Urban Studies

This course addresses the core concerns of power, domination, inequality, class formation, and transnational political economy, while grounding them ethnographically in urban space. Rather than treating these concepts abstractly, students encounter them through detailed case studies of how colonial spatial logics persist in contemporary cities and how urban residents navigate, reproduce, and contest these structures. The course traces connections between colonial urbanism and contemporary urban transformation across the Global South and in Berlin itself. Students develop analytical tools for understanding how political-economic processes materialize in urban form, social practice, and everyday experience.

This course develops a critical and diverse reading of cities by using theoretical and practical resources and studying them from multiple angles (historical, social, political, cultural). It focuses on urban forms and their meanings, considers the main actors in developing the city, and thinks of how to transform the structures of inequality to create more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable cities. This course explores the complexity and diversity that define a city and urban development in Spain and also discusses the urban landscapes of power and capital, urban conflicts, and citizen response to the neoliberal city. It examines how public space, art, and community are approached as an opportunity for change, and it looks at alternative governance and political innovation. 

This seminar provides an in-depth exploration of urbanization trends and the complex challenges facing cities in the MENA/Arab region. A key focus of this seminar is on the role of urban sports in public spaces, examined through a range of case studies from different Arab cities. The seminar highlights both the challenges and innovative approaches related to the integration of urban sports into public spaces, addressing issues of design, accessibility, governance, and social inclusion. The second part of the semester shifts the focus to another critical urban topic: waterfronts in Arabic cities. This part analyzes the relationship between the city and the waterfront and examines how waterfronts influence urban planning and urban development. In addition, the seminar explores different approaches to waterfront design through the analysis of case studies from various Arab cities, considering the social, spatial, and environmental dimensions. The seminar is complemented by a hands-on workshop in Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city and the largest on the Mediterranean coast. The workshop offers participants the opportunity to analyze and co-design public spaces and waterfronts using urban sports as a conceptual and practical framework. 

Maps hold power. They represent a reality that is shaped by those creating the map and have been used as instruments of empire, governance and surveillance. This seminar looks at both the embedded power dynamics of maps as well as their contestation. The title of the seminar shall serve as a guidance in which “un-”,“mapping” and “power” are the main foci of the seminar. It starts by understanding how power is embedded in maps and explores how to analyze maps as political instruments. Students then look at various cases of mapping as critical and creative practices that challenge dominant cartographies from around the globe. In addition to building a solid understanding of power dynamics entrenched and contested through practices of (counter-)mapping, the course aims to offer students the opportunity to explore different methods of mapping and provide insight into how they could be used in the study of political science. Therefore, the course incorporates different exercises and group work through which students explores techniques of mapping, counter-maps, critical mapping, mental and narrative maps and get an overview of basic tools.

Berlin has long been imagined as a site of queer freedom, experimentation, and resistance. This course explores how queerness is shaped by and shapes urban space, using Berlin as a lens to examine intersections of sexuality, space, and power. Drawing from queer theory, urban studies, and architecture, students investigate how queer spaces are produced, contested, and remembered, and how they intersect with race, class, gender, and transnational histories. Through readings, discussions, exercise and fieldwork, participants critically reflect on what makes a space “queer,” who has access to it, and how Berlin’s reputation as a queer capital both reveals and obscures broader social dynamics. The course combines theoretical inquiry with experiential learning and invites critical engagement with the ethics of researching queer urban life.

This course offers a study of complex systems in the context of sustainability and their governance, particularly in the urban environment. It analyzes the problems and challenges of sustainability and governance, as well as the various implications of adapting sustainable strategies and governance of cities in different geographies and countries at different income levels and political regimes.

This course examines futures studies, a field vital for tackling complex issues in business, government, and society. Students will work individually and in teams to respond to a challenge set with the City of Sydney council to explore and propose a future worth wanting set in "Sustainable Sydney 2050." Students will learn and apply practical techniques and theoretical frameworks to: examine how change happens in complex systems, identify and interpret emerging signals of change, and engage peers and partners in exploring possible futures. Students will also critically reflect on how their values and personal perspective, and those of individuals, communities, and organizations, shape the way we imagine and create futures worth wanting.

This course explores urbanization and cities not just as a technical issue or a set of rules for organizing space, but as a powerful, political tool for addressing global challenges. It investigates the city as a site of conflict and potential "repair"—social, ecological, and democratic. By critically examining historical models, contemporary crises, and emerging practices—from tactical urbanism to proximity—the course ask if and how urban planning can contribute to a more just, sustainable, and inclusive future. In the first part of the course, Paris is our field of visits and experimentation. Seeing how Paris may help to interrogate cities from elsewhere, and vice versa. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to understand the political, social, and ecological role of urban planning; critically analyze past and present models of urban development; evaluate tools and practices for creating more equitable and sustainable cities; and articulate a vision of the city as a space for social and environmental repair.

Since the 1980s, Lyon has undergone major transformations aimed at adapting to the context of globalization. Becoming a European metropolis has become the common thread that gives meaning to public interventions in the urban space. What are the results of these public policies? Has Lyon become a European metropolis? After an introduction in the classroom, the teaching takes the form of urban walks in the neighborhoods most marked by these changes. Students learn to read the cityscapes of a large European city, identify the actors of the production of urban spaces, and understand the typology of metropolitan areas.

This course examines the intricate relationship between large urban areas, climate change, and the governance of risks, crises, and disasters from a geographic and political science perspective. The unique vulnerabilities of urban areas to the impacts of climate change is examined, alongside an analysis of the pivotal role of politics and policy in mitigating and responding to these challenges. The course delves into the political, social, and environmental dimensions of global cities' challenges in facing a changing environment and the policies and governance strategies for promoting sustainability and resilience. It explores how the existing frameworks, tools and instruments dealing with risk, crisis and disasters, may be used in the context of climate change risks. The course explores risk, crisis, disaster and climate adaptation governance with a multi-level perspective, from international negotiations to local implementation and contestations. Each session is dedicated to discussing key notions through text analysis, providing the opportunity to work on case studies in groups.