Christian Berkes, Kenton Card, William Davis (Eds.)

The City and the Political Papers

Papers from the open Discussion Group
Held at The Public School, Berlin (Distribution Papers: botopress)
Loose leaf collection (english, b/w), 29,7 x 42 cm, 2012

The title of the class – The City and the Political – was coined over a cup of coffee with the vision to explore the gap between thought and action, embodied here by the philosopher and the architect. The gap between the “city” and the “political” is a blind spot, which makes any integrative genealogy controversial and presumptuous, if not rash. We sought to create a space and community to debate this distance at The Public School, Berlin.

The conversation should confront professional and unprofessional, specific and unspecific backgrounds. Today, we hear of multi, inter, or trans disciplinary work everywhere. Whilst people refer to such categories, we remain sceptical as to whether they confront the kernel of ideas within each department of knowledge. The City and the Political provides an anti-form – the gap between – to stage a dialogue in which people can confront each others’ perspectives. A gap does not reinforce collective agreement, consensus, or baseless understanding of the others. The gap reveals the distance between. From within this negatively defined space, we can positively observe, confront, and articulate differing mindsets and new imaginations.

_