What is Critical Urbanism?

Urbanism as pedagogical concept of practice

Understanding and managing urban change in our global era demands a high degree of specialized and interdisciplinary knowledge. At the same time, city planners, architects, researchers, policymakers, and activists are deeply immersed in the chaotic and often contradictory urban realities that they are asked to address. What is Critical Urbanism? offers an innovative toolkit for engaging these present realities across disciplinary specializations and geographic purviews.

Central to the book is the research and pedagogy of the Critical Urbanisms MA program at the University of Basel, established in collaboration with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. The program's renowned and emerging urbanists demonstrate the power of working with care and reciprocity across different contexts and institutions, driven by engagement with varied communities of practice. They show how alternative urban futures can be imagined by addressing the historical injustices and global entanglements that shape the urban present. The book is tailored to students, graduates and teachers of urban studies and related disciplines including architecture, urban design, human geography, architectural history, and urban anthropology.

• A research-based reader on methodical and pedagogical innovations in urban research and architecture education
• Offers novel approaches to understanding urban fabrics in the 21st century
• Derives new forms for an urbanism of the future from a critical evaluation of the past

• Rooted in the Critical Urbanisms MA program at University of Basel in collaboration with the African Centre for Cities at University of Cape Town

  Autorentext

  Kenny Cupers ist Professor für Architekturgeschichte und Urbanistik an der Universität Basel.

Sophie Oldfield ist Professorin für Urbanistik und Leiterin des Fachbereichs Stadtplanung an der Cornell University, USA.

Manuel Herz ist Architekt und war bis 2020 Assistenzprofessor für Architektur, Städtebau und Raumplanung an der Universität Basel.

Laura Nkula-Wenz ist Dozentin für das Masterprogramm Critical Urbanisms an der Universität Basel und am African Centre for Cities der Universität Kapstadt.

Emilio Distretti arbeitet als Postdoctoral Fellow in Architekturgeschichte und Urbanistik an der Universität Basel.

Myriam Perret ist Architektin und arbeitete bis 2020 als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in Urbanistik an der Universität Basel.

Zusammenfassung

Urbanism as pedagogical concept of practice