Re-Narrating Urban Activism Radical Cities

Arch 4341.094 · Asma Mehan

Cities have always been arenas of radical ideas, political changes, social activism, and movements. They have been incubators of visionary ideas, idealism, utopian projects, revolutionary ideologies, and debates, while their squares, streets, and public spaces have been the sites of protests, turmoil, and uprisings. The radical cities are host to the complex process of unfolding the socio-political challenges of our time through their local events and moments of change, which often have a broader global impact. Envisioning a more just, equitable, and inclusive future involves an implicit study and thorough analysis of the radical cities at transformational moments in their development. This course aims first to narrate, study, explore, categorize, analyze, address, and map radical cities and urban activism in diverse contexts and then propose re-narrated alternative modalities for engagement with socio-spatial developments. This course identifies and decodes radical cities in pivotal societal transitions through comparative case studies spread over Asia, Europe, Africa, the US, and beyond.