"Kinder sollen nicht dem gegenwärtigen, sondern dem zukünftig möglich bessern Zustande des menschlichen Geschlechts, das ist: der Idee der Menschheit und deren ganzer Bestimmung angemessen, erzogen werden. Dieses Prinzip ist von großer Wichtigkeit. Eltern erziehen gemeiniglich ihre Kinder nur so, daß sie in die gegenwärtige Welt, sey sie auch verderbt, passen. Sie sollten sie aber besser erziehen, damit ein zukünftiger besserer Zustand dadurch hervorgebracht werde."
Kant, Imanuel, Über Pädagogik. (1803) S. 17
"It¿s Difficult to Make Predictions, Especially About the Future"
Karl Valentin or Niels Bohr or Mark Twain, or K. K.
Steincke
Sitting down to work, architects are building on promises of the future. Hence, and there is a certain tradition in our field, it makes sense to consider what is to come ¿ the future. However, this art has been little practiced recently.
The interest of the course is a methodological one. Together we will work on scenario analysis, the most used and established method to consider possible futures in a structured way.
How is this done? This ¿ by nature eclectic discipline ¿ builds on vast amounts of information, snippets, pictures, articles or statistics. We will spend a large amount of the semester collecting and connecting these. From the variety of sources, we then try to develop coherent pictures of what¿s to come.
A reader for the course will be provided.
The course is bilingual (German/English) and subdivided into three main parts. The units will be detailed further at the beginning of the semester.
a) Supervised research and formulation of a research question
b) Independent research and writing of an academic abstract
c) Oral presentation of the state of the art, construction of the argument and writing of the final paper
