The Interdependence of Protest and Urban Renewal 1965-1985

Urban renewal nowadays is quite different from how inner cities were reconstructed in the 1960s. What used to be attempts to modernize urban society from above by intervention of local and national authorities has changed to network oriented betterment of neighborhoods in cooperation with their inhabitants. It has been stated that the development of an urban "civil society" owes much to the activities of social movements during the 1970s and 80s. Still historical research dealing with this topic is scarce.
What impact did protest and social movements have on urban renewal? What was the role of protest in the change of urban policy? In order to assess the protest movements' influence it is necessary to contextualize oppositional actions on the background of specific urban renewal projects. This leads to the suggestion to conduct case studies in the cities of Cologne and Philadelphia. Both cities witnessed strong protest against urban renewal schemes during the 1970s including striking similarities regarding the issues at stake and the respective lines of argumentation. Yet, ideas on public participation and civic engagement constitute two distictively different backgrounds in both societies.

Urban History
History of Youth- / Sub- / Countercultures

Born 1981 in Hilden (Germany). School Education in Erkrath (Germany), Alameda (USA), Varese (Italy) und Milwaukee (USA). University Eduaction 2000-2005 in History, Sociology, English and Civil Engineering at Aachen University of Technology, University of Duesseldorf and Humboldt University Berlin. 2005-2006 Assistant at the History Department of the University of Duesseldorf. 2007 and 2008 Fellow at the German Historical Institute, Washington D.C. and Visiting Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Urban Research. Since November 2006 PhD student at the Graduate School Topology of Technology at the University of Technology Darmstadt.

Project Proposal

• Vernacular Architecture as Self-Determination. Venturi, Scott Brown and the Controversy Over Philadelphia's Crosstown Expressway, 1967-1973, in: Footprint Vol.4 (2009), 35-48 (http://www.footprintjournal.org/articles/download/40).
• Mehr Demokratie wagen? Protest und Partizipation bei der Sanierung des Severinsviertels, in: Jochen Ott, Thomas Deres and Wolfgang Uellenberg-van Dawen (eds.): Köln Rot. Sozialdemokratische Politik von 1945 bis heute, Köln 2008, 250-266.
• Planners as Activists. Planning Culture, Student Movement and Community Involvement, 1960-1975, in: Reiner Anderl, Bruno Arich-Gerz and Rudi Schmiede (eds.): Technologies of Globaization. International Conference Proceedings, Darmstadt 2008, 183-189.
• Protest auf Kölsch. Lokale Identität und Mobilisierung in der Kölner Südstadt 1970-1980, in: Geschichte im Westen Vol.22 (2007), 251-268.
• The Interdependence of Protest and Urban Renewal 1965-1985, in: Lars Nilsson (Hg.): Urban Europe in Comparative Perspective. Papers presented at the Eighth International Conference on Urban History (CD-Rom), Stockholm 2006.Hausbesetzungen 1980 – 1982 in Hilden. Möglichkeiten der Mikroforschung für die Protestgeschichte, in: Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen Vol.34 (2005), 155-172.
• Hausbesetzungen 1980 – 1982 am Beispiel einer Kleinstadt, in: Hildener Jahrbuch (Neue Folge) Vol.12 (2005), 33-141.

• Graduiertenkolleg Topologie der Technik: "Technologies of Globalization 2008“, Darmstadt (October 30 - October 31 2008)
• International Workshop "Architectures, Spaces, and Politics“, Manchester (September 3 2008)
• Marie Curie Series Conference "The 'Establishment' Responds: The Institutional and Social Impact of Protest Movements During and After the Cold War“, Heidelberg (November 22 - November 24 2007)
• Social Science History Association – 32nd Annual Meeting, Chicago (November 15 - November 18 2007)
• Society for American City and Regional Planning History – Twelfth National Conference on Planning History, Portland, ME (October 25 - October 28 2007)
• Interdisziplinäres Forschungskolloquium Protestbewegungen - Between the ‘Prague Spring’ and the ‘French May’: Transnational Exchange and National Recontextualization of Protest Cultures in 1960/70s Europe, Heidelberg (August 25 – August 27 2006)
• European Urban History Association - Urban History Conference, Stockholm (August 30 – September 9 2006)
• Marie Curie Series Workshop “European Protest Movements Since the Cold War”, Zürich (March 7 – March 10 2007)