Contemporary Citizen Protest on local spatial Planning in mayor German Cities (Preliminary Study on Berlin)

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Uwe Altrock
• Subject Area: Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 275315564

In recent years an increase and qualitative change in citizen protests with respect to local spatial planning has been observed. Initial studies from the social sciences, and various contributions in planning scientific discourse indicate a change in the quality compared to earlier stages of protest. As in planning science both continuous research and a protest perspective on the theoretical discourse on participation, conflict and power are largely absent, the project aims to create an empirical basis for this. Based on the findings of protest theory in social science the project focuses on local political citizen protests, understood as a collective political strategy that seeks a cause related public escalation of conflict, in mayor cities in Germany. The project will survey (type and extent) and typologies this phenomena, analyse the relationship between planning and protest, and place the results in the planning theory discourse. The preliminary study on the example of Berlin aims to test the intended research design combining quantitative, qualitative and participative research methods. At the core of this method mix are an extended protest event analysis and in-depth case studies that are framed by a participatory approach for the integration of research subjects and other scientists.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants