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After successful participation in the module, students are able to:
- 1. Grasp the political, economic, and social processes that underlie the production of the built environment and define what is “sustainable.”
- 2. Gain familiarity with cutting-edge textual material (e.g. journal articles) in urban theory that shed light into globally and locally interconnected urbanization processes.
- 3. Understand cities and regions as the key sites in which these challenges are staked, resulting in an uneven landscape of resources and opportunities.
- 4. Discuss the responsibility of academics and practitioners to confront climate change, uneven development, migration, economic crises, and social conflicts.
- 5. Become familiar with transdisciplinary engagement and methods for translating scientific knowledge into urban and architectural design and/or policy and governance strategies.
- 6. Present these reflections and create a “safe space” in which to moderate discussions on these topics with their peers.

1. Block 1: What is urbanization?
This block unpacks the fundamentals of urban theory as a canon. It describes the production of space as a philosophical stance (e.g. Henri Lefebvre). It also includes debates on the “rural” vs. the “urban” conceptualizing urbanization as more than rural-to-urban migration, but rather, as a process of transformation.
2. Block 2: Global perspectives
This block describes the epistemology of an urbanism grounded in postcolonial perspectives from the Global South and/or East.
3. Block 3: Methodological Advances
This block engages with alternative and cutting-edge methods in urban research, and new practices in deriving urban theory.

None required; high level of written and spoken English highly recommended. Interest in critical urban theory and/or urban studies recommended; background in urban design, architecture, human geography, sociology or urban studies also recommended.

The module consists of a seminar, including lectures and exercises. The theoretical basics are taught in the lecture using presentations by the instructor and/or any associated lecturers. Through active involvement in the design of the seminar, students learn to take responsibility for the content of the teaching and to contribute their own interests.
The exercise teaches basic methodological skills in the field of urban theory. In the exercise, students prepare a textual analysis based on assigned reading. Preparation involves writing a summary of the text's key topics and findings (ca. 2-3 A4 pages), which serves as a basis for an oral presentation of 10-15 minutes.
For example, students learn to:
1. Grasp the political, economic, and social processes that underlie the production of the built environment and define what is “sustainable.”
2. Gain familiarity with cutting-edge textual material (e.g. journal articles) in urban theory that shed light into globally and locally interconnected urbanization processes.
3. Understand cities and regions as the key sites in which these challenges are staked, resulting in an uneven landscape of resources and opportunities.

The module examination is an oral examination. The course also requires a research paper, which is the basis for the oral examination.
Students will be assigned scientific texts, prepare them in individual and/or small groups, and convey this information as an oral presentation accompanied by textual analysis to prove their understanding of major topics in the field of urban theory, as related to the Learning Outcomes.
This type of examination assesses the following, for example:
- grasp of the essential course contents and positions of the lecturers and/or guests and the ability to reproduce/formulate them;
- evidence of comprehension of and consideration for the inextricably linked environmental, economic, social, and cultural impacts of their choices as future urbanists and/or planners and designers;
- independent application of the methods presented in the course.
Grading will be on a pass/fail basis.

Will be distributed on the course Moodle at the start of the semester. Readings include e.g.:
Angelo, H. and Wachsmuth, D. (2014) Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 39(1),16–27.
Bathla, N. (2024) A Methodological Pluriverse: An Introduction. In Researching Otherwise. Pluriversal Methodologies for Landscape and Urban Studies (ed. N. Bathla). gta Verlag. Plus the Foreword and Conclusion.

Brenner, N. and Schmid, C. (2015) Towards a new epistemology of the urban? City 19(2–3): 151–182.
Harrison, J. and M. Hoyler (2015) Megaregions: foundations, frailties, futures. In: Megaregions: Globalization’s New Urban Form? Edward Elgar, Cheltemham: 1–28.
Harvey, D. (1996) Cities or urbanization? City 1(1-2), 38–61.
Howe, L.B. (2021) The spatiality of poverty and popular agency in the GCR: constituting an extended urban region. Urban Geography 43(9): 1287-1308.
Lefebvre, H. (2003) From the City to Urban Society. In: The Urban Revolution, H. Lefebvre, trans. R. Bononno. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis/London: 1–22.
Robinson, J. (2002) Global and world cities: a view from off the map. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 26(3): 531–554.
Roy, A. (2015) What is urban about critical urban theory? Urban Geography 37(6), 810–823.
Ruddick, S., Peake, L., Tanyildiz, G.S., Patrick, D. (2017) Planetary urbanization: An urban theory for our time? Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 36(3), 387–404.
Schmid, C and Topalovic, M (2023) Extended Urbanisation. Tracing Planetary Struggles. Basel, Birkhäuser.
Schmid, C.; O. Karaman; N. Hanakata; L. Sawyer, M. Streule, K.P. Wong; P. Kallenberger, A. Kockelkorn (2018) Towards a new vocabulary of urbanization processes: a comparative approach. Urban Studies 55(1): 20–52.
Simone, A (2004) People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg. Public Culture 16(3), 407–429.