies, strategies, and capacity building initiatives, as they are more frequently faced with entangled social and environmental crises. More specifically, climate change disasters such as floods, heatwaves, and storms, which harm urban infrastructure, disrupt supply chains, and displace inhabitants, often lead to cascading and compounding impacts that amplify, for example, socio-economic and socio-spatial inequalities. Therefore, a key ‘wicked problem’ to be addressed as the world approaches 2 degrees of climate warming, and urban populations grow to reach the expected 8 billion inhabitants by 2050, is how can cities equitably improve their ability to cope with and adapt to disruptions and transform processes and structures which limit current or future adaptive capacities?

Accordingly, this course will delve into urban resilience policies and strategies which are being implemented at varying scales, across sectors, and by a diverse range of actors. Through this investigation, students will learn how to bridge theory and practice, that is, to go from a definition of resilience to operationalizable actions that equitably strengthen short and long-term urban resilience capacities. Moreover, students will develop their critical lens by using the 5 W’s of resilience framework, that is ‘resilience for whom, what, when, where, and why’, which aims to address and overcome power imbalances, trade-offs, and injustices in resilience capacity development. Students will then learn to link urban resilience with concepts regarding spatial and urban planning, relational approaches, and applied spatial research.

After a sound theoretical foundation has been established, students will learn about various research methods, both established and novel, which will enable them to conduct their own urban resilience analysis. More specifically, in groups, students will choose a case study in Vienna and analyze its impact on the development of the city’s urban resilience capacities by using the 5 W’s of resilience framework. This exercise will allow students to put theory into practice, refine their critical lens, and explore the multitude of ways cities can strengthen their resilience capacities in the face of climate, demographic, and social change.