Sustainable, Inclusive, Beautiful City-making. Cultuur&Campus New European Bauhaus Minor

Cities across the world are facing multiple crises connected to ecological and democratic challenges. This Minor engages participants in imagining and implementing more sustainable, beautiful and inclusive approaches to city-making, based on experiences in Rotterdam, and connecting the humanities, social sciences, and artistic practices.

This minor consists of one 15 EC module. Faced by a polycrisis combining climate change, rising social inequalities, and challenges to democratic institutions, there is an urgent need to imagine, explore, and implement hopeful and innovative pathways for sustainable adaptation and transformations both on a global and local level. The Minor answers the New European Bauhaus’s (NEB) call to action, inviting learners to envision and implement more sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful city-making practices, drawing upon and developing skills and knowledge connected to the arts and sciences. Working in interdisciplinary teams from EUR, WdKA, Codarts among others, and local stakeholders, learners engage with transition studies, artistic practices, sociology and the humanities. The course encourages participants’ and stakeholders’ mutual learning and combined experiences and local histories, knowledge and academic disciplines to address complex societal challenges. The participants’ critical reflections and coursework will shape the practices of the Cultuur&Campus Putselaan (C&CP), a planned hub for community, learning, culture and the arts set to open in Rotterdam South in 2025. The hub will be shared by the EUR, WdKA, Codarts, the Municipality of Rotterdam, and other societal stakeholders. We critically reflect on the (ethics of) engagement of higher educational institutes, learners, artists, and city-makers with local communities and embed this reflection in the hub’s operations.

By the end of this minor you are able to:

• Understand and engage critically with the (origins of the) New European Bauhaus and its values (beautiful, sustainable, together), and relate them to local practices and developments in Rotterdam.
• Identify and analyse complex societal challenges from an interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder perspective that combines ethics, theory and collaborative (artistic) practice.
• Critically evaluate individual and institutional positioning and practices in relation to sustainable and inclusive city-making, with attention to challenges relating to climate resilience, poverty, growing inequalities, health and wellbeing, gentrification.
• Applying course learnings and multi-stakeholder perspectives to the creation and evaluation of shared practices that further sustainable, inclusive and beautiful city-making at the C&CP hub.

Joint minor of EUR, WdKA, Codarts.

This is a selection minor that requires a motivation:

Please answer the following questions (max. 200 words in total):

• Why would you like to participate in this minor?
• How do you expect that this minor will contribute to your studies and personal development?

After registering for this minor you can send your motivation via email to: brandellero@eshcc.eur.nl

The EUR TER applies to the first part of the Minor (15EC), with implications for attendance and examination among others.

420 hours study load for 15 EC Minor.

The main language of instruction is English. Passive command of the Dutch is desirable, given stakeholders collaborations.

The minor takes place at the Cultuur&Campus Putselaan hub (expected opening July 2025), or alternative locations close by (e.g. Hillevliet, HefHouse).

Teaching methods
Focusing on city-making and active engagement with the C&CP hub, teaching methods range from seminars/workshops to relevant field-visits in Rotterdam (e.g. ecological, cultural and social grassroots initiatives). Practitioners in Rotterdam that exemplify sustainable, beautiful and inclusive city-making will be involved in teaching. Each week integrates theory, research, with experiential, hands-on practices, drawing on artistic practices at WdKA and Codarts. Students learn by doing, developing recommendations and initiatives to be integrated in the hub’s operations.

Teaching materials
The minor is administered via Canvas. Teaching materials include (academic) literature and journal articles on key concepts/debates in political philosophy/ethics of just cities, transition theory, creative placemaking, gentrification and inequalities. We also use field-visit observations, news clippings, policy documents, artworks, creative practices, conversations with local stakeholders, developing a database as resource for future cohorts. Stakeholders (e.g. partners Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie) are remunerated fairly, via C&CP/institutional funds.

Method of examination
The coursework is further structured around a portfolio format composed of individual and group assignments, formative and summative. Examination takes the form of written and oral assignments based on theory and independent and group research (individual papers, group presentation, collaboration in artistic practice and policy recommendation). Community-based learning/research is central to the Minor, with special focus on research ethics, addressing extractivism and considering reciprocity in learning, focusing on coursework and assessment that be of societal use and application. Learning also means unlearning and reflecting (un)sustainability of existing practices and biases, embracing complex and diverse knowledges.

Composition of final grade
The assessment for the minor will be structured around the following final grade composition:

• 15% four individual guided reading notes, including critical reflection
• 10% observation fieldnotes
• 45% individual paper based on theory and application to a case study
• 30% group presentation at public symposium (including artistic intervention element (video, performance, artwork), under supervision of WDKA/Codarts teachers)