THE
PUBLIC
SCHOOL
BERLIN

for coming thursday, we read the lefebvre essay 'the right to the city,' in this book: http://www.mediafire.com/?crn62kskw0vkebc

Just to clarify Dennis' comment. We are only reading the essay, "The Right to the City," from pages 147-159 by Thursday, not the entire section of the book called "The right to the city..." See you guys Thursday, Kenny

Thanks everyone who attended last week. Information, recordings, reading list and so on can be found here: http://citypolitical.wordpress.com/

Second Class: We will be discussing Samuel Mockbee's essay called “The Rural Studio" at 8pm on Thursday the 26th at the Program on Invalidenstr. Text here: http://samuelmockbee.net/work/writings/the-rural-studio/

We will begin the discussion by listing the key terms Lefebvre introduced in his essay, "The Right to the City," so bring the terms you think are most important. And then the discussion will move to the Mockbee text. Also, for other information, see the blog: http://citypolitical.wordpress.com/. — See you soon!

For the week after Jacques Rancière I would suggest the following text about MicroPublicPlaces:

http://www.situatedtechnologies.net/files/ST6-MicroPublicPlaces.pdf

ok next week thursday (feb 2) there's no class at the public school, but all day there's stuff going on at the evicted squat liebigstr. 14, also a discussion and a talk about open source urbanism, i think; more info here: http://liebig14.blogsport.de/

my birthday party! jan, 27th, 7pm, 152 sonnennallee — potluck — buzz maltez-novaes, or call my cell phone: 01578-4814484

hey all,
as many of you know, the public school is moving to a new location - or actually, to a few new locations... we no longer don't have any space at our disposal on thursday nights, so this class will in the future take place on mondays (unless we find another way of resolving this) at altes finanzamt, Schönstedtstraße 7, in Neukölln. i hope this works for everyone...

someone asked me for a specific time of the open source urbanism stuff; don't know to what extent this clarifies, but do with it as you will:

On the one-year anniversary of the eviction of Liebig 14-
Talks, and discussion of "Fairy Dust and Rupture" by the Free Association
3-5pm, in the Infoladen Daneben, Liebigstrasse 34 (next door to XB).

http://freelyassociating.org/on-fairy-dust-and-rupture/

maybe it'd be interesting to talk about this koolhaas text:

http://www.uni-weimar.de/cms/uploads/media
/Koolhaas__generic_city_sm_2up.pdf

see you on monday! nico

hi everyone,

just a reminder that this class is meeting tomorrow at 8pm at Altes Finanzamt, Schönstedtstraße 7, in Neukölln.

reading material:
Jacques Rancière, "Ten theses on politics": http://abahlali.org/files/Ten%20Theses%20on%20Politics.doc

For your information: the website is now at: http://citypolitical.net/

See you later!

The 4th class will be on FEBRUARY 20, 2012, at Altes Finanzamt, Schönstedtstraße 7, in Neukölln. We welcome everybody to join our discussion of Jean-Philippe Vassal’s “Toward a Performative Contextualism”. Find a link to the text here: http://citypolitical.net/2012/02/16/4th-class-on/

Sorry for the late notice. We put it up on the blog, but forgot to post it on the public school. See you guys Monday.

Hi, I have a suggestion for reading:

The issue "On the Commons" (July 2010) by the group Anarchitektur.
It features an Interview with Massimo de Angelis (political economist) and Stavros Stavrides (architect and activist based in Athens). Its aim is "to correlate the commons with current social movements in the urban sphere and to explore its capacity for furthering social transformations and developing non-capitalist models of urbanisation".

I have scanned most of the issue, it is a 26pages pdf (13mb). Can I upload it anywhere for the class?

See you soon!
Julia

Can you upload it to aaaaarg.org and send us a link?

Christian arranged a guided tour (with the curator as guide) through the DAZ exhibition "testify!" (www.daz.de). Thursday the 8th of March at 18.00. Afterwards, there will be a discussion at the DAZ about „Reality bites. Architektur im Alltag“. The tour will be in English, the discussion in German.
Those who want to come should confirm this so we know how many people to expect!

Christian arranged a guided tour (with the curator as guide) through the DAZ exhibition "testify!" (www.daz.de). Thursday the 8th of March at 18.00. Afterwards, there will be a discussion at the DAZ about „Reality bites. Architektur im Alltag“. The tour will be in English, the discussion in German.
Those who want to come should confirm this so we know how many people to expect!

Hey Dennis, I'm in for the tour. Christian,thanks for organizing!
Where can I find "On the Commons" (July 2010) by Anarchitektur? Did anybody upload already?

This week we're reading "Is Building the Practice of Dissensus?" by Nadir Lahiji. You can find the text here: http://www.lau.edu.lb/news-events/conferences/architecture-political/doc...

Also, if anyone has suggestions for Berlin architectural, planning, or development projects that might be interesting for this class to study (and READ about) — please let us know. We're very interested in beginning to link the discussion to local politics and space.

See ya'll on Monday at 8pm at Altes Finanzamt!

Hi
I would like to come to the DAZ, too.
For the aaargh upload - I am still waiting for my registration to be confirmed. Any other place where I can upload the an architektur scans?
Julia

Hey Julia,
Check http://www.mediafire.com/and then send us all the think when it's finished uploading. Looking forward to reading "On the Commons!"

I'm going to say yes to DAZ, but there's a possibility that i won't be able to make the 6pm meet-time because of work. In any case, someone who forgets to rsvp will have a spot...

here is the mediafire link:

http://www.mediafire.com/?3ylnzos4lc31qy8

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, liebe Anwohnerinnen und Anwohner, vielleicht haben Sie schon gehört, dass das BMW Guggenheim Lab diesen Sommer vom 24. Mai bis 29. Juli auf dem freistehenden Grundstück Schlesische Straße/Cuvrystraße gastieren wird.

Wir würden Ihnen - als AnwohnerInnen und Kiez-Organisationen - das Lab und sein Programm gerne bereits vorab vorstellen und etwaige Fragen beantworten. Deshalb laden wir Sie herzlich zu einem Infoabend am Mittwoch, den 7. März, um 18:30 Uhr in die Cuvrystr. 3-4 (1. Stock) ein. Weitere Details und die Einladung finden Sie im Anhang.

Wir würden uns sehr über Ihre Teilnahme freuen, eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich.

Mit den besten Grüßen
BMW Guggenheim Lab Berlin

a timely video posted on the nytimes about housing displacement in Rio de Janeiro.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/03/04/world/americas/100000001369793...

Hello DAN!

The BMW Guggenheim Lab post says that a registration is required. Do you have further information about that?

Thanks much!
Megan

"eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich" means you don't need to register.

Ah. Missed the "nicht" - thanks for the corrected translation!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to remind everyone that you're all invited to send me a textual or visual opinion/response to the class and its themes: city, political, right to the city, community, architecture, critique, praxis, pedagogy, Berlin, etc. Try to keep the text under 300 words. Will, Christian, and I are gathering the readings and plan to print them, along with introduction to group, opinions, and self-reflection/critique. Please send texts or images by Monday (or let us know if you need more time). If you have any further suggestions or input, please send a note along. Looking forward to reading your thoughts!

Kenny

hey all,

we would like to invite everyone to join our discussion preparing the next class on monday. it should be on the "BMW Guggenheim Lab - Berlin". we want to research and structure that tomorrow at will's place. so feel free to come around and bring thoughts, texts, links, ideas, crtitique, whatever.

9am - march 16th, tomorrow!
Finowstr. 32 / buzz: Kainz
10247 Berlin/Friedrichshain

see you!

hey, are you serious? tomorrow 9am??? or did you mean 9pm?

Hello everyone,

Yes, we are going to meet at 9am. If people are interested but (understandably) cannot make 9am, please feel free to suggest a time at the weekend and we'll do that!

Also, it is in dispute and open to input as to whether we actually discuss the BMW GL Berlin, or New York for example.

Best, Will

Yea, I would love to make it tomorrow, but 9 am isn't really possible. I would be open to meeting during the day on Sunday if that works for more people.

for my part, I could come tomorrow at 9am, but I would definitely support meeting on sunday, so most of the people can participate in the discussion.
I would also suggest talking about the goals and format of the class, as I mentioned in the discussion yesterday, hoping to encourage a reflection and application of the class-theme "city and the political" to the format/organisation of the class itself and potentially comparing it to other politically enageged groups (i.e. in relation to BGL, ect...)
In my opinion after two classes and tons of readings it would be a good time to formulate one, but most likely multiple standpoints and most importantly disuss it before publishing it.

best manuela

This might be a good counterpoint to the funding/museum discussion surrounding the bmw guggenheim: there was a website hack of the whitney biennial, claiming that they cut their funding from Sothebys and Deutsche Bank because their business practices didn't align with the museums ideology:
http://post.thing.net/node/3590
http://whitney2012.org/

Hi,

Sorry for the late response, but the internet is not working so well at my house. We are still going meet in the morning to discuss the next text (so we can distribute it at least a few days before the class) and printing project (because we wanted to have productive time of the day early in the morning). This was agreed upon by Will, Christian, and I a few days ago because we keep meeting to organize these things, and we realize that we don't get as much done in the evening.

Of course, this time doesn't work for everyone. And I am sorry that we aren't able to come to agreement on that tonight. But if anyone is interested in meeting over the weekend to discuss things. I am open for that. And further, we can/should reflect upon the class, aims, goals, etc, during the next class, where certainly everyone will be present. Cheers, Kenton

Hi ya'll,
Sorry to flood your email, but Dennis wanted me to post this Call For Papers for an interesting conference in Zurich over the summer. It look's really interesting, (maybe free accommodation), and Dennis and I plan to go ;-) Anyway, send something if you're interested: http://www.schuel.ch/index.php/international-interventions/events/intern...

Gnight! kenton

Hello everyone,

We're going to discuss a local spatial intervention — the BMW Guggenheim Lab — on Monday, 8pm, at Altes Finanzamt; Schönstedtstraße 7, Neukölln (Ground floor). Find links to videos and articles here: http://citypolitical.net/2012/03/16/6th-class-on-bmw-guggenheim-lab-etc/

See you there, Kenny

In addition to these links (as posted above):
protest-introduction berlin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzxMbRx6XN8
protest-new york
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfYkV4HveEU
background
http://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/56304
http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/autoindustrie/0,2828,771500,00...
http://www.5min.com/Video/The-Idea-Behind-the-New-BMW-Guggenheim-Lab-517...
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology

I found this one quite interesting as an example of articulating an own non-institutionalized standpoint in this debate
http://openpetition.de/petition/online/koalition-der-freien-szene-offene...

more tomorrow... m

Thanks for the links, there are a lot angles from which to approach this subject, and actually this surplus bothers me.

I worry that unless we choose a frame as an initial point of departure the discussion could become dispersive, in the sense of a general whinge about gentrification. In this regard it's a pity there is no text with a more substantial argument. Just off the top of my head the following questions spring to mind:

- what do we mean by gentrification
- the sociological and spatial composition of Kreuzberg and NoHo
- focus on subjective (organic shops/galleries) or objective factors (real estate ownership, zoning practice) in analysing gentrification
- role of art in generating new markets for real estate
- mobilisation of culture in the serve of brand construction
- networked economic and cultural power
- rhetorics of participation and corporate responsibility

Excuse the banality of this, but in what direction is the class intended to go?

Hi Everyone,

So we're reading "On The Commons" in An Architektur for Monday. You can find the text below. We will discuss the interview "Beyond Markets or States: Commoning as Collective Practice: Public Interview with Massimo De Angelis and Starvos Stavrides." The issue also has many good primary reading excerpts, but we will not focus the discussion on those.
http://www.mediafire.com/?3ylnzos4lc31qy8

See you Monday at 20.
Cheers,

Kenny

Hey all, I just got an invitation to the next symposium that's part of the IBA Berlin 2020, here concerning social housing. It looks like there will be some interesting speakers, and Andreas Ruby will be moderating. I'm not sure if the talks will be in English or German, but the event page and invitation was in both, so perhaps the event will be a mix as well:

We would like to inform you about the following event organised by the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment Berlin:

"Economic Housing Construction"

The third symposium in the series exploring the main themes in
the IBA Berlin 2020 opens the debate on innovative approaches to housing. The resources for housing developments, from building land to funding and energy, are limited. What will tomorrow's housing look like? How can planners ensure a social mix in urban districts? Can we afford to continually raise the bar on housing quality? What standards are viable and what factors can lower building costs and still create new qualities? Here, a series of examples illustrate different possible approaches, ranging from building with pre-cast industrial units to personal owner/user contributions, and from organising communal building to models of large-scale project development. The discussion will provide inputs for the "IBA Laboratory" where new ideas are to be tried and tested in a showcase form.

23 April 2012
3:30 pm - 7:30 pm

Villa Elisabeth
Invalidenstr. 3
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Please find attached the invitation for the event. Registration for the event is not required.

For more information please visit
http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/staedtebau/baukultur/iba/en/oekoba...

Best regards

Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment
Berlin
Team K
Am Köllnischen Park 3
10179 Berlin

The 8th class will be on April 16, 2012, 20:00, at Altez Finanzamt, Schönstedtstraße 7, in Neukölln. We welcome everybody to join our discussion on Pier Vittorio Aureli’s lecture at min2max: “The Monumentality of the Social” and his essay with Martino Tattara “Stop City.”

(1) https://vimeo.com/34324903
(2) http://www.gizmoweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/stop-city_dogma.pdf

More information here: http://citypolitical.net/2012/04/13/8th-class-on-pier-vittorio-aurelis-l...

we're gonna watch the video in class together, right?

Yes!

dear citypolitical people. kenny, will and i are producing some papers on "the city and the political". one for each class (up to the 7th class by now). that means printed papers featuring the texts we read (some abbreviated), important comments from the class discussion (anonymous), further submissions (we already invited you to send them, and do it again hereby) and something like an editorial or introduction. this is not an open process in terms of decisions because kenny, will and i will finally decide about layout, content and production. starting with the 8th class the mode of production or existence of these papers should be negotiated again. right now we just want to finish this thing because it's important to us and we want to have something to show what happend and happens in this class.

of course we still want you to send your thoughts on the class (up to 300 words etc. - see kennys post form march 9th). there have already been some submissions that are really great!

another important thing: everyone that would like to have his name as a classmember on this paper, please send an e-mail with your full name to "c.berkes@atmos-raumlabor.de" by may 2nd- we’re hoping for a long list! we cannot tell you what the papers exactly would look like in the end because it's in progress and changing. we just hope you have some faith in it.

your citychickens.

I agree with the idea of having an outcome of some sort of this class, but I do not understand the process of it being produced by the three of you. Why shouldn't it be possible to produce this in an open process with everyone who wants to be involved? Why shouldn't it be possible to negotiate about the modes of production? If participation, negotiation or collectively producing commons is too complicated/ or inefficient, then why are we even talking about these topics of the political and the commons in this class?
I find it quite puzzling that noone else it having a standpoint on this. Where are the 99% in this class? Or is everyone simply intrigued by this paradoxical situtation or is noone really part of it? Which are your expectations and what are the actual conditions of taking part in the class? I would really be interested in reading everyones opinion about that in this forum, rather than in a publication/paper having undergone a selection process by only three of us and thereby establishing a hierarchy in this Public School, which at least I considered to be an open community with open/democratic processes.
Finally for all of those, who feel excluded or are afraid of participation:
This event is taking place right now and might offer some insights:

New forms of political participation?
24th April 2012, 7 pm
http://www.einsteinfoundation.de/de/meetingeinstein.html

Keynote and public debate with Craig Calhoun, Einstein Visiting Fellow and director-elect of the London School of Economics and Political Science

Stuttgart21, Occupy Wall Street, or the emergence of the Pirate Party – around the globe people feel excluded by traditional political institutions and decision-making processes. Alternative forms of participation are gaining more and more importance. What are the reasons? How does this affect our political systems? What dangers and opportunities exist herein? Einstein Visiting Fellow Craig Calhoun discusses the possibilities and limits of alternative participation processes.

Panel Participants

Andrea Fischer // Former Federal Minister of Health
Martin Haase // University of Bamberg, Member of the Pirate Party Germany
Claus Offe // Hertie School of Governance Berlin
Michael Zürn // Social Science Research Center Berlin

Craig Calhoun

Craig Calhoun is a prestigious sociologist and advocate of using social science to address issues of public concern. He is president of the Social Science Research Council, Professor at New York University, Director of NYU's Institute for Public Knowledge and director-elect of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Since October 2010, he is Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

Einstein Visting Fellow

The aim of the funding program “Einstein Visiting Fellow” of the Einstein Foundation Berlin is to integrate outstanding foreign scientists into the Berlin research landscape.

hey, I don't think that everything that one produces have to be open for everyone else. kenny, will and christian clearly said that they want to produce some papers on "the city and the political", not that they will produce an "official" paper, or anything like that... I think they should do whatever they feel like doing and if you or other people want to produce something open, then you should do it too. The more the better.

ok i'll chip in too, as this might be an interesting discussion, but right now the terms are quite confused.
on the one hand, i could defend christian, william and kenny by saying they repeatedly brought up the idea of a publication and asked for other people's opinions, at least in the early phases - this defense would be valid, but not very interesting.
but in your critique, you seem to throw around some terms that could use some interrogation.. what precisely is an open / democratic process? and can one really avoid hierarchies when it comes to the act of decision?
i personally have nothing against a select group of people making these kinds of decisions - the rhetoric of complete openness and participation can easily become an ideological obfuscation that conceals real hierarchies.
also, i think your reference to the 99% is quite unfair. the 99% as a notion pushed forward by the occupy movement is the group of disempowered that feels excluded by decision making processes while suffering from the decisions. if you feel disempowered because you have been excluded from certain decisions, i understand that, but unless you suffer from them of have real ethical problems with their outcome, i don't think the comparison is warranted.
but maybe i just cannot imagine what agency within the complete openness you seem to envision would be like... and maybe we should just occupy the class.

last-monday-people agreed on reading "The Creation of the Urban Commons" by David Harvey. It's part of his new book "Rebel Cities" and a little bit more than 20 pages but worth reading. Since my aaaaarg account is "currently pending approval" (serious language, cute) i kindly ask someone else to put the link here.. thanks, see you.