Syllabus

CRP 351: EVERYDAY LIFE, POLITICS AND SPACE, 2015-16 Fall Semester

 

PART I

Concepts and Theories

 

Week 1

September 29, 2015

First Meeting, Introduction to the Course: What is a City

                              

Week 2                    

October 6, 2015

add-drop week

Introduction: Cities and Everyday Life

The city and the individual: Walking in the city

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Highmore, Ben. 2002. "Introduction: Questioning the everyday life". In The Everyday Life Reader, ed. Ben Highmore, 1-34. London, New York: Routledge.

2.                     Perec, Georges. 2002 (1997). "Approaches to What?".  In  The Everyday Life Reader, ed. Ben Highmore, 176-178. London, New York: Routledge.

 

 

Week 3

October 13, 2015

Key concepts: Space-Place, Social Space, Non-place

Key Theories: The Social Production of Urban Space

 

Assignment 1 introduced

Writing a short essay

due week4

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Lefebvre, Henri. 1991. The Production of Space. Oxford, Cambridge: Blackwell. (pp.1-67)

2.                     Soja, Edward W. 1996. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places. Oxford, Massachusettes: Blackwell publishers. (pp.53-82)

3.                     Simonsen, Kirsten (1996), What Kind of Space in what kind of social theory, Progress in Human geography, 494-512, vol. 20 (4). online: http://phg.sagepub.com/content/20/4/494.short, last access 07.09.2012

4.                     Perec, Georges. 1997. Species of Spaces and Other Spaces. London: Penguin. (pp. 1-15)

 

 

PART II

Invented Practices

                       

Week 4

October 20, 2015

Key Theories: The Practice of Eveyday Life

Producing space ‘making do’

Temporary, mobile, nomadic spaces

 

Discussions on student essays

 

Assignment no.2 introduced

Presenting the selected Case Study,

due week 6

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Certeau, Michel de. 2002 (1984). "General Introduction to The Practice of Everyday Life". In The Everyday Life Reader, ed. Ben Highmore, 63-75. London, New York: Routledge.

2.                     Certeau, Michel de. 1993. "Walking in the City". In The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Simon During, 126-133. London-New York: Routledge.

3.                     Rendell, Jane. 1998. “Doing it, Undoing it, Overdoing it Yourself: Rhetorics of Architectural Abuse”. In Occupying Architecture: Between The Architect and The User, ed. J. Hill, 229-246. London, New York: Routledge.

4.                     Giard, Luce. 2002 (1998). "Doing Cooking". In  The Everyday Life Reader, ed. Ben Highmore, 319-324. London, New York: Routledge.

                       

Week 5                    

October 27, 2015

Strategies and Tactics in Everyday life: Case Studies (Invented Practice in Turkish Cities)

DolmuÅŸ, gecekondu, iÅŸporta

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Tekeli, Ä°lhan and Tarık Okyay. 1981. DolmuÅŸun Öyküsü. Ankara: Çevre ve Mimarlık Bilimleri DerneÄŸi. (pp.1-41)

 

PART III

Practices Redefining Space

                       

Week 6

November 3, 2015

withdraw deadline                     

Observing Everyday Life in Cities; Urban Spaces Redefined in Daily Practices

‘Minibar’s, streetvendors and others

 

Submission Assignment no.2: Student Presentations

Mid-term introduced

Take-Home examination , Due week 8

 

Term Project introduced (due Finals week)

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Borden, Iain. 1998. “Body Architecture”, ed. Hill, Occupying Architecture: Between The Architect and The User; Routledge: London, New York

2.                     Shield, Rob. 1996. "A Guide to Urban Representation andWhat to Do About it: Alternative Traditions of Urban Theory". In Re-presenting the City: Ethnicity, Capital and Culture in the 21st Century, ed. Anthony D. King, 227-252.

3.                     Borden, Iain. 2001. “Another Pavement, Another Beach: Skateboarding and the Performative Critique of Architecture”, p.178 – 200, eds. Borden, Kerr, Pivaro, Rendell; The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space; Routledge: London, New York

 

4.                     Borden, Iain. 1996. “Beneath The Pavement, The Beach, Skateboarding, Architecture and The Urban Realm”, pp. 82-86, eds. Borden, Kerr, Pivaro, Rendell; Strangely Familiar; Routledge: London, New York

5.                     Certeau, Michel de. 1993. "Walking in the City". In The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Simon During, 126-133. London-New York: Routledge.

 

Week 7

November 10, 2015

Official Holiday                         

 

Week 8

November 17, 2015

Power Relations and Everyday Life in the City

Politics and Space: Urban transformation processes and contemporary urban policies

 

Documentary screening

(Ekümenopolis, 2011, 88min.)

 

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Jameson, Frederic. 1997. "Is Space Political?". In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural theory, ed. Neil Leach, 255-269. London, New York: Routledge.

2.                     Foucault, Michel; (1986) “The Subject and Power”, pp.208-26, afterword in eds. Dreyfus and Rabinow; Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics; Brighton: The Harvester Press.

3.                     Sassen, Saskia; (2004) “Afterword”, pp. ..., in ed. Gugler ; World Cities Beyond the West

 

PART IV

Practices as Resistances

 

Week 9

November 24, 2015                   

Everyday Life and Different Forms of Artistic Representations

Seeing the hidden: Cultural Representations, Expressions and Resistances in the City

 

Case Study: Street Art

Video: JR

 

Paper writing and Design exercise for the elaborated case study

                Due Final exam week (14 January 2012)

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Lefebvre, Henri. 2002 (1991). "Work and Leisure in Everyday Life".  In  The Everyday Life Reader, ed. Ben Highmore, 225-236. London, New York: Routledge.

 

Week 10

December 1, 2015

Politics and Space: Urban social movements, Surveillance, subject and power

Movie: F451 / 1984 / La Haine

 

Assignment no.3

                Essay writing on the movie, due: 30 minutes

Discussion

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Foucault, Michel. 1993. "Space, Power and Knowledge". In The Cultural Studies Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Simon During, 134-141. London-New York: Routledge

 

Week 11

December 8, 2015                    

Urban Cultures and Sub-cultures: An Overview

 

Case Study: Urban music cultures, etc.

Video: Detroit

 

Documentary screening and Discussion

Discussion and Critics on the term project

 

Week 12

December 15, 2015                   

Public Space, Heterotopias and ‘Urban Commons’

 

Suggested Readings

1.                     Foucault, Michel. 1997. “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias”. In Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, ed. Neil Leach, 350-356. Routledge: London, New York.

2.                     Harvey, David. 2012. Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to Urban Revolution. Verso: London, New York.

 

Week 13

December 22, 2015

Ending the course: summary of the discussed topics

Final meeting

Term Project presentations: panel critique

 

Final Exams Week

28 December – 08 January

 

Submission of Grades

January 15