Madrid: Faces of the Changing European City

Catalog description

Students will learn about the contemporary urban context in Europe, and acquire critical literacy in urban studies debates, through an in-depth, interdisciplinary and experiential exploration of the city of Madrid. Like most European cities, Madrid today is more diverse than ever before, more interconnected (and subject to more complex governance arrangements), more unequal, more subject to volatile supranational financial investments, and more environmentally vulnerable. All of these conditions, together with the world-wide financial crisis of 2007-2008 gave rise both to radical attempts to reimagine and reinvent democracy (eg, 15M or the indignados movement), and to the re-emergence of extreme right-wing parties and projects based largely on imperial nostalgia and xenophobia (eg, the "Make Spain Great Again" platform of the political party VOX). Through a series of case studies, we will explore some of the hottest issues being confronted and debated by Madrid's citizen's today from across the political spectrum –migration, housing and gentrification, gender inequality, the quality of democracy, corruption, historical memory, for example. Through walks, excursions and visits to local sites and institutions, we will learn a lot about the city of Madrid and the ways in which it is distinct as well as the ways in which it is typical of the European urban experience. Our sources and objects of analysis will be academic scholarship on the topics, but also cultural manifestations (literature, film, visual and conceptual arts) as well as the testimonies of flesh-and-blood madrileños.