Violence of Integration: Forging alliances for diverse cities

Violence of Integration: Forging alliances for diverse cities

10 years after Merkel's ‘Wir schaffen das!’ statement, at the time of a new, even more oppressive and repressive migration policy (Migrationswende), we explore how urban design and activist tactics can intervene in state-imposed integration strategies. Our aim is to respond to a broader discussion about what it means to be new to a city, how people defined as ‘strangers’ are impacted by such a framing, and what the potential of estranging a city might be. Critically and creatively engaging with the political dogma of integration, which is often approached as a one-sided process understood as an adaptation effort by migrants (framed as ‘the other’), we consider some of the critiques of integration such as normativity and methodological nationalism. How and which memories, skills and lifeworlds are erased in integration processes? How are those, who are officially recognised as valuable members of an urban society, prevented from engaging with difference and diversity? In this module, we develop a spatial understanding of public debates and policies, join forces with activist groups, explore relations between activist and urban design tactics, and work collectively for diverse cities.

Date

2025

Language

English

Author

Günter Gassner

Keywords

Activism

Fascism

Racism

Commodification

Spatial practices

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