21/3 – Urban Struggle

By focusing on one of the key notions of critical urban scholarship, ‘struggles’ of various kinds, the aim of this module is to provide insights into certain areas of the broadly understood field of urban studies. Throughout the sessions, three major terrains of urban struggle will be identified and discussed: (1) struggles between different land use functions; (2) struggles between different social groups; and (3) struggles over symbolic space. In the case of all three nodes, examples from Budapest / Hungary will also be introduced and discussed – on the one hand, to illustrate that the topics to be covered are not ‘distant’ academic debates (but on the very contrary, are literally surrounding us), and on the other hand, to constantly reflect on our Central and Eastern European (‘post-socialist’ / ‘semi-peripheral’) position and its specificities. Students of the module will develop their skills in academic reading and writing, in formulating arguments and counterarguments, and most importantly, in critical thinking. The module is highly recommended for those wishing to study Urban Studies, Geography, Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, Architecture, or other related fields.