Weszkalnys, Gisa 
ORCID: 0009-0006-4447-121X
(2008)
A robust square: planning, youth work, and the making of public space in post-unification Berlin.
City and Society, 20 (2).
pp. 251-274.
ISSN 0893-0465
Abstract
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in post-unification Berlin, this article examines the re-articulation of the problematic of “the social” in city planning. It juxtaposes the contrasting visions of city planners and youth workers for Alexanderplatz, a controversial square in Berlin's eastern centre. I argue that the notion of “robustness” is helpful in understanding an important contemporary shift in thinking about planning and the social. In a sense, both planners and youth workers accused each other of taking insufficient notice of “the social.” While planners spoke of robustness as a technical, economic and aesthetic quality to which public space needs to aspire, the youth workers' vision for Alexanderplatz was a proposal for a kind of “social” robustness where the social is, quite literally, built into the urban design. These ethnographic observations need to be understood in a context where city planning has been one of the most critical domains in which the tensions provoked by German unification are played out. Taking such socio-cultural specificities into account will lead to a more nuanced understanding of forms of neoliberal city planning.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28... |
| Additional Information: | © 2008 American Anthropological Association |
| Divisions: | Anthropology |
| Subjects: | G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Sep 2012 12:36 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Sep 2025 07:29 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/46217 |
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