WELTSTADT – Who creates the city?
Posted on Monday, 22. April 2013
Weltstadt is a future archive that is constantly growing – stay tuned for more.
by Matthias Böttger, Angelika Fitz and Tim Rieniets
Who creates the city? Who shapes its future? – Inspired by these central questions, Weltstadt – Who creates the city? connects projects by various Goethe-Institutes and their local partners. Notwithstanding different formats and approaches, they share a common interest in testing urban visions and new constellations of actors.
Cities today are in constant flux, adapting to the many problems they are facing such as migration, mobility, security, social polarization and demographic change. Besides experts, politicians and investors, new actors and groups are answering to these challenges, questioning traditional practices of top-down city planning and development. Against this backdrop, the project Weltstadt – Who creates the city? asks: Who really creates the city today? And who will shape its future? Inspired by these central questions, Weltstadt aims to connect projects initiated by the Goethe-Instituts and their local partners worldwide, which all deal with new forms of local city-making. Weltstadt identifies projects that share a common interest in testing urban visions and are engaged in compiling new constellations of urban actors for a better tomorrow.
In our research we observe a globally increasing significance of alternative actors and new forms of participation in urban planning processes. Today, urban planning as a centrally organized concern of experts is supplemented, infiltrated and at times replaced by new constellations and actors. Neither top-down nor bottom-up processes, these urban planning practices are productive interfaces of alternative, often self-organized projects connecting with traditional political and administrative structures. Weltstadt showcases such local cultures of urban creation and supports their further development. With its newspapers, website and local workshops Weltstadt promotes the dialogue and exchange among local actors in various cities hosting a Goethe-Institut.
Set within this theme, Weltstadt explores different formats and approaches from around the world: For example experiences in further developing informal settlements in Johannesburg, Seoul and Sao Paulo are compared. Here demands for participation on the part of the so-called “New Middle Class” in emerging nations and new concept of city and citizenship are of particular relevance. The potentials of cultural actors in abandoned urban spaces are in the focus of research conducted in Belgrade and Riga. In the crisis-ridden cities of Southern Europe and against the backdrop of social polarization in Brazil we investigate new forms of co-production and sharing. Crowd-sourcing plays an important role in projects in New York and Bangalore, where a new platform shares citizens’ experiences and new ideas can be exchanged and listen to. The complex relationship between the city and its hinterland is exemplified by the conditions of arrival in Dakar and Ulan Bator.
The potentials of informal structures and of new urban actors are the core questions of this research. Through not only identifying but also exemplifying existing and possible knowledge transfers between different urban contexts and showcasing these new urban actors, we want to contribute to the understanding of our planet as an urban platform, a true Weltstadt.
The project Weltstadt – Who creates the city? is a joint initiative of the Goethe-Institut and the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development. Curators Matthias Böttger, Angelika Fitz and Tim Rieniets (until 2013) were tasked with developing the contents of “Weltstadt – Who creates the city?” A conference to feedback and consolidate the results will be held on May 3 2014 in Berlin.
by Matthias Böttger, Angelika Fitz and Tim Rieniets
Who creates the city? Who shapes its future? – Inspired by these central questions, Weltstadt – Who creates the city? connects projects by various Goethe-Institutes and their local partners. Notwithstanding different formats and approaches, they share a common interest in testing urban visions and new constellations of actors.
Cities today are in constant flux, adapting to the many problems they are facing such as migration, mobility, security, social polarization and demographic change. Besides experts, politicians and investors, new actors and groups are answering to these challenges, questioning traditional practices of top-down city planning and development. Against this backdrop, the project Weltstadt – Who creates the city? asks: Who really creates the city today? And who will shape its future? Inspired by these central questions, Weltstadt aims to connect projects initiated by the Goethe-Instituts and their local partners worldwide, which all deal with new forms of local city-making. Weltstadt identifies projects that share a common interest in testing urban visions and are engaged in compiling new constellations of urban actors for a better tomorrow.
In our research we observe a globally increasing significance of alternative actors and new forms of participation in urban planning processes. Today, urban planning as a centrally organized concern of experts is supplemented, infiltrated and at times replaced by new constellations and actors. Neither top-down nor bottom-up processes, these urban planning practices are productive interfaces of alternative, often self-organized projects connecting with traditional political and administrative structures. Weltstadt showcases such local cultures of urban creation and supports their further development. With its newspapers, website and local workshops Weltstadt promotes the dialogue and exchange among local actors in various cities hosting a Goethe-Institut.
Set within this theme, Weltstadt explores different formats and approaches from around the world: For example experiences in further developing informal settlements in Johannesburg, Seoul and Sao Paulo are compared. Here demands for participation on the part of the so-called “New Middle Class” in emerging nations and new concept of city and citizenship are of particular relevance. The potentials of cultural actors in abandoned urban spaces are in the focus of research conducted in Belgrade and Riga. In the crisis-ridden cities of Southern Europe and against the backdrop of social polarization in Brazil we investigate new forms of co-production and sharing. Crowd-sourcing plays an important role in projects in New York and Bangalore, where a new platform shares citizens’ experiences and new ideas can be exchanged and listen to. The complex relationship between the city and its hinterland is exemplified by the conditions of arrival in Dakar and Ulan Bator.
The potentials of informal structures and of new urban actors are the core questions of this research. Through not only identifying but also exemplifying existing and possible knowledge transfers between different urban contexts and showcasing these new urban actors, we want to contribute to the understanding of our planet as an urban platform, a true Weltstadt.
The project Weltstadt – Who creates the city? is a joint initiative of the Goethe-Institut and the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development. Curators Matthias Böttger, Angelika Fitz and Tim Rieniets (until 2013) were tasked with developing the contents of “Weltstadt – Who creates the city?” A conference to feedback and consolidate the results will be held on May 3 2014 in Berlin.
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