PhD Course in Urban Geography/Urban Studies/Cultural Studies: Riots, Uprisings, and Revolts in the Contemporary City

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1 1 PhD Course in Urban Geography/Urban Studies/Cultural Studies: Riots, Uprisings, and Revolts in the Contemporary City Fall, 2018, 7.5 ECTS Application Deadline, 15 August, 2018 (see below) Course Organizers: Prof. Don Mitchell, Department of Social and Economic Geography, Uppsala University Dr. Catharina Thörn, Department of Cultural Studies, University of Gothenburg ) Prof. Mustafa Dikeç, Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University Course Rationale and Description: As has been well noted in the scholarly literature and popular discourse, we now live in an urban age. As Lefebvre argued fifty years ago, the industrial revolution seems to have been supplanted by an urban revolution. Yet this is equally an age of urban unrest of riot, rebellion, uprising, and insurrection as the social democratic, socialist, and neoliberal orders that marked the early stages of the urban revolution have sequentially broken down, and as a new social order has yet to solidify. Understanding the role riots, uprisings, and revolts in the production of urban space, urban disorder, and the nature of emerging new urban orders, is thus of utmost importance. Geographers, urbanists, and scholars of culture have contributed to a vibrant and growing literature on urban unrest, which, through its specific focus on the spatiality of urban riot, revolt, and uprising, can be distinguished from (even as it builds upon) earlier scholarship on social movements and urban disorder that emerged out of the upheavals of the 1960s. By the time the course is held, the three course organizers will have each published substantial books (two of them edited/collective efforts, one sole authored) that examine and expand theories urban unrest and their role in shaping cities. These three books (listed below) will form the foundation of the course, supplemented by other key works in the burgeoning literature. A crucial part of the course, beyond understanding the social and spatial theories of urban rage and unrest, is understanding the role cultural practices play in moments of upheaval. First, times of unrest are often enormously productive, not just of new political formations and order, but of new forms of artistic expression. Second, such artistic expression in turn often shapes revolt itself as participants take on new ways of knowing and being (or adapt older ones, like the carnivalesque). Third, riots and revolts are transformative of material spaces and political orders, but at the same time must be represented; artists and other cultural producers thus themselves become key actors in shaping the discourses of rebellion and reaction. A significant goal of the course, therefore, will be to examine the interrelationship of urban unrest, spatial transformation, and cultural production from an interdisciplinary perspective, bringing into dialogue human geography, urban studies, cultural studies, and social theory. To accomplish this goal, a portion of the course will take the form of participation in a one and a half day mini conference entitled, Culture in Revolt. The miniconference will involve not only researchers, but also artists/cultural producers and activists involved in understanding and shaping this insurrectionary moment.

2 2 Besides the mini conference, the course will consist primarily of seminars, with emphasis placed on student participation. Examination will occur by a final paper of 4,000 5,000 words. Students wishing to submit an alternative form of cultural intervention may discuss their ideas for doing so with the course organizers. Participating students will be expected to present their central arguments as well as an overview/outline of their final paper/project during the blocks set aside for student presentation. Since the course organizers are committed to integrating research with learning/teaching, students will be invited to apply separately to also make a presentation in the mini conference if they so desire. List of Potential Instructors (subject to change): Mustafa Dikeç, Malmö University Anders Lund Hansen, Lund University Miguel Martinez Lopéz, Uppsala University Margit Mayer, Free University of Berlin Don Mitchell, Uppsala University Dominika Polanska, Uppsala University Ove Sernhede, University of Gothenburg Catharina Thörn, University of Gothenburg Håkan Thörn, University of Gothenburg TO APPLY: Send an to Don Mitchell (Don.Mitchell@kultgeog.uu.se) expressing your interest in the course and confirming your availability for each module. Include an explanation of how the course might influence or be valuable to your scholarly interests. Seats in the course are limited so we cannot guarantee everyone admission. Applications will be accepted up until 15 August, 2018, and the organizers will inform all applicants whether or not they are admitted to the course shortly after the deadline. COURSE SCHEDULE Module 1: Thursday Friday September, 2018, Uppsala University Theme: Riots, Rebellions, Uprisings, and Revolution in the Making of Cities Thursday, 13 September: 9:00 9:30 Introductions and Goals for Course 9:30 12:00 (with a break) Seminar 1: Key Themes, Historical Texts (i) Manuel Castells, The City and the Grassroots; (ii) Cindi Katz and Neil Smith, L.A. Intifada: An Interview with Mike Davis ; (iii) Roger Keil, From Los Angeles to Seattle: World City Politics and the New Global Resistance ; (iv) Jackie Smith, Globalizing Resistance: The Battle of Seattle and the Future of Social Movments. 13:00 15:30 (with a break) Seminar 2: Key Themes, New Texts (i) Mustafa Dikeç, Urban Rage: (ii) Margit Mayer, Catharina Thörn and Håkan Thörn, Urban Uprisings; (iii) Neil Smith, Don Mitchell and others, Revolting New York. 16:00 17:30 Walking Tour in Uppsala

3 3 19:00 Group Dinner (self funded) Friday, 14 September: 9:30 12:00 (with a break) Student Presentations (1): Introducing and Discussing Your Paper Ideas 13:15 15:00 Public Lecture: Organizing, Squatting, Movements: A Discussion with Miguel Martínez López and Dominika Polanska. (i) Martínez López, Between Autonomy and Hybridity, in Mayer et al Urban Uprisings; (11) Polanska, Neoliberal Post Socialist Urban Transformation, in Mayer et al, Urban Uprisings; (iii) Martnez López, Introduction in Martinez López (ed.), The Urban Politics of Squatters Movements Module 2: Wednesday Friday, October, 2018, University of Gothenburg Theme: Urban Uprising: Culture in Revolt NB: This portion of the course will be composed of three related parts: (1) a visit to, and discussion of, the exhibition Accessing Utopia (2017), 1 (2) a one day public mini conference, and (3) a one day closed series of seminars and discussions (PhD students will be required to participate in all three sections). Wednesday, 17 Frölunda Kulturhus: 14:00 Exhibition and Discussion 19:00 Dinner Thursday, 18 Frölunda Kulturhus: 9:30 17:00 Course/Conference: Culture in Revolt 9:30 17:00 Course/Conference: Culture in Revolt A mini conference, organized as part of the course, exploring the role of culture in urban uprisings and in representing them, including a keynote by Margit Mayer. Besides lectures/discussions by some of the potential instructors listed above, participants will include activists from the Accessing Utopia project among others. 19:00 Course/Conference Dinner (partially self funded) Friday, 19 Gothenburg University: 9:30 12:00 (with a break) Seminar 3: Key Themes from the Conference: A Discussion of What We Learned and How It Fits 13:00 16:00 (with break) Seminar 4: Policing the Crisis (i) A close focus on Stuart Hall et al. Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order, with contemporary updates from: (ii) Robin D. G. Kelley, Thug Nation: On 1 Accessing Utopia is the latest work from the collaborative artistic research group Bathtä (René Léon Rosales and Behzad Khosravi Noori). The piece is based on interviews with young Swedish activists who have engaged in organizations dealing with the multiple expressions of racism and social injustice in Swedish society. Using artistic research methodology, the project articulates a narrative strategy which aims to put forward the complexities of young people s understanding of their own activism, and hence their political subjectivities. The work takes the format of a polyphonic multi channel video installation.

4 4 State Violence and Disposability ; and (iii) Vijay Prashad, This Ends Badly: Race and Capitalism Wednesday 7 November: Preliminary Drafts of Course Papers/Projects Due Module 3: November, 2018, Malmö University Theme: Urban Rage and the Exclusionary Politics of the City Thursday, 16 November 9:30 12:00 (with short introductory lecture) Screening of La Haine (Hate) (1995) 13:00 15:30 (with break) Seminar 5: Poetic and Politics of Everyday Urban Suffering (Discussion of La Hain and related texts: (i) Sharma and Sharma, So Far, So Good : La Haine and the Politics of the Everyday; (ii) Lorde, The Uses of Anger: (iii) Kepfer, Neocolonial Urbanism? La Rénovation Urbaine in Paris; and (iv) Mucchielli, Autumn Location to Be Determined 17:30 19:30 Public Event: Rage, Revolt, Uprisings, Revolution? A Moderated Discussion among Catharina Thörn, Mustafa Dikeç, and Don Mitchell. Moderated by Anders Lund Hansen (to be confirmed) 19:30 Dinner Friday, 17 November 9:30 12:00 (with break) Student Presentations 2: Workshopping Your Papers (Part 1) 13:00 14:30 Student Presentations 3: Workshopping Your Papers (Part 2) 14:30 15:30 Short Break and Course Wrap Up. 15:30 ish Consider staying for the after seminar Final Course papers ( words) or alternative cultural intervention due: 14 December, 2018 LITERATURE Required Texts Foundational Texts for the Course: Dikeç, M. (2017) Urban Rage (London: Yale University Press). Mayer, M., Thörn, C. and Thörn, H. (eds.) (2016) Urban Uprisings: Challenging Neoliberal Urbanism in Europe (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). Smith, N. and Mitchell, D. (gen. eds.) (2018) Revolting New York: How 400 Years of Riot, Rebellion, Uprising, and Revolution Have Shaped a City (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press). Other Required Texts: Castells, M. (1983) The City and the Grassroots (Berkeley: University of California Press) Hall, Stuart, Critcher, Chas, Jefferson, Tony, Clarke, John, and Roberts, Brian. (2013 [1978]) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order (New York; Palgrave Macmillan).

5 5 Katz, C. and Smith, N. (1992) L.A. Intifada: Interview with Mike Davis, Social Text 33: Kelley, R.G.D. (2016) Thug Nation: On State Violence and Disposability. In J. Camp and C. Heatherton (eds.), Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter (New York: Verso), Kipfer, S. (2016) Neocolonial Urbanism? La Rénovation Urbaine in Paris, Antipode 48 (3): Lorde, A. (1997 [1981]) The Uses of Anger, Women s Studies Quarterly 25 (1 2): Martínez López, M. (2018) Introduction: The Politics of Squatting, Timeframes and Socio Spatial Contexts, in M. Martínez López (ed.), The Urban Politics of Squatters Movements (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), Mucchielli, L. (2009) Autumn 2005: A Review of the Most Important Riot in the History of Contemporary French Society, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35 (5): Prashad, V. (2016), This Ends Badly: Race and Capitalism. In J. Camp and C. Heatherton (eds.), Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter (New York: Verso), Sharma, S. and Sharma, A. (2000). So Far, So Good : La Haine and the Poetics of the Everyday, Theory, Culture & Society 17(3) Further Reading Key Texts on the Urban Revolution: Harvey, D. (2012) Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution (New York: Oxford). Lefebvre, H. (2003 [1970]) The Urban Revolution (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) Merrifield, A. (2014) The New Urban Question (London: Pluto Press). Smith, N. (2011) The Revolutionary Imperative, Antipode 41: Texts on Urban Unrest: Extensive and timely bibliographies of the literature urban unrest may be found in the three Foundational Texts and so are not repeated here. A few key recent works include: Abu Lughod, J. (2007) Race, Space and Riots in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., and Mayer, M. (eds) (2012), Cities for People, Not for Profit (London: Routledge). Camp, J. and Heatherton, C. eds. (2016) Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter (London: Verso). Nicholls, W., Miller, B., and Beaumont, J. (eds.) (2013), Spaces of Contention: Spatialities of Social Movements (London: Routledge). Pritchard, F. & Pakes (eds) (2014) Riot, Unrest and Protest on the Global Stage (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

Public Space People, Power, and Political Economy

University of Oslo The Faculty of Social Sciences Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies 2018 Public Space People, Power, and Political Economy Professor Don Mitchell Department of Social