Fr 11 Dec 09 - Fr 11 Dec 09

Segregation - The Other City: Exposing Tarwewijk

“Urban restructuring through creative destruction, violently segregates, as nearly always has a class dimension since it is the poor, the underprivileged and those marginalized from political power that suffer first and foremost from this process.”
(David Harvey, The Right to the City)

The Other City: Exposing Tarwewijk is a project by Cohabitation Strategies, a Rotterdam based cooperative for socio-spatial development that focuses on conditions of conflict and exclusion within the contemporary city. During this three day event, a series of public workshops, excursions and presentations were prepared with the goal of discussing possibilities to design alternative cohabitation models, stimulate difference in socio-spatial relations and construct parallel local economies in Tarwewijk, a vulnerable and segregated neighborhood in the south of Rotterdam included in this year’s list of the 40 most problematic neighborhoods of the Netherlands. This neighborhood is an exemplary urban case study that reflects the socio-spatial casualties of the Dutch neoliberal trend of urbanization.

Invited contributors are: Alonso Ayala, Wim Blauw, Libia Castro, Aetzel Griffioen, Vinca Kruk, Ólafur Ólafsson, Thomas Purcell, Erik Swyngedouw and Daniel van der Velden.

Cohabitation Strategies members are Lucia Babina, Emiliano Gandolfi, Thomas Purcell, Gabriela Rendón and Miguel Robles-Durán. Project members are Guillermo Delgado, Phillip Lühl and Taufan ter Weel.

This event has been produced with the support of Eric Dullaert from Cultureel Denkwerk, Deelgemeente Charlois, Woonstad, dS+V and ART Hotel Rotterdam.

The Other City: Exposing Tarwewijk  
Tarwewijk 9-11 December 2009 
    
Wednesday 9 December 2009  
Urban Fabrics and Historical Processes Venue
10.00 Cohabitation Strategies introduction Atelier Tarwewijk
10.30 Historical Perspective of Tarwewijk Atelier Tarwewijk
11.30 Walking through Urban Fragments*
A rapid passage for the recognition of the neighborhood fragments produced by segregated development.  Atelier Tarwewijk
12.30 Lunch  
    
Socio-spatial Fragmentation and Difference 
14.00 Moving in Free Zones #2 and Film ZUID*
MFZ is the second edition of an interdisciplinary workshop researching and creating awareness on the urban redevelopment of Charlois. This workshop worked on the production of the film ZUID which was used as a tool to engage with inhabitants, especially of Tarwewijk, and to trigger dreams, whishes and aspirations concerning their lives in the neighborhood. Moving in Free Zones is a project of iStrike. Atelier Tarwewijk
14.30 Reading Tarwewijk Atelier Tarwewijk
17.00 Urban Housing Segregation in the Netherlands  -  Wim Blauw* IHS
    
    
Thursday 10 December 2009  
Urban Exploitation and Regeneration 
10.00 Urban process: a methodological framework Atelier Tarwewijk
11.30 Walking the Voids*
A rapid passage for the recognition of the alarming empty housing and commercial stock in the neighborhood. Speculation or a ghost? 
12.30 Lunch OVdB
    
Cultural Dynamics - Empowerment and Communication 
15.00 Research through Direct Engagement Atelier Tarwewijk
20.00 The Post Political City - Erik Swyngedouw* NAi
    
    
    
Friday 11 December 2009 
    
Social-spatial Strategies: A Discoursive Roundtable on  
10.00 Preparation NAi
14.30 Socio-spatial Strategies: A Critical Roundtable on Dutch Urban Regeneration NAi
    
    
* Public Events   
    
    
    
    

Erik Swyngedouw

Erick Swyngedow is Professor of Geography at the University of Manchester in its the School of Environment and Development, and Fellow of ST. Peter’s College. He is committed to political economy analysis of contemporary capitalism, producing several major works on economic globalization, spatial restructuring, social power, empowerment and democracy. http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/geography/staff/swyngedouw_erik.htm

Daniel van der Velden - Metahaven

Daniel van der Velden is a graphic designer, writer and critic at Yale University in New Haven. He is co-founder of Metahaven, a think tank focusing on design, visual identity and the political. He is tutor of design at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam,  and the Academy of Arts in Valence and advising researcher at the Jan van Eyck Academy. www.metahaven.net

Vinca Kruk - Metahaven

Vinca Kruk is a graphic designer, writer and co-founder of Metahaven, a think tank focusing on design, visual identity and the political. Her writing and visual work are heavily inspired by politics and social and activist art. Vinca is a tutor at the Academy of Arts in Valence and at ArtEZ Academy of Arts in Arhem. www.metahaven.net

Thomas Purcell

Thomas Purcell works as a social scientist at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on ‘radical endogenous development’ exploring ‘alternatives economies’. His interests are motivated by the global restructuring of state, capital, and labour relations and how this is theorized within Historical Materialism and International Political Economy.

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson utilize different media in order to raise questions addressing social issues and urban politics. The aim of their work is to portray a group of people living in a specific cultural, social and economic environment and mapping the spatial and architectural context where they live. With their “site-related practices,” they also actively engage with the dynamics of locality, reactivating and revealing its current concerns. www.libia-olafur.com