After successful completion of the course, students are able to...

• explain the practice of participation processes using current Viennese examples,
• reflect on them with regard to conceptual and theoretical references,
• give an overview of methods of communication and participation in urban development and urban renewal,
• conduct literature and material research on a given topic,
• apply methods of analysis of actors and processes in order to explore and visualize urban experiments as participative practice.
    

The course deals with the analysis of forms of participation and involvement in the context of urban development and transformation processes. We will look at concrete methods of participation, but also at concepts that focus on civil society engagement, social participation and the right to the city. Which actors shape the city, how can processes in the context of urban transformations be accompanied and how can people be empowered to participate in them? How can social learning fields and emancipatory practices for those involved arise in the context of participation?

In the summer semester of 2024, the course will focus on "Learning by doing - urban experiments as participatory practice". Urban experiments – trying out social and spatial interventions with the participation of various actors – are understood as a specific form of interactive and participatory practice. They can enable new approaches and new solutions to emerge. Participatory budgets, urban laboratories, actions and performances in public space, temporary uses of vacant buildings and brownfield areas, but also protests and occupations are examples of this. As part of analyses of practice projects, selected urban experiments will be researched and analyzed in more detail.

This sharpens the view of processes, actors, socio-spatial transformations as well as interventions through communication and participation. Finally, the transformative and emancipatory dimension of the different examples is examined and in this way - in the joint discussion - a critical perspective is cast on the potentials and challenges in participatory practice.

Conceptual, theoretical and methodical inputs about participation, literature and material research on examples for participatory urban exeriments, walk-throughs and interviews, mapping of actors and anaylsis of processes, development and visualization of "portraits of urban experiments".

Further Literature 

Alinsky, Saul D. (1999): Anleitung zum Mächtigsein. Ausgewählte Schriften. Hrsg. und aus dem Amerikan. übersetzt von Karl-Klaus Rabe. 2. Auflage. Bornheim-Merten: Lamuv-Verlag. 

Arbter, Kerstin (2012): Praxisbuch Partizipation. Magistratsabteilung 18 – Stadtentwicklung und Stadtplanung. Werkstattbericht Nr. 127. Magistrat der Stadt Wien. Online: https://www.wien.gv.at/stadtentwicklung/partizipation/praxisbuch.html  

Castells, Manuel (2012): Kampf in den Städten: Gesellschaftliche Widersprüche und politische Macht. (Reprint.) Hamburg: VSA.  

Feuerstein, Christiane; Fitz; Angelika (2009): Wann begann temporär? Frühe Stadtinterventionen und sanfte Stadterneuerung in Wien. Wien: Springer.  

Fung, Archon (2006): Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance. In: Public Administration Review, Vol. 66(1), 66–75.  

Gribat, Nina; Kadi, Justin; Lange Jan; Meubrink, Yuca; Müller, Jonas (2017): Planung als politische Praxis. Zur Einleitung in den Themenschwerpunkt. In : sub\urban, Bd. 5 Nr. 1/2. Online: https://zeitschrift-suburban.de/sys/index.php/suburban/article/view/268/454  

Habermas, Jürgen (1981): Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Band 1 und 2. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.  

Holm, Andrej; Gebhardt, Dirk (2011): Initiativen für ein Recht auf Stadt. Theorie und Praxis städtischer Aneignung. Hamburg: VSA Verlag.  

Kirsch-Soriano da Silva, Katharina (2022): Transformationsprozesse in der wachsenden Stadt – zwischen Chancen und Widerständen. In: dérive N° 89.  

Kirsch-Soriano da Silva, Katharina; Botzenhart, Lukas; Pointner, Karin; Habringer, Magdalena; Christoph Stoik (2022): Transformation mitgestalten. Partizipation und Kommunikation bei Nachverdichtung im Wohnquartier. Stadtteilarbeit, Caritas Wien. Online unter: https://www.caritas-stadtteilarbeit.at/stadtteilarbeit/publikationen 

Köster, Dietmar (2010): Partizipation lernen als eine europäische Aufgabe; In: BAGSO – aktuell, 10/2010. Online: http://www.bagso.de/fileadmin/Aktuell/Newletter/Partizipation_Dr_Koester_Seelernetz.pdf 

Lefebvre, Henri (2009): Le droit à la ville. Paris: Anthropos. 

Ley, Astrid; Weitz, Ludwig (Hrsg.) (2003): Praxis Bürgerbeteiligung. Ein Methodenhandbuch. Arbeitshilfen für Selbsthilfe und Bürgerinitiativen Nr. 30. Bonn: Verlag Stiftung Mitarbeit. 

Mouffe, Chantal (2013): Agonistics: Thinking the world politically. London and New York: Verso. 

Selle, Klaus (Hrsg.) (1996): Planung und Kommunikation. Gestaltung von Planungsprozessen in Quartier, Stadt und Landschaft. Wiesbaden: Bauverlag.

The assessment will be based on the presentation of the research results (part 1), the elaboration of "portraits of urban experiments" (part 2), and the participation in the final discussion (part 3). All 3 parts need to be completed for grading.

Presentation of the research results (part 1) 40%
    - Creation of a research board
Development of "portraits of urban experiments" (part 2) 40%
    - visual presentation (process as timeline, actors´map)
    - narrative presentation (text)
Participation in the final discussion (part 3) 20%
    - Presentation of results
    - Co-organisation of event

Mandatory prerequisites: The positive completion of the compulsory module 1 ("Studieneingangs- und Orientierungsphase") is a prerequisite for this course.