How do conceptions of social and cultural policy become part of urban development? How do social- culture-oriented strategies interact with urban policy movements and initiatives that re-emphasize urban production or the circular economy? How do socio-cultural institutions (un)settle current everyday routines at the urban frontiers of densification? Can these be sufficiently situated within the right-to-the-city discourse, or is a complementary care ethic needed to shift the focus from rights-based debates to the quality of meaningful encounters in urban space? Which notions of everyday routines are addressed by applied social, cultural and planning policies and politics?
If these questions resonate with your interests in urban planning and development, this project offers you the opportunity to transfer and implement questions like these into collaborative research projects.
Throughout the course we are concerned with the role of cultural and social political actors, institutions and strategies in the context of urban development and spatial production. Against the background of different concepts of the city, like the Neoliberal, Post-Political and Ordinary City, we examine the interplay of the implicit rationalities of social, cultural and planning strategies in the urban context. To do so we investigate how and where urban social as well as cultural policies and urban development policies intertwine. How are they spatially productive in the city (of Vienna)? More precisely, how do district development and neighborhood planning (inter)act with further strategic interests of an emerging urban development axis “Wien Süd” in the course of the commuter railway expansion between the main station and Mödling?
Spatially, the project is located along the Southern commuter railway axis, i.e. in the 10th,12th and 23rd districts of Vienna. Thus, it includes (residential) projects like the quarter around Wolfganggasse, the Sargfabrik and projects by the district management Atzgersdorf/In der Wiesn (e.g., Carré Atzgersdorf, Wildgarten and Unilever-Gründe). Together we analyse the role of social infrastructures, cultural institutions and urban development initiatives along this southern post-industrial development axis of Vienna. In addition to the progressive densification, this area has recently become the focus of public attention (for an interested public) due to the investment initiative of the ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) and the associated expansion of the rail and bicycle transport network.
In doing so, we approach the notion of an Alternative Urbanistik (Alternative urban studies that seek to reach out and intervene) which places a greater emphasis on the needs and interests of city-dwellers through perspectives from the wider field of Urban Studies, social and cultural policy research as well as urban anthropology.
Following the action research (AR) strategies with their interest in the co-production of knowledge and its emphasis on inductive theory building (situated research perspectives), we will use a set of ethnographic empirical tools and situational mapping techniques as our common methodological foundation. In order to make both the findings and the research process accessible to the interested public, we will also look beyond our chosen context by drawing on mixed-methods research strategies. You will gain insights into social infrastructural access and problematise assumptions by including and considering variables such as the presence or absence of particular kinds of social infrastructures in the fieldwork contexts.
Dates and course plan
Unit 1
07.03.23 – Introduction/Kick Off -09:00 - 10:30 am
Unit 2,3
14.03.23 – Alternative Urban Studies - 1:30 - 5:00 pm
Unit 4,5,6
15.03.23 – Field excursion to “Vienna South”, group formation & topic identification - 9:00 - 3:00 pm
Unit 7,8
21.03.23 – Social Infrastructure in an urban context - 1:30 - 5:00 pm
Unit 9,10
29.03.23 – Culture-led urban regeneration - 9:00 - 12:30 am
Unit 11,12
19.04.23 – Field excursion to Meidling (socio-cultural institutions & players) - 9:00 - 12:30 am
Unit 13,14,15
26.04.23 – Group work (individually) & consultation - 9:00 - 3:00 pm
Unit 16,17,18
10.05.23 – Group work (individually) & consultation, mid-term presentation - 9:00 - 3:00 pm
Unit 19,20
17.05.23 – Deepening & open space - 9:00 - 12:30 am
Unit 21,22
31.05.23 – Deepening & open space - 9:00 - 12:30 am
Unit 23,24
07.06.23 – Internal presentations & feedback - 9:00 - 12:30 am
Unit 25,26,27
21.06.23 – Final presentations (public) & closing - 9:00 - 3:00 pm
Fieldwork in small groups; application of explorative, mobile and performative research methods of Alternative Urbanism; focus groups or plenary discussion, and more.
Special emphasis is placed on the planning, implementation, evaluation and critical reflection of the urbanist field research methodology applied, specifically the primarily qualitative empirical data collection (including by means of data walking or cycling interviews, qualitative interview methodology), evaluation of the data collected (including by means of situational analytic mapping strategies), generalization and narrowing of scope, presentation.
