The Pedagogical City. Restructuring Urban Development through Educational Implications
Final Report Abstract
The project deals with the influence of educational policies on current urban development processes and is based on the observation that cities are increasingly using pedagogical measures to deal with urban challenges. The central question is under what conditions and with what effects educational techniques are implemented to encourage citizens to contribute to a successful urban life and a liveable (future) city and thus to take responsibility for it. The research project focuses in particular on programmes and strategies of sustainable urban development, as pedagogical implications and responsibilization strategies can be observed particularly clearly in these. Since political programmes cannot be directly translated into real urban life but are rather subject to social negotiation processes, a discourse analysis of strategy and framework papers on sustainable urban development was combined with a field study in the Berlin district of Treptow-Köpenick. The focus on Treptow-Köpenick is particularly appropriate, as sustainable urban development initiatives have been implemented here since the late 1980s and shifts in public discourse can be identified in a comparison over time. As part of the field study, firstly, interviews with experts from various political departments, participant observations of district meetings, and site visits were conducted. It became apparent that current governance technologies often and specifically target young people. For this reason, secondly, participatory methods with children werde used to integrate the perspective of young people into the research, to record their practices of (non)sustainable urban life, and to identify contradictions between their experiences and the expectations placed upon them. A central finding of the study is that educational strategies targeting children (often implemented as Education for Sustainable Development) are key instruments for advancing the goals of sustainable urban development. However, their role is characterized by contradictions due to the projection of social wishes, hopes and expectations onto young people and their simultaneous marginalization in everyday urban life. The conflict between the right of children to a good, contemporary urban life while simultaneously addressing as only future adult city dwellers is central to this: While children experience multiple spatial restrictions and exclusions in their everyday lives and are only selectively included in urban planning processes, pedagogical strategies of sustainable urban development simultaneously ascribe to them a central role as saviours for a liveable urban future and strongly intervene in their private lives through various governmental technologies. Thus, educational strategies of sustainable urban development have a depoliticizing rather than emancipatory effect due to their narrow framing (as ESD) and the setting of goals.
Publications
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Überwachte Kindheiten. Zwischen Schutz, Aktivierung und (Selbst-)Kontrolle. Cilip. Bürgerrechte und Polizei, 133, 52–60.
Schreiber, V., Ghafoor-Zadeh, D. & Appel, A.
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Angesprochen und doch ungefragt: zur Rolle von Kindern in der nachhaltigen Stadtentwicklung. sub\urban. zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, 12(2/3).
Appel, Antonia & Schreiber, Verena
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Kindheit. In B. Belina, M. Naumann, & A. Strüver (Eds.), Handbuch kritische Stadtgeographie (pp. 339–343). Westfälisches Dampfboot.
Schreiber, V. & Appel, A.
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Conjuring up the future – neglecting the present. Being a child in today’s sustainable and smart city. Children's Geographies, 1-16.
Appel, Antonia; Reul, Dana & Schreiber, Verena
