Urban political economy

The course consists of a political-economy approach to contemporary urban change. It builds on Henri Lefebvre’s conceptualization of the production of space as main theoretical foundation.

It is composed of a series of lectures exploring in turn the role of the spatial practices of capital, State-territorial regulations, and city dwellers’ appropriation of space in the social production of urban space. To do so, the course combines insights from different theoretical frameworks, most notably critical urban theory and neo-institutional approaches to urban governance, as well as a dose of post-colonial urban theory.

The overarching aim of this course is to help developing a critical perspective on urban change departing from representations that tend to naturalize urban dynamics or reduce urban issues to mere techno-management problems, therefore obscuring their deeply political character. Cities are rather considered here as social constructs shaped by constant negotiations, competitions and struggles between unevenly endowed social actors.

The course is composed of 8 lectures, a guest lecture and a photo-essay seminar

• Introduction – the city as social product
• The production of urban space under capitalism
• The new housing question
• The neoliberalization of urbanism
• Gentrification as urban policy?
• Appropriation of space
• Ordinary urbanizations
• On urban alternatives (with Raphaël Hasenknopf, ULB/FNRS)

+ Guest lecture by Prof. Melih Yeşilbağ, Ankara University: Housing as an Asset: Financialisation, the State and the Housing Markets in Contemporary Turkey
+ Photo essay seminar

ex cathedra lectures, with room for interaction and discussion

Références, bibliographie et lectures recommandées

see suggested readings list available on the UV

Support(s) de cours

• Université virtuelle

Contacts

mathieu.van.criekingen@ulb.be

Campus

Plaine

Méthode(s) d'évaluation

• Travail personnel

Travail personnel

See course outline for instruction on the assignement

Construction de la note (en ce compris, la pondération des notes partielles)

photo essay 100% 

Langue(s) d'évaluation

• anglais