Cities on the Move

Catalog description

THIS COURSE TAKES PLACE AT NYU-BERLIN. This course explores the global phenomenon of growing consumption and waste in cities, as well as the transformation of resources and natural landscapes to serve these trends. A city like Berlin consumes large amounts of energy, water and food, and produces high quantities of waste. But where do these resources come from, and where is waste disposed of? Students engage with these questions in a theoretical, methodological and ethical way by tracing the flows of water, energy, food and waste in and around Berlin and beyond. The course aims to explore urbanization as a global process with fluid boundaries and analyze the connection of cities to the natural resources and landscapes on which they rely. Drawing from geography, anthropology and history, we analyze the relationship between growing consumption and disposal and the expansion of the resource frontier, while identifying the social, environmental and spatial effects this entails.