What Is Critical Urbanism?: Urban Research as Pedagogy by Kenny Cupers

A methodological and pedagogical toolkit for urban research. The rapid change in our embattled environment, especially in metropolitan areas, demands a high degree of interdisciplinary specialist knowledge from city planners, urban researchers, local politicians, and activists. In practice, however, they find themselves increasingly confronted with the chaotic and often contradictory realities of urban life. How can one productively and creatively handle this globally networked yet also radically fragmented, and increasingly unequal, urban world? By understanding urbanism as a pedagogical concept of practice, renowned researchers and lecturers on the Critical Urbanism MA program at the University of Basel present innovative approaches to understanding the city in the 21st century. Their contributions offer assistance in gaining a differentiated view of the urban cosmos today and of how to arrive at designs that meet the manifold demands. They also cast a critical glance at historical injustices that continue to shape the urban present, to derive new forms of engagement with an alternative urban future from this comparison. AUTHORS: Kenny Cupers is a Professor of Architecture History and Urbanism at the University of Basel. Emilio Distretti works as a postdoctoral fellow in architecture history and urbanism at the University of Basel. Sophie Oldfield is a Professor of Urbanism and Chair of the Department Architecture Art Planning at Cornell University. Manuel Herz is an architect and Assistant Professor of Architectural, Urban and Territorial Planning at the University of Basel. Laura Nkula Wenz is a lecturer on the Critical Urbanisms MA program at University of Basel and at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. Myriam Perret is an architect who has been working on the Critical Urbanisms MA program at the University of Basel until 2020. SELLING POINTS: . 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 120 colour, 10 b/w illustrations