The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

• PGAR 5680 - Architecture and Social Practice II: Global Exchange (Spring 2010)

There has been a surge in interest in design-based activism and the global exchange of students, scholars as well as social science and design practitioners around the world, yet little discussion about what background and skills these travelers and professionals bring to the field. Global Exchange is designed to identify and study theories, methods, and tools from anthropology, media studies, and architecture that would enhance the analysis of complex problematic urban conditions and enrich potential urban design practices to address these problems. The course is primarily directed towards developing tools for collaborative urban design activism. Participatory tools include remote and on-the-ground participant observation, ethnographies and design processes rooted in specific sites and conditions that are driven by citizen interaction, feedback and agency. Urban design is seen as a discipline which engages citizens in shaping long-term architectural design and urban planning schemes through immediate interventions in the form of play, installations, probes, and implementable prototypes. New forms of activism and advocacy are sought that utilize networked technology, advertising campaigns, performances and alterations to urban environs, which organize citizens and draw media attention to issues of concern beyond traditional demonstration or protest formats.

To register for this class students should contact Antoinette Curl of School for Constructed  Environments, Parsons, at curla@newschool.edu. 

Concentration:Cities and Urbanization