The Other('s) city: living in Berlin as a post-migrant city (original) (raw)

Abstract

This research-oriented bilingual (English and Farsi) seminar aims to deal with the production and consumption of space by migrants and particularly by refugees in a city namely Berlin. Migration changes a city and its spatiotemporality. Acknowledging migration in a city and consider it as a city of migration, introduces political, cultural and spatial crises. Migration is no longer a deviation in the norm. Rather, migrants and particularly refugees are a more representative of the current society. They engage and contribute to the future of the city through their interactions and imaginaries. Thus, of particular interest in this course is heterotopias, i.e. the spaces of otherness in the city. These spaces are decisive elements that form spatial imaginaries and guide social actors (here refugees) in their everyday life. The course also addresses the temporal indications of living as “the other” (i.e. refugee) in a particular space and ways in which spatial experiences can sway temporal horizons of social actors. This invites consideration of the expectations of social actors and changes in them regarding their lived experiences. Students and refugees in this course will learn about city, urbanisation, space, migration and otherness in order to explore the urban spaces in Berlin. This seminar is in line with the previous seminar (Spaces of Migration) to produce spatial narratives of refugees in Berlin. It will benefit from the previous attendance with refugee background as the facilitator of research in the seminar. The spatial narratives of refugees will be presented on a specific website that is designed for the project. The seminar is organized by the Berlin Institute for Integration and Migration research and funded by Kultur,- Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät as a part of Humboldt University’s initiative to opening the university for refugees. Keywords: Migration, Post-migrant society, Otherness, Heterotopia, Social spaces, Social imaginaries, Spatial memory

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