Content

Housing and urban systems have emerged in each city and society reflecting variegated dwelling practices and spatial relations as well as variegated historical processes. Housing and urban systems thus provide a particular lens into societies and social change. This course addresses the built environment as a fundamental socio-economic dimension. The course begins by considering the socio-economic and political importance of the built environment and goes on to elaborate how housing and urban systems have interacted with processes of international convergence and divergence. We pay attention to the different actors involved in both urban/housing policies and different housing market segments (i.e. the owner-occupied, private rented and social rented markets). We discuss the following topics: political economy and other approaches in urban/housing studies; ideology, welfare and urban/housing policies; housing tenure, financialization and non-market housing; gentrification, uneven development and neighbourhood/urban change; urban neoliberalism and entrepreneurialism; and finally, comparative urban and housing studies. The growing commodification of housing markets and urban space have helped reconfigure the field of urban/housing studies within the social sciences in recent decades and have reemphasised the importance of the built environment in understanding both cities and societies, including an appreciation of the differences between cities and countries.

Course material

Book chapters, papers and videos provided on Toledo.

Format: more information

• 11 lectures/seminars of 3 hours each, with preparation in the form of readings and videos
• 1 one-day field trip or other interactive and participative activity

Explanation

Per session, the different readings and videos will be studied in advance by all students. During the classroom sessions you will discuss difficulties with and reflections on the content of the readings and videos with your peers and with the lecturer.

Participation in seminars is obligatory. Non-participation will exclude the student from having her/his paper marked. In case the absence is legalised (e.g. medical proof), the lecturer needs to be contacted as soon as possible.

All students will be scheduled to write 3 critical summaries of / reflections on the readings and videos of 3 selected weeks. Students will engage with the readings/videos for those classes and relate those to other readings and classes and prepare statements to be discussed with the other students and the lecturer. We will use additional methods to facilitate student participation and discussion. The 3 summaries count for 25% each (75%) while class/activity participation make up 25% of the exam result.

Information about retaking exams

Students who fail one activities will receive a new individual assignment. But students who have not handed in more than one assignment in time or have missed more than one session without a valid reason, will not have the opportunity to retake the exam (i.e. the activity).

Content

1) introductory lectures: These introduce the field of political ecology and lay the foundations for the discussion seminars which follow. The lectures deal with key theoretical debates and introduce a number of key concepts in political ecology. Finally, these introductory lectures provide an introduction to the assignments.

2) Assignment-based discussion seminars or guest lectures on specific topics

3) a guided process of peer-supported paper writing

Course material

Study cost: 1-10 euros (The information about the study costs as stated here gives an indication and only represents the costs for purchasing new materials. There might be some electronic or second-hand copies available as well. You can use LIMO to check whether the textbook is available in the library. Any potential printing costs and optional course material are not included in this price.)

Academic journal articles and book chapters (the exact course material might differ from year to year depending on the state of the art of the academic and broader political debate). A reading list with both required and supplementary readings will be provided. Full texts of all required readings will be available. 

Format: more information

Discussion - Individual assignment - Paper - Practical lecture - Traditional lecture

The contact hours are divided between (guest)lectures, discussion seminars and guided peer-supported learning. For the discussion seminars, the students are supposed to read one academic journal article or book chapter in preparation, which can be a theoretical text and/or a specific case study. The peer-supported learning takes the form of discussions in smaller groups around pre-decided topics, in preparation of the final individual (exam) paper.

Explanation

The student will be evaluated based on their participation in class and an individual paper. In this paper, the student demonstrates their knowledge of political ecology theories, and their capacity to apply these to analyze a specific case study of choice. 

Information about retaking exams

Paper only. Please note that the participation marks stay the same as those obtained during the first examination period. 

Content

Students will individually develop a two-pronged analysis assignment. 1] site analysis; 2] relevant case study. There will be a given format for both components.

Course material

Reader with relevant articles and case studies, base maps

Content

Students will work in groups to develop a stakeholder assignment that is directly related to the studio context. They will be introduced to various methods of stakeholder engagement. Guidelines will frame the format of the assignment.

Course material

Reader with relevant articles and case studies, base maps

Format: more information

Practice session

Content

The urban fabrics studio is developed with students working in smaller groups. Intermediate presentations to a larger jury accompany the different phases of the design. The final jury is composed of staff members and external jury members. The requirements of the final presentation is the basis of the course evaluation.

Course material

See content

Content

The urban fabrics studio is organised as a classic design studio. Students first analyse the given site, clarify the problem formulation, make a project definition while developing design strategies and development concepts. 

Course material

See content

Content

The developed model of an urban fabric, its concept and concrete strategy, are to be represented in professional documents to the standards of current practice and as well as presented.

Course material

reader with relevant articles and case studies, base maps

Information about retaking exams

Content

• The impact of the modern movement on post war urban planning: overview of the main conceptual frames, their basic argumentation and their origin and evolution since the thirties. The inventory of prevailing design schemes, their application in practice and their incidence on the different scale levels. The different evolution within Europe, the US and the experimental innovation in the colonies.
• The search for identity: overview of the theoretical insights focusing on the meaning of place and the image of the city in Europe and the U.S.
• Different sources of criticism against the modern movement: the sociological response and the reaction of Team X. The consensus around of a new attitude identifying choice and diversity as means for enhancing personal affinity with the urban space.  
• The city as a mega-structure versus the formal abstraction of existing urban models: two basic attitudes of combining an overall structure with a changeable infill. Evaluation of the difference between both attitudes. Discussion of the practical implications of both visions on the various scale levels by comparing relevant examples in different countries.
• The distinction of another modern tradition as founding concept for the urban project. The principle of the strategic project that encompasses and gears the urban transformation: the origins of this concept and its shifting interpretations manifested by its main protagonists. Discussion of main tendencies using illustrative examples.
• The return to nostalgia: overview of the theories and city projects aiming at the reconstruction of what used to be the city. Different forms of this tendency in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.
• The advent of the nebulous town: discussion of the socio-economic forces that made the compact city disintegrate.  Subsequent changes in behavioral patterns and the shift towards new forms of centrality.  The generative form of the new urban territory and its differentiation according to circumstances: an overview of the ongoing analyses and the interpretations.
• Strategies for urban coherence in the new condition of urbanity: selection of archetypical projects with the intention of assessing contemporary design attitudes, such as insertion, sublimation, substitution, artificial topography, ecological remediation, and metaphors like puzzle, domino, carpet, etc.

Content

• The impact of the modern movement on post war urban planning: overview of the main conceptual frames, their basic argumentation and their origin and evolution since the thirties. The inventory of prevailing design schemes, their application in practice and their incidence on the different scale levels. The different evolution within Europe, the US and the experimental innovation in the colonies.
• The search for identity: overview of the theoretical insights focusing on the meaning of place and the image of the city in Europe and the U.S.
• Different sources of criticism against the modern movement: the sociological response and the reaction of Team X. The consensus around of a new attitude identifying choice and diversity as means for enhancing personal affinity with the urban space.  
• The city as a mega-structure versus the formal abstraction of existing urban models: two basic attitudes of combining an overall structure with a changeable infill. Evaluation of the difference between both attitudes. Discussion of the practical implications of both visions on the various scale levels by comparing relevant examples in different countries.
• The distinction of another modern tradition as founding concept for the urban project. The principle of the strategic project that encompasses and gears the urban transformation: the origins of this concept and its shifting interpretations manifested by its main protagonists. Discussion of main tendencies using illustrative examples.
• The return to nostalgia: overview of the theories and city projects aiming at the reconstruction of what used to be the city. Different forms of this tendency in Europe, the U.S. and Asia.
• The advent of the nebulous town: discussion of the socio-economic forces that made the compact city disintegrate.  Subsequent changes in behavioral patterns and the shift towards new forms of centrality.  The generative form of the new urban territory and its differentiation according to circumstances: an overview of the ongoing analyses and the interpretations.
• Strategies for urban coherence in the new condition of urbanity: selection of archetypical projects with the intention of assessing contemporary design attitudes, such as insertion, sublimation, substitution, artificial topography, ecological remediation, and metaphors like puzzle, domino, carpet, etc.

Explanation

Based on Paper

Content

• Through a combination of selected reading, ex cathedra lectures and critical analysis of selected strategic interventions the students are introduced into the basics of the theory and practice of collective action, strategy and strategic spatial planning, their roots, problems and challenges, context, debates over planning and development, emerging new discourses, and the differences with traditional planning (land use planning, master planning). 
• Class discussions on the impacts of value systems and the changing paradigms in strategic spatial planning on the output, product, process and the planner him or herself, aim to make the student aware of the highly political role of planning, and to introduce the students in selected topics (such as power relations, diversity, ethics…).
• Relevant strategic interventions (they may vary from an urban brown field to regional public transport) will be discussed in guest lectures deepening the basics of planning theory and practice. The critical aspects of various interventions are highlighted in a roughly comparable way. The established theoretical and practical framework will provide criteria for the assessment of planning practices and for a theoretical feedback on the analysis of strategic interventions. 
• An introduction to analytical, planning, implementation, communicative and representation techniques (included a clear understanding of where, when and how these might be used) and skills combined with OPS must give the students the technical and instrumental skills needed to implement the accumulated knowledge and understanding in studios.
• Substantive issues raised in the studio will become topics of theoretical reflection during this course (process architecture, programming, analytic and exploratory research, types of plans, framing, strategies,…).

Content

The course integrates praxis and methods and will be closely interlinked with the courses ‘human settlements and planning’, ‘Critical review of sustainable development policies and planning’, Process and project management, ‘Institutional aspects of spatial planning’, the studio and the field trip. All together these components constitute the cluster ‘strategic spatial planning’ 

Explanation

Partial or continuous assessment of participation during contact hours. (final) Exam during the examination period: written paper/project, paper presentation in group, group discussion.

Content

The built environment in developing countries is characterized inter alia by rapid growth of towns and cities, restructuring of traditional modes of dwelling and inhabitation, new ways of planning and organizing the built environment, and new processes and production in the building sector. These aspects are embedded in changes in societies, cultures, nations, regions and communities operating on various scale levels from dwellings to entire (city) regions and indeed to the global scale of interactions. Increasingly the complexity of such changes is part of changing perceptions of development, at present oriented towards the desire to achieve more sustainable human settlements development. The course is structured in 16-18 sessions of 1 1/2h each. These sessions cover among others the following topics: 

Introduction, structure, assessment and practicalities; 
Concepts of development as related to human settlements; 
Urbanization and settlement change; 
Urbanization: facts and figures, ways of life, forms; 
Responses to changing human settlements on global and local scale (programmes and projects of the past 4 decades at various scale levels including new approaches related to strategic planning & intervention); 
Evolution in the housing and building sector; 
Habitat Agenda; 
Case studies in selected contexts.

*

The built environment in developing countries is characterized inter alia by rapid growth of towns and cities, restructuring of traditional modes of dwelling and inhabitation, new ways of planning and organizing the built environment, and new processes and production in the building sector. These aspects are embedded in changes in societies, cultures, nations, regions and communities operating on various scale levels from dwellings to entire (city) regions and indeed to the global scale of interactions. Increasingly the complexity of such changes is part of changing perceptions of development, at present oriented towards the desire to achieve more sustainable human settlements development. The course is structured in 16-18 sessions of 1 1/2h each. These sessions cover among others the following topics: 
 

• Introduction, structure, assessment and practicalities; 
• Concepts of development as related to human settlements; 
• Urbanization and settlement change; 
• Urbanization: facts and figures, ways of life, forms; 
• Responses to changing human settlements on global and local scale (programmes and projects of the past 4 decades at various scale levels including new approaches related to strategic planning & intervention); 
• Evolution in the housing and building sector; 
• Habitat Agenda; 
• Case studies in selected contexts.

Course material

See content

Format: more information

Traditional lecture

Explanation

During the exam period, students hand in an individual paper based on a case study project, examined critically on the basis of key themes for Human Settlements in Development. Thereafter individual papers are used as the basis for a group presentation. Students are examined by the tutor on their capacity to evaluate interventions in human settlements and on their ability to learn from other group members and cooperate with professionals from a wide range of backgrounds.

Content

See Activities

*

• Concepts of geospatial databases and geospatial data modelling
• Functionality of geographic information systems
• Sources of data for geospatial databases
• Principles of earth remote sensing
• Principles of spatial data infrastructures and geospatial web services
• Princples of spatial decision support systems and spatial planning support systems

Course material

Study cost: 51-75 euros (The information about the study costs as stated here gives an indication and only represents the costs for purchasing new materials. There might be some electronic or second-hand copies available as well. You can use LIMO to check whether the textbook is available in the library. Any potential printing costs and optional course material are not included in this price.)

• Presentations
• Background documents

Content

See Activities

*

• Work through an elaborated GIS-software tutorial, with possibility for advice and feedback

Course material

• Software tutorial with accompanying geodatasets

Content

See Activities

*

• Min. 3 and max. 5 spatial planning cases at various spatial and temporal scale levels with a pertinent role for GI S&T

Course material

• Geodatasets
• Background documents

Content

Presentations by 7-10 different experts about their way of analysing neighborhoods. Experts have different backgrounds - among them architecture, urbanism, planning, social geography, visual arts, anthropology.

Content

Students work individually to develop their own case study of a chosen neighborhood, applying some of the methods, techniques and media presented in the lectures.

Content

Students present the results of their urban analysis exercise.

Explanation

Students hand in a paper with their urban analysis. They give a presentation based on this paper during the exam period and are examined by the tutors on their choice of methods and media.

Content

To be determined by the student and subject to approval by the POC

Format: more information

Draft research paper

Content

To be determined by the student and subject to approval by the POC

Format: more information

Writing and presenting the research paper

Content

• General introduction of the problem of economics, sustainability and design
• Importance of layout upon costs.  As well the layout of building types as of neighbourhood-tissues are considered.  The “element method” is introduced in order to control the costs over the different phases of the design process.The effect of the layout upon running costs per floor area of buildings is elaborated for building types and neighbourhood-tissues types. 
• As an important case of running costs heating/cooling costs are considered.  Layout and sun access are analysed on building and neighbourhood level (shadow charts, solar diagrams, solar heat supply)
• Sustainability indicators and ecological costs are included

Explanation

Oral exam over all the aspects introduced in the course based on the application by the student of concepts and methods in her/his own context

Content

NB: this academic year, the course is taught completely during the first semester.

Inclusive design is more than a technique or style. It is a design approach that is stepwise constructed from empirical research and theories in architecture, ergonomics, humanities, legislation and human rights, demographic studies, design theory, etc. Central to this design approach is the notion of architecture as instrument to create enabling environments, whereby limitations and handicap are viewed as inherently woven into the human life cycle, as dynamic and environmentally related.

After a general introduction to the concept and principles of inclusive design, several aspects of this design approach are addressed in more detail in dialogue with architects/designers, researchers, user/experts, accessibility professionals, etc.

Part 0: Introduction

In a first session the aim of the course and the evaluation is explained. Subsequently the concept and principles of inclusive design are introduced.

Part 1: Inclusive design from different perspectives

In this part experts and actors from diverse domains testify about their experience and research into Inclusive Design.

• from architectural practice: architects/designers of relevant buildings;
• from policy making: local policy makers and other actors;
• from scientific research: researchers in architecture and other domains.

For these guest lectures students are expected to read the available texts (if any) in advance, and to ask questions about the applications and/or research activities.
 

Part 2: Inclusive design 'in situ'

In collaboration with user/experts (students/staff living with an impairment or on the autism spectrum, older people, …) students evaluate to what extent an existing building embodies the principles of inclusive design, and formulate suggestions for improvement.

Part 3: Inclusive design in your own design practice

In collaboration with user/experts students evaluate to what extent their own design (a building or space, designed in previous years) embodies the principles of inclusive design, and formulate suggestions for improvement.

Course material

• Book chapters and articles
• PowerPoint presentations via Toledo

Format: more information

Besides attending (guest) lectures students are expected to work on several tasks (see Content).

Explanation

Active participation in organized guest lectures
Assignments with evaluation
Individual paper discussed during exam

Content

This year wil we read and discuss my new book 'Ending the Anthropocene. Essays on Activism in the Age of collapse'

https://www.nai010.com/en/publicaties/ending-the-anthropocene/245929/

Here the cover blurb: "In this book, activist philosopher and philosophical activist Lieven de Cauter investigates the idea that if we want to avoid collapse, we have to end the Anthropocene – the geological era of the gigantic, devastating impact of our species on planet Earth. It might even be, he argues, that the collapse of our current, growth-maximizing system is the only hope for the biosphere.

Offering case studies on urban activism alongside more general reflections on civic action and social movements, De Cauter moves from the political melancholy caused by the near certainty of climate disaster and meditations on the end of ‘the Age of Man’, towards reflections on more hopeful events of our times, like the resurgence of the commons. He hails the rediscovery of this forgotten and excluded third besides public and private, arguing it contains the seeds of another worldview and another politics. From this new perspective identity and heterotopia, other spaces as places for otherness, can be read in a new light. This collection of writings closes with texts on the corona crisis. Biopolitics, the care for the life of the population by the state, has gained a new topicality in this age of pandemics.

The mix of philosophical, theoretical texts and newspaper articles make for a broadly accessible, exciting book of ‘activist essays’, in accordance with the basic creed of its author: ‘pessimism in theory, optimism in practice’. Even if geologists are not quite sure when the Anthropocene has begun, it is high time to end it."

Beside the reading and discussing of this book, students will present cases related to the themes of the book. 

Course material

Ending the Anthropocene. Essays on Activism in the Age of collapse' https://www.nai010.com/en/publicaties/ending-the-anthropocene/245929/

The book will be available in the Acco Heverlee bookschop at De Moete (small Alma)

Language of instruction: more information

The course will be held in English

Format: more information

The classes consist basically of readings and discussions, but student presentations, skype interviews with specialists and even excursions are possible. 

Information about retaking exams

In the September examination period, the oral exam is replaced by a paper.

Content

To be determined by the student and subject to approval by the POC.

Content

To be determined by the student and subject to approval by the POC

Format: more information

Writing and presenting the research paper

Content

The topic for a written thesis can be varied. It will normally engage in a state-of-the-art research. Students are encouraged  to study topics that are relevant for the urban problems encountered in a context of human settlements. Each topic has to be proposed or accepted by a promoter. Individual guidance is offered by this promoter, possibly assisted by a junior staff member. Furthermore the topic has to be approved by the POC.

Explanation

Students who opt for a written thesis will present their topic in the month of November. The bulk of the research, however, will be carried out during the second semester. Evaluation is partially based upon intermediate and final presentations of the work. The main accent nevertheless is on the quality of the written thesis. Criteria for assessment are clarity of the argument, logical structure, quality of writing, thoroughness of research, completeness of bibliography, correct use of sources, carefulness of the presentation (lay-out), etcetera.

Content

The fieldwork occurs on-site or in a relevant context (in Belgium). It builds on the beforehand realized desktop and literature research and allows students to gain a more nuanced understanding of sites. It emphasizes the concrete and tangible in particular contexts. A precise methodology is prepared prior to the fieldwork exercise and the work itself is intensively guided. It has a component of interaction with relevant stakeholders and, where permissible, interaction with local students.

Course material

There is intensive pre-studio preparation by the teachers and students are provided with relevant literature and case studies, base maps and a studio methodology. Throughout the semester, there are punctual lectures within the studio as well as evening lectures by renowned guests.

Format: more information

Fieldwork

Is also included in other courses

H03Z6B : Studio Landscape Urbanism

Content

The seminar will focus on a synthesis of the semester-long work. It re-presents the work in the form of either an exhibit and/or curated discussion. The seminar focuses on a number of themes distilled from the work and works as a platform for discussion with guests and other students in KUL Department of Architecture. Students also work with the teachers to develop a publication (newspaper, booklet, etc.).

Course material

Reader with relevant articles and case studies, base maps

Format: more information

Practice session

Is also included in other courses

H03Z6B : Studio Landscape Urbanism

Content

The landscape urbanism studio is developed with students working in smaller groups. Intermediate presentations to a larger jury accompany the different phases of the design. The final jury is composed of staff members and external jury members. The requirements of the final presentation is the basis of the course evaluation.

Course material

interpret existing sources and studies, statistical data, (historical) maps and (aerial) photographs.

Is also included in other courses

H03Z6B : Studio Landscape Urbanism

Content

The landscape urbanism studio is organised as a classic design studio. Students first analyse the given site and clarify the problem formulation and fine-tune the project definition while developing in an iterative process, design strategies and testing development concepts. 

Course material

   reader with relevant articles and case studies, base maps

Is also included in other courses

H03Z6B : Studio Landscape Urbanism

Content

The urban design of the urban site,  its development concept and concrete strategy, are to be represented in professional documents to the standards of current practice and are as well presented publicly.

Is also included in other courses

H03Z6B : Studio Landscape Urbanism

Information about retaking exams

No 2nd examination opportunity.

Content

Sustainable development policies have emerged internationally since the second half of the past century. Taking the large diversity of policy documents, programmes, strategies, concepts and instruments applied in this field in different contexts as a starting point, the main focus of the course is their advanced critical assessment. Not only in terms of the desired or effective results, but also by analysing the social, economic and political contexts in which these policies and their implementation take place. All of this viewed through a spatial lens.

On the global level, some key policy documents like the Brundtland report (1987), the UN Agenda 21 (1992) and the Millennium goals (2000) are briefly analysed and critically assessed. More recent agreements and policy guidelines like the UN Agenda on Sustainable development (SDG’s, 2015), the New urban Agenda (Habitat III, Quito, 2016) or other more specific policy documents like the Paris agreement on Climate change (UNFCCC, 2015) are discussed.

The main focus of the course however is the critical analysis of a wide existing diversity of development policy documents and instruments across continents, countries, cities and territories, at different scales. More specifically, the relation these kind of development policies have with the territories they are designed for – or even more relevant, with the adjacent ones experiencing the effects of such territorially designed policies – is critically analysed. The spatial impact of development policies on human settlements is assessed with focus on urban and regional scales.

This course focusses as well on mobility issues. Considered as one of the main challenges in urban and regional development, e.a. related with climate change, the relationship between space and mobility is explored, analysed and, through existing or planned policies or projects, critically assessed. 

The extent to which the different policies and tools can be called realistic, implementable, effective, efficient, … is explored through a joint critical assessment. Students are introduced into the world of assessment methods and instruments and how to critically assess these assessment tools.

Students prepare, present and discuss critical reviews of a varied range of policy documents, development plans or projects related to the human settlement field and applied on various geographical levels like cities, neighbourhoods, river valleys, regions, nations, socio-cultural entities, etc.. While doing so, the following elements are taking into account:

• Analysis of the reasons to develop and approve a policy plan on sustainable development. Why at this level and what kind of political processes are at stake? Which concepts and methods were used? What focus was taken into account, which elements were not included and why? What’s the level of detail ?  Is there also a corresponding budget an implementation plan?
• Analysis of who was involved in the decision making process. How priorities were set, were local needs defined and taken into account? Who was actually involved and in which way? Was there a visioning process or rather pragmatic problem solving? Which decision making mechanisms? Where stakeholders included, which ones and how frequently ?
• Analysis of the positions and roles. Who were the beneficiaries? Who could exercise power? How priorities were formulated and chosen?  Was diversity taken into account? Which groups were dominant?
• Analysis of time issues, based on philosophical concepts.
• Analysis of the implementation trajectory. What are available resources? Is it visible in budget plans or more sectoral plans? Any specific procedures? Is there a monitoring system set up?

Content

Sustainable development policies have emerged internationally since the second half of the past century. Taking the large diversity of policy documents, programmes, strategies, concepts and instruments applied in this field in different contexts as a starting point, the main focus of the course is their advanced critical assessment. Not only in terms of the desired or effective results, but also by analysing the social, economic and political contexts in which these policies and their implementation take place. All of this viewed through a spatial lens.

On the global level, some key policy documents like the Brundtland report (1987), the UN Agenda 21 (1992) and the Millennium goals (2000) are briefly analysed and critically assessed. More recent agreements and policy guidelines like the UN Agenda on Sustainable development (SDG’s, 2015), the New urban Agenda (Habitat III, Quito, 2016) or other more specific policy documents like the Paris agreement on Climate change (UNFCCC, 2015) are discussed.

The main focus of the course however is the critical analysis of a wide existing diversity of development policy documents and instruments across continents, countries, cities and territories, at different scales. More specifically, the relation these kind of development policies have with the territories they are designed for – or even more relevant, with the adjacent ones experiencing the effects of such territorially designed policies – is critically analysed. The spatial impact of development policies on human settlements is assessed with focus on urban and regional scales.

This course focusses as well on mobility issues. Considered as one of the main challenges in urban and regional development, e.a. related with climate change, the relationship between space and mobility is explored, analysed and, through existing or planned policies or projects, critically assessed. 

The extent to which the different policies and tools can be called realistic, implementable, effective, efficient, … is explored through a joint critical assessment. Students are introduced into the world of assessment methods and instruments and how to critically assess these assessment tools.

Students prepare, present and discuss critical reviews of a varied range of policy documents, development plans or projects related to the human settlement field and applied on various geographical levels like cities, neighbourhoods, river valleys, regions, nations, socio-cultural entities, etc.. While doing so, the following elements are taking into account:

• Analysis of the reasons to develop and approve a policy plan on sustainable development. Why at this level and what kind of political processes are at stake? Which concepts and methods were used? What focus was taken into account, which elements were not included and why? What’s the level of detail ?  Is there also a corresponding budget an implementation plan?
• Analysis of who was involved in the decision making process. How priorities were set, were local needs defined and taken into account? Who was actually involved and in which way? Was there a visioning process or rather pragmatic problem solving? Which decision making mechanisms? Where stakeholders included, which ones and how frequently ?
• Analysis of the positions and roles. Who were the beneficiaries? Who could exercise power? How priorities were formulated and chosen?  Was diversity taken into account? Which groups were dominant?
• Analysis of time issues, based on philosophical concepts.
• Analysis of the implementation trajectory. What are available resources? Is it visible in budget plans or more sectoral plans? Any specific procedures? Is there a monitoring system set up?

Explanation

Discussion Paper reflection

Content

The 4-week (and full-time) intensive studio course will develop skills in territorial analysis and the creation of urbanism strategies that work hand-in-hand with ecologies. There will be a strong focus on integrating the often contested concerns from various stakeholders. Throughout the process there will as well be interaction with experts from various disciplines. Students will develop understandings and projects across scale (from the territorial to the urban design and urban tissue) and time frames (defining actions for immediate implementation and strategies for the long-term) while acquiring various skills and learning tools of landscape urbanism such as transects, deep sections, etc. As in practice, this type of work is taking place is collaboration if different kinds, the work method of the studio includes group work, work in pairs and different interaction forms with stakeholders and experts Fieldwork, essential as method for documentation, notation and interpretation as well as tangible encounter with the landscape, will be an essential component of the process.

Course material

There will be a strong focus on integrating the often contested concerns from various stakeholders. Throughout the process there will as well be interaction with experts from various disciplines

Fieldwork, essential as method for documentation, notation and interpretation as well as tangible encounter with the landscape, will be an essential component of the process.

Content

The 4-week (and full-time) intensive studio course will develop skills in territorial analysis and the creation of urbanism strategies that work hand-in-hand with ecologies. There will be a strong focus on integrating the often contested concerns from various stakeholders. Throughout the process there will as well be interaction with experts from various disciplines. Students will develop understandings and projects across scale (from the territorial to the urban design and urban tissue) and time frames (defining actions for immediate implementation and strategies for the long-term) while acquiring various skills and learning tools of landscape urbanism such as transects, deep sections, etc. As in practice, this type of work is taking place is collaboration if different kinds, the work method of the studio includes group work, work in pairs and different interaction forms with stakeholders and experts Fieldwork, essential as method for documentation, notation and interpretation as well as tangible encounter with the landscape, will be an essential component of the process.

Course material

As in practice, this type of work is taking place is collaboration if different kinds, the work method of the studio includes group work, work in pairs and different interaction forms with stakeholders and experts.

Information about retaking exams

Content

The course deals with the city as context, issue and substance of architecture, and as primary locus of modernity. It clarifies the relation between architecture and urbanity within a condition of modernity (modernization, globalization, urban development).

Course material

A reader will be made available for the students. The powerpoint presentations of the lectures are made available on Toledo.

Is also included in other courses

H0P03A : Modernity and Urbanity: Capita Selecta from Architectural Theory and Criticism. Gender, Diversity, Power and Urban Life

Content

The course deals with the city as context, issue and substance of architecture, and as primary locus of modernity. It clarifies the relation between architecture and urbanity within a condition of modernity (modernization, globalization, urban development). During the discussion sessions, students actively engage with relevant articles and projects.

Course material

A reader will be made available for the students. The powerpoint presentations of the lectures are made available on Toledo.

Is also included in other courses

H0P03A : Modernity and Urbanity: Capita Selecta from Architectural Theory and Criticism. Gender, Diversity, Power and Urban Life

Content

Starting from the material culture turn in anthropology, the course takes off with a critical reflection on materiality, material culture, matter, objects and their biographies; over the course of the weeks the course zooms in on the various strands in the anthropology of material culture, on objects and their agency in relation to the ontological turn in anthropology, on materials and materiality, housing culture, and images and photographs as objects; we understand material culture through the sensuous and aesthetics to end with ethnographic examples of technology, tinkering and repair.

The course engages with various scholarly theories and approaches of material culture and materiality, of objects, materials and technology in anthropology. While some of the reading materials used are theoretical, others include concrete case studies from across the world.

Course material

The course reader (including mandatory and recommended articles, book chapters), syllabus, course information and calendar, and documents (powerpoint presentations, outlines of lectures, CVs and texts of guest professors) will be available on Toledo at the start of the semester.

Reading lists with extra articles and books will be available on Toledo.

Format: more information

The course holder and guest lecturers will introduce the students to material culture theories and specific cases. Students are expected to:

• come to class prepared by reading mandatory literature beforehand; so they can follow the lectures and actively participate in the discussions initiated by the lecturer;
• distil arguments from the texts of the reader and discuss them in relation to the cases presented in class;
• search for examples and cases in preparation of their final presentation;
• critically reflect on cutting-edge issues in the field of the anthropology of material culture.

Students are encouraged to actively work with the course material in a creative way by preparing a reflection paper on an object of their own choice.

Content

Students will write a very short reflection paper (10%) in which they engage with the literature of one of the lectures of their choice. The reflection paper should not exceed 2 pages.

The paper may, but is not required to, build on the first steps of the final object study (see 2) of an object/group of objects/site of choice. The content of this essay may be used in the final presentation.
The deadline for the reflection paper will be announced in class and on Toledo.

Explanation

The course will be evaluated by the lecturer on content and quality of the argument/writing as explained in the course syllabus on Toledo and in the exam regulations. Scores are always represented with whole numbers on a scale from 0 to 20, with 10 being the passing grade.

Attendance and active participation are a requirement.

Grades will be calculated based on an evaluation of the following elements:

1. Students write a discussion note (10% of the final grade) on one of the classes, as will be explained in the first session of the course. This discussion note needs to be submitted exactly 2 weeks after the selected class. Students will receive a pass or fail for this discussion note. The content of the discussion note can be used in the final paper or presentation.

2. Students do an oral exam (90% of the final grade).
In consultation with the course instructor, all students will prepare a final presentation of 20 minutes.
Students will not be requested to prepare a standard powerpoint presentation. Instead, each will be invited to construct an “object analysis” or to '"think through their 'thing'". More standard methodological approaches in anthropology endeavour to read the cultural world through the practices and discourses of human agents. What is expected from the students, however, follows the opposite path: students should try to write an ‘object study’ that relies on the agency of objects rather than that of human beings to decipher the social and cultural worlds these objects shape and give meaning to. This can be an individual object, a class of objects, or a clearly delineated community, a site or cluster of objects, in order to understand, in line with Appadurai’s ‘methodological fetishism’ the ways in which these objects generate and illuminate their human and social context and life. Depending on which object(s) are singled out for analysis the study may serve as a starting points for comments on various issues and themes, including issues of identity, meaning, structure, representation, (im)materiality, the movement from object to thing, etc.
The object study should dialogue with the theories and issues presented throughout the course (see syllabus). Students are expected to demonstrate that they are capable of personally and critically reflecting on one or more of the theories dealt with throughout the course, in a creative way.

Formal requirements of the final presentation during the oral exam:
The presentation should be (exactly) 20 minutes. Students are free to choose the format of their presentation. Creative use of visual material is encouraged. Choose a format that fits your object(s)/site and that demonstrates some of the theoretical insights acquired throughout the course. (Live performances are permitted...) A written preparation with name and course number, including references need to be submitted on the moment of the oral exam. References should include both materials used in the course and additional ones selected by the student. The text and references should be formatted in APA-style or AAA-style (see Toledo).

Students who need to retake their exam, have to retake the discussion note (*not for students of the Architecture department) and the oral exam.

Information about retaking exams

Students who need to retake their exam, have to retake the discussion note (*not for students of the Architecture department) and the oral exam.

Content

The course introduces students to the subfield of urban anthropology using ethnographic examples and texts by authors who play a central role in the demarcation and elaboration of the field.
The course consists of case studies on the city in Africa presented and elaborated in class, and deals with themes such as shadow economy, violence, urban networks, the informal city, the speculative city, visions of modernity, the utopian city or the city as heterotopia/dystopia. 

Course material

The course reader (specifying essential and recommended readings) syllabus, course calendar, course slides, media links and documents will be available on Toledo.
Key books that are part of the essential readings for this course include amongst others:

• Myers, Garth (2011) African cities: alternative visions of urban theory and practice. London: Zed Books; and
• Simone, Abdoumaliq (2009) City Life from Jakarta to Dakar: Movements at the Crossroads. New York; London: Routledge
• Colin McFarlane. 2021. Fragments of the City: Making and Remaking Urban Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. 8)
• Michele Lancione and Colin McFarlane (Eds.). 2021. Global Urbanism. Knowledge, Power and the City. Abingdon / New York: Routledge.
• Ash Amin and Michele Lancione (Eds).2022. Grammars of the Urban Ground. Durham: Duke University Press.

Key books will be on hold in the library (SBIB) under 'BASIS'.

Format: more information

The professor introduces students to classic and contemporary themes and cases in urban anthropology.
Students
- follow the lectures and actively participate in discussions, question rounds and debates during classes
- are expected to have critically read essential texts in preparation of lectures, distilled arguments from the texts to ask questions during the class discussions.
- practise

• linking the cases presented in class with course readings from different authors and themes,
• searching for examples in preparation of their final research paper,
• critically reflecting on cutting-edge issues in the field of urban anthropology.

Explanation

The course is evaluated by the course instructor as communicated on Toledo and in the exam regulations. Scores are always represented with whole numbers on a scale from 0 to 20, with 10 being the passing grade.

The paper consists of about 5000-6000 words, excluding references. 

Students are expected to present a topic of their own choice mid-November. The exact deadline is announced in class and in the syllabus on Toledo.
The topic has to be related to the issues presented throughout the course (see lectures, lecture notes, reading lists or reader).
Students are expected to demonstrate that they are capable of developing and reflecting on the issues dealt with throughout the course in a personal and creative way.
Students are expected to be able to select, use and present texts from the reader and secondary literature which relate to the texts discussed in class. The written assignment will be evaluated for content, quality of writing, and format. The student should use standard written language. 

A soft copy (preferably in PDF-format) needs to be uploaded on Toledo under Assignments. The student’s name and the course number should be mentioned on both versions.
Deadlines for the final paper are not negotiable. In case of exceptional, individual circumstances, students can contact the ombuds concerning the deadline. Papers submitted after the deadline will receive an NA (not attended) score and will be considered for the next examination period.

*Students are fully responsible for submitting papers and assignments free of fraud and plagiarism (www.kuleuven.be/english/education/plagiarism/) and are requested to observe the Faculty’s relevant regulations.  Plagiarism will be sanctioned with the sanctions mentioned in the University’s Regulations on Education and Examinations (http://www.kuleuven.be/education/regulations/).