For many decades, urban and community studies have analyzed the relevance of space for social diversity and integration. What does social diversity induce (in terms of social networks, belonging, everyday life practices)? How can we understand the role of public places (space) in creating new opportunities of meeting (un-)familiar others? How can we approach space as an active participant of sociability as well as community building? In order to answer these questions, we will work with the concept of ‘third place’ which has been firstly conceptualized as a mechanism of sociability between home and work. Today, it is necessary to expand this definition. We talk about how third places open space for women, LGBTI+, immigrants, ethnic minorities, and subculture groups, by looking at book clubs, parks, skateparks, mosques, shisha bars etc. In this course, we will use the concept of third places to address urban complexities in community construction while learning how to do research on these sites. Students will develop their own research project and work on it during the course, for example answering questions about the role of their selected third places on the ways in which people develop a sense of belonging to a group, share, help and seek support from its inhabitants. Overall, they would ask how place itself has a direct impact on their daily practices and networks. We will go on excursion to study and understand how we would use third places to find innovative ways of doing research on social integration or community construction. Additionally, we experience and understand Berlin as a sum of various third places.
The detailed syllabus for this course is available on the Berlin Perspectives website: https://hic.hu-berlin.de/en/berlin-perspectives/courses