History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism (Cupers)Head of Research Unit Prof. Dr.Kenny R. CupersOverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & CollaborationsProjects & Collaborations OverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & Collaborations Projects & Collaborations 4 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 Who speaks? Who acts? Who listens? A comparative analysis of anti-racist groups and their understanding of (anti)racism, race and diversity Research Project | 1 Project MembersThis project responds to calls from scholars, people affected by racism and practitioners to draw more scholarly attention to the complexities and issues of contemporary racism. It captures our understanding of racism, racialization, diversity and anti-racism. This project contributes to debates on socio-spatial and racial hierarchisation and struggles over practices, meanings and subjects of urban space. Based on methodological triangulation using document analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study examines how urban anti-racist groups and urban governments conceptualize, problematize and counter racism through different grassroots and institutional practices in Zurich by giving insight into the roles, formations, histories and challenges of local racial groups, their different practices and difficulties to evoke change in cities. Using an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, this project adds to a deeper understanding of the complexities of racism by analyzing anti-racist and diversity practices to show the challenges to addressing one of society's most pressing problems. The objective is to contribute knowledge to (1) the different understandings of racism, race, diversity and urban space from the perspectives of local grassroots initiatives and city administrations; (2) the complexities and challenges of discussing race, racism and implementing changes; and (3) the differences between urban anti-racist and diversity practices. This project is part of a comparative Postdoc.Mobility project titled "Who speaks? Who acts? Who listens? An analysis of anti-racist groups and their understanding of (anti)racism, race and diversity in Zurich, Berlin and Oakland" funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). Making Infrastructure Global? Design and Governance of Infrastructural Expansion in the Global South Research Project | 2 Project MembersContemporary infrastructure projects often look alike, produced as they are by planning agencies that operate across the world in public-private partnerships. This global production of infrastructure-ranging from oil pipelines and plants to power grids and dams-is rapidly transforming the Global South and its relationship with the rest of the world, yet a deeper understanding of its design and governance is lacking. Much analysis of contemporary infrastructure investment ignores the colonial legacies of infrastructure planning. Infrastructures, imagined as generic artefacts of modernity and projects of technical improvement, are only seemingly apolitical and frequently reproduce global inequalities. The reliance of postcolonial states on global financial institutions and experts for their infrastructural development implies unequal power relations, but developmentalist studies tend to naturalize these. This interdisciplinary project combines approaches from urban studies and political science to explore the role of global planning agencies and colonial legacies in transnational infrastructural expansion in the Global South. Based on three cases of energy infrastructure projects in East Africa, North Africa and Latin America, this research analyzes the contested power dynamics triggered by attempts at making infrastructure global. With EUCOR seed money, the partners will establish a cross-border research platform and develop a proposal for DFG/SNF or ERC funding. Territorial Design: How Infrastructure Shaped Territory in Africa Research Project | 3 Project MembersInfrastructure is central to understanding global urbanization today, yet the historical production of our infrastructural lifeworlds continues to be neglected, especially for the African context. Scholarly emphasis on the informal, unplanned character of African urbanization has obscured the historical role of physical infrastructure in this process. This project addresses these shortcomings by focusing on large-scale infrastructure as a matter of design, with often far-reaching consequences for urban and rural territories across Africa. During both the colonial and post-independence periods, planners, engineers, architects, and government officials consciously attempted to reshape Africa through specific infrastructural projects. Such projects had various goals, from facilitating resource exploitation and strengthening colonial control to integrating the continent into a Pan-African unity after independence and facilitating economic development today. This project examines key infrastructural visions as well as their material realizations and often contradictory effects on the ground. We focus on transportation infrastructure to analyze how such projects spurred urbanization and changed relations between settlements and hinterlands. The aim is to reveal how the design of infrastructure shaped African territories, from the first colonial modernization projects and the ambitious plans of the post-independence era to the continent's infrastructure boom today. Research findings will not only be relevant to the fields of urban studies and the history of architecture and urbanism, but will also provide useful insights to architects, planners, and policymakers currently engaged with infrastructure development in Africa. Neoliberalism: An Architectural History Research Project | 1 Project MembersRecent scholarship on the postwar period has significantly revised our understanding of architectural modernism, by examining the complex role of architecture in larger historical processes such as the expansion of the welfare state, decolonization, and Cold War modernization and development. In doing so, such scholarship implicitly or explicitly posits the 1970s as a historical break, dually marked by economic restructuring and the advent of a new cultural condition. While innovative studies are currently being pursued on the architecture of this period, the concrete agents of this historical shift continue to be obscured by recourse to black-boxed terms such as "postmodernism" and "neoliberalism." Yet what exactly is the historical relationship between architecture-whether we call it postmodern or not-and the so-called neoliberal turn? In answering this question, the edited volume develops new analytical and methodological approaches to the more recent history of architecture. The changing relationship between state, society, and economy during and since the 1970s is often shorthanded with the rubric of neoliberalism. Yet the term itself describes an economic theory whose roots long precede the specific policies of privatization, deregulation, and market reform of the Thatcher and Reagan era. Rather than to ask what a neoliberal architecture looks like, or how architecture represents neoliberalism, this book examines the actual role of architecture in neoliberalization-indicating a historically and geographically specific process rather than a blanket condition. 1 1 OverviewMembersPublicationsProjects & Collaborations
Projects & Collaborations 4 foundShow per page10 10 20 50 Who speaks? Who acts? Who listens? A comparative analysis of anti-racist groups and their understanding of (anti)racism, race and diversity Research Project | 1 Project MembersThis project responds to calls from scholars, people affected by racism and practitioners to draw more scholarly attention to the complexities and issues of contemporary racism. It captures our understanding of racism, racialization, diversity and anti-racism. This project contributes to debates on socio-spatial and racial hierarchisation and struggles over practices, meanings and subjects of urban space. Based on methodological triangulation using document analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study examines how urban anti-racist groups and urban governments conceptualize, problematize and counter racism through different grassroots and institutional practices in Zurich by giving insight into the roles, formations, histories and challenges of local racial groups, their different practices and difficulties to evoke change in cities. Using an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, this project adds to a deeper understanding of the complexities of racism by analyzing anti-racist and diversity practices to show the challenges to addressing one of society's most pressing problems. The objective is to contribute knowledge to (1) the different understandings of racism, race, diversity and urban space from the perspectives of local grassroots initiatives and city administrations; (2) the complexities and challenges of discussing race, racism and implementing changes; and (3) the differences between urban anti-racist and diversity practices. This project is part of a comparative Postdoc.Mobility project titled "Who speaks? Who acts? Who listens? An analysis of anti-racist groups and their understanding of (anti)racism, race and diversity in Zurich, Berlin and Oakland" funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). Making Infrastructure Global? Design and Governance of Infrastructural Expansion in the Global South Research Project | 2 Project MembersContemporary infrastructure projects often look alike, produced as they are by planning agencies that operate across the world in public-private partnerships. This global production of infrastructure-ranging from oil pipelines and plants to power grids and dams-is rapidly transforming the Global South and its relationship with the rest of the world, yet a deeper understanding of its design and governance is lacking. Much analysis of contemporary infrastructure investment ignores the colonial legacies of infrastructure planning. Infrastructures, imagined as generic artefacts of modernity and projects of technical improvement, are only seemingly apolitical and frequently reproduce global inequalities. The reliance of postcolonial states on global financial institutions and experts for their infrastructural development implies unequal power relations, but developmentalist studies tend to naturalize these. This interdisciplinary project combines approaches from urban studies and political science to explore the role of global planning agencies and colonial legacies in transnational infrastructural expansion in the Global South. Based on three cases of energy infrastructure projects in East Africa, North Africa and Latin America, this research analyzes the contested power dynamics triggered by attempts at making infrastructure global. With EUCOR seed money, the partners will establish a cross-border research platform and develop a proposal for DFG/SNF or ERC funding. Territorial Design: How Infrastructure Shaped Territory in Africa Research Project | 3 Project MembersInfrastructure is central to understanding global urbanization today, yet the historical production of our infrastructural lifeworlds continues to be neglected, especially for the African context. Scholarly emphasis on the informal, unplanned character of African urbanization has obscured the historical role of physical infrastructure in this process. This project addresses these shortcomings by focusing on large-scale infrastructure as a matter of design, with often far-reaching consequences for urban and rural territories across Africa. During both the colonial and post-independence periods, planners, engineers, architects, and government officials consciously attempted to reshape Africa through specific infrastructural projects. Such projects had various goals, from facilitating resource exploitation and strengthening colonial control to integrating the continent into a Pan-African unity after independence and facilitating economic development today. This project examines key infrastructural visions as well as their material realizations and often contradictory effects on the ground. We focus on transportation infrastructure to analyze how such projects spurred urbanization and changed relations between settlements and hinterlands. The aim is to reveal how the design of infrastructure shaped African territories, from the first colonial modernization projects and the ambitious plans of the post-independence era to the continent's infrastructure boom today. Research findings will not only be relevant to the fields of urban studies and the history of architecture and urbanism, but will also provide useful insights to architects, planners, and policymakers currently engaged with infrastructure development in Africa. Neoliberalism: An Architectural History Research Project | 1 Project MembersRecent scholarship on the postwar period has significantly revised our understanding of architectural modernism, by examining the complex role of architecture in larger historical processes such as the expansion of the welfare state, decolonization, and Cold War modernization and development. In doing so, such scholarship implicitly or explicitly posits the 1970s as a historical break, dually marked by economic restructuring and the advent of a new cultural condition. While innovative studies are currently being pursued on the architecture of this period, the concrete agents of this historical shift continue to be obscured by recourse to black-boxed terms such as "postmodernism" and "neoliberalism." Yet what exactly is the historical relationship between architecture-whether we call it postmodern or not-and the so-called neoliberal turn? In answering this question, the edited volume develops new analytical and methodological approaches to the more recent history of architecture. The changing relationship between state, society, and economy during and since the 1970s is often shorthanded with the rubric of neoliberalism. Yet the term itself describes an economic theory whose roots long precede the specific policies of privatization, deregulation, and market reform of the Thatcher and Reagan era. Rather than to ask what a neoliberal architecture looks like, or how architecture represents neoliberalism, this book examines the actual role of architecture in neoliberalization-indicating a historically and geographically specific process rather than a blanket condition. 1 1
Who speaks? Who acts? Who listens? A comparative analysis of anti-racist groups and their understanding of (anti)racism, race and diversity Research Project | 1 Project MembersThis project responds to calls from scholars, people affected by racism and practitioners to draw more scholarly attention to the complexities and issues of contemporary racism. It captures our understanding of racism, racialization, diversity and anti-racism. This project contributes to debates on socio-spatial and racial hierarchisation and struggles over practices, meanings and subjects of urban space. Based on methodological triangulation using document analysis, participant observation and in-depth interviews, this study examines how urban anti-racist groups and urban governments conceptualize, problematize and counter racism through different grassroots and institutional practices in Zurich by giving insight into the roles, formations, histories and challenges of local racial groups, their different practices and difficulties to evoke change in cities. Using an intersectional and interdisciplinary approach, this project adds to a deeper understanding of the complexities of racism by analyzing anti-racist and diversity practices to show the challenges to addressing one of society's most pressing problems. The objective is to contribute knowledge to (1) the different understandings of racism, race, diversity and urban space from the perspectives of local grassroots initiatives and city administrations; (2) the complexities and challenges of discussing race, racism and implementing changes; and (3) the differences between urban anti-racist and diversity practices. This project is part of a comparative Postdoc.Mobility project titled "Who speaks? Who acts? Who listens? An analysis of anti-racist groups and their understanding of (anti)racism, race and diversity in Zurich, Berlin and Oakland" funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).
Making Infrastructure Global? Design and Governance of Infrastructural Expansion in the Global South Research Project | 2 Project MembersContemporary infrastructure projects often look alike, produced as they are by planning agencies that operate across the world in public-private partnerships. This global production of infrastructure-ranging from oil pipelines and plants to power grids and dams-is rapidly transforming the Global South and its relationship with the rest of the world, yet a deeper understanding of its design and governance is lacking. Much analysis of contemporary infrastructure investment ignores the colonial legacies of infrastructure planning. Infrastructures, imagined as generic artefacts of modernity and projects of technical improvement, are only seemingly apolitical and frequently reproduce global inequalities. The reliance of postcolonial states on global financial institutions and experts for their infrastructural development implies unequal power relations, but developmentalist studies tend to naturalize these. This interdisciplinary project combines approaches from urban studies and political science to explore the role of global planning agencies and colonial legacies in transnational infrastructural expansion in the Global South. Based on three cases of energy infrastructure projects in East Africa, North Africa and Latin America, this research analyzes the contested power dynamics triggered by attempts at making infrastructure global. With EUCOR seed money, the partners will establish a cross-border research platform and develop a proposal for DFG/SNF or ERC funding.
Territorial Design: How Infrastructure Shaped Territory in Africa Research Project | 3 Project MembersInfrastructure is central to understanding global urbanization today, yet the historical production of our infrastructural lifeworlds continues to be neglected, especially for the African context. Scholarly emphasis on the informal, unplanned character of African urbanization has obscured the historical role of physical infrastructure in this process. This project addresses these shortcomings by focusing on large-scale infrastructure as a matter of design, with often far-reaching consequences for urban and rural territories across Africa. During both the colonial and post-independence periods, planners, engineers, architects, and government officials consciously attempted to reshape Africa through specific infrastructural projects. Such projects had various goals, from facilitating resource exploitation and strengthening colonial control to integrating the continent into a Pan-African unity after independence and facilitating economic development today. This project examines key infrastructural visions as well as their material realizations and often contradictory effects on the ground. We focus on transportation infrastructure to analyze how such projects spurred urbanization and changed relations between settlements and hinterlands. The aim is to reveal how the design of infrastructure shaped African territories, from the first colonial modernization projects and the ambitious plans of the post-independence era to the continent's infrastructure boom today. Research findings will not only be relevant to the fields of urban studies and the history of architecture and urbanism, but will also provide useful insights to architects, planners, and policymakers currently engaged with infrastructure development in Africa.
Neoliberalism: An Architectural History Research Project | 1 Project MembersRecent scholarship on the postwar period has significantly revised our understanding of architectural modernism, by examining the complex role of architecture in larger historical processes such as the expansion of the welfare state, decolonization, and Cold War modernization and development. In doing so, such scholarship implicitly or explicitly posits the 1970s as a historical break, dually marked by economic restructuring and the advent of a new cultural condition. While innovative studies are currently being pursued on the architecture of this period, the concrete agents of this historical shift continue to be obscured by recourse to black-boxed terms such as "postmodernism" and "neoliberalism." Yet what exactly is the historical relationship between architecture-whether we call it postmodern or not-and the so-called neoliberal turn? In answering this question, the edited volume develops new analytical and methodological approaches to the more recent history of architecture. The changing relationship between state, society, and economy during and since the 1970s is often shorthanded with the rubric of neoliberalism. Yet the term itself describes an economic theory whose roots long precede the specific policies of privatization, deregulation, and market reform of the Thatcher and Reagan era. Rather than to ask what a neoliberal architecture looks like, or how architecture represents neoliberalism, this book examines the actual role of architecture in neoliberalization-indicating a historically and geographically specific process rather than a blanket condition.
