Area of knowledge-transfer 3 (Residential) space and property: who does the city belong to?

In a period when urban rents are rising, publicly subsidised housing is in sharp decline, housing is subject to increasing privatisation and private corporations are enjoying heightened visibility and structural power within urban areas, the question of who the city belongs to is one of newfound significance. In the renegotiation of the public sphere which is taking place in the crucible environment of the city, the power of private owners to dispose of and shape the city is of increasing importance. At the same time, some areas have seen the emergence of formats for civic participation that open up new opportunities for citizens to co-determine and shape public space. A current example of this is the Berlin petition „Spekulation bekämpfen – Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen“ (Fight speculation – out with Deutsche Wohnen & Co). In addition to these kinds of politically regulated formats for participation, appropriation movements from ‘below’ which put public or private space to new use through the occupation of living space or guerrilla gardening can also be observed in urban spaces.

The transfer area “who does the city belong to?” provides a forum for collaboration with municipal representatives in Jena and Erfurt who are concerned with housing issues and questions of citizen participation in public space. Cooperation partners from urban policy initiatives, charitable foundations (e.g. the Klassik-Stiftung Weimar), gentrification-critical appropriation movements, urban planning and art historical urban research also play a central role in this discussion. In order to capture the full range of urban political activities – especially those of larger urban areas – stakeholders from Leipzig and Berlin, such as the initiators of the Berlin petition, will also be invited to participate in connection with particular problems and topics. The subprojects SP A07 Tellmann and B01 Renzi/Fuchs serves as partners for this transfer area.