Urban Appropriation Strategies : Exploring Space-making Practices in Contemporary European Cityscapes

In the past years, the transiency of European city-making and dwelling has become increasingly hard to disregard. This urban flux calls for a methodological rethinking for those professionals, social and natural scientists, artists, and activists, with an interest in the processes of remaking and reclaiming urban space. With a practical and empirical emphasis, this anthology brings forth a variety of perspectives on urban appropriation strategies, their relation to public space-making, and their implications for future city development, exploring how ideas and practices of appropriation inform and relate to cultural narratives, politico-historical occasions as well as socio-ecological expressions.

Flavia Alice Mameli comes from a design background (B.A., M.A. Industrial Design at Berlin University of the Arts) and conducts her doctoral research in the field of urban appropriation strategies. She is a passionate urban flâneuse and especially interested in the potential influence of space-making practices on urban developments.

Franziska Polleter holds a degree in architecture and urban design from the Technical University of Munich (B.A.) and the Technical University of Berlin (M.A.). In her research, she focuses on new forms of dwelling and she is especially interested in the impact co-living housing has on redevelopments in urban environments.

Mathilda Rosengren (B.A., M.A.) is a visual anthropologist and geographer with a particular interest in the relational structuring of urban nature. As a doctoral student in geography at the University of Cambridge, she takes part in the ERC funded research project Rethinking Urban Nature and examines the interrelations between notions of `living with difference', `unplanned' urban nature, and official urban planning in Berlin, Germany, and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Josefine Sarkez-Knudsen (B.A., M.A.) is an ethnologist from the SAXO Institute at the University of Copenhagen, where she works as a part-time lecturer. Combining her particular interests in migration and urban design, she explores the complexities of intercultural encounters in the context of urban everyday life.