Online course at Zoom
 

As we go through the history of thought about the city, in the course Spectra of the Urban Phenomenon we will try to introduce current and historical examples of predatory processes of capitalism and neoliberalism that are closely linked to the city and spatial organization. We will thus propose an exploration, for example, of mining in the late 19th century and in South America today (Potosí, Salitreras, transcontinental transport plan, etc.), the current model of creative cities, urban neocolonialism and war, and neo-extractivist projects in the global South.

The examples will focus on two main topics: Urbanity and necropolitics: body management; and Extractivism: the processes of accumulation by dispossession.

As a mirror, in the course we will also address a series of examples of social and anti-capitalist struggles that are of particular relevance to urban and spatial planning during the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. We will also see examples of political imagination through activism and art that have developed within the context of the urban phenomenon. Focuses: “Urbanity and necropolitics: how the urban phenomenon is a territory of struggle”; and “Extractivism: how social struggles are articulated on the basis of the territory”.

Nancy Garín (Chile, 1972) is an independent journalist, art researcher and curator working in projects related to critical thinking, new pedagogies, archives, memory and decolonialism. She was a member of the Etcetera art group, La Internacional Errorista and the research group Peninsula: Colonial Processes and Artistic and Curatorial Practices. She is a member of the research and production platforms Equipo re and Espectros de lo Urbano.

Antoine Silvestre is an architect and philosopher. After graduating in Architecture from the National School of Architecture in Strasbourg in 2007, he worked as an independent architect until 2013. He earned a master's degree in Citizenship and Human Rights: Ethics and Politics at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Barcelona in 2015. Since then, he has been conducting research into the relationship between city, capitalism and urbanism within the framework inherited from the European world system and modern liberal democracies. He also works in architectural design, stage design and web platform design, teaches workshops and writes critical essays.