On the Transformation of the Urban In Times of Austerity

Low Budget Urbanity is an interdisciplinary research initiative located at the HafenCity University Hamburg, the University of the Built Environment and Metropolitan Culture (HCU) in Germany. The focus of interest lies in the question how city life changes under the premise of austerity. Urban dwellers are increasingly required to find new and creative ways to cope with the withdrawal of communal authorities from welfare provisions, the demise of public infrastructure and expensive or low-quality centralised services in European and Northern American cities. This has lead to the emergence of new urban practices and alternative forms of urban infrastructure often organised under the principle of sharing and saving. The perspective of ‘low-budget urbanity’ aims for a critical understanding of the qualities and characteristics of cities in situations of a financial and economic crisis and explores how current or historical everyday practices are transformed – and how they change or realize urbanity.

The interdisciplinary research network brings together post docs and senior researchers from the disciplines architecture, engineering, planning, geography, history and cultural anthropology at the HafenCity University Hamburg, the Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg and the Hamburg Museum.

The research group receives funding from the Hamburg Research and Science Foundation for the period from April 2012 to October 2014.

Short documentary of the Early Career Researchers Lab, March 2013.

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On the Transformation of the Urban In Times of Austerity

Low Budget Urbanity is an interdisciplinary research initiative located at the HafenCity University Hamburg, the University of the Built Environment and Metropolitan Culture (HCU) in Germany. The focus of interest lies in the question how city life changes under the premise of austerity. Urban dwellers are increasingly required to find new and creative ways to cope with the withdrawal of communal authorities from welfare provisions, the demise of public infrastructure and expensive or low-quality centralised services in European and Northern American cities. This has lead to the emergence of new urban practices and alternative forms of urban infrastructure often organised under the principle of sharing and saving. The perspective of ‘low-budget urbanity’ aims for a critical understanding of the qualities and characteristics of cities in situations of a financial and economic crisis and explores how current or historical everyday practices are transformed – and how they change or realize urbanity.

The interdisciplinary research network brings together post docs and senior researchers from the disciplines architecture, engineering, planning, geography, history and cultural anthropology at the HafenCity University Hamburg, the Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg and the Hamburg Museum.

The research group receives funding from the Hamburg Research and Science Foundation for the period from April 2012 to October 2014.

Short documentary of the Early Career Researchers Lab, March 2013.