Shared Spaces, Contentious Places? (Re-)Negotiating Belonging in Urban Spaces and Museums

Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm         

organized by
the project en/counter/points: (re)nego­tia­ting be­long­­ing through culture and con­­­tact in public space and place, fun­ded un­der the HERA pro­gramme by the Federal Ministry of Educa­tion and Re­search
In cooperation with: Leibniz Research Alliance ‘Historical Authenticity’, Shared Spaces – European Dialogues about Pub­lic Spaces, a project of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.                                

organization: Achim Saupe, Kristin Meißner (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam, ZZF)

Public spaces are built or imagined places, where culture, history and belonging are re­presented, lived and ne­­­­­go­tiated. They are shared spaces, where people get together and inte­gra­­tion and partici­pation are practiced. And they are contentious places, where belongings and memories are disputed.
The workshop and panel discussion Shared Spaces, Contentious Places? (Re-)Negotiating Belonging in Urban Spaces and Museums will focus on the multiple relationships between public spaces, built heri­tage, memory and belonging. We will look at a variety of examples from Europe: the demolition, re­con­struction and re-adap­tion of historic and iconic buildings; the valorization and deva­lo­­rization of socialist heri­tage after 1989; social and migrant struggles in urban neighborhoods; and the representation and re-negotiating of belonging in mu­seums.
The workshop will explore concepts and practices of belonging that are connected to public space. How do the fra­ming, appropriation and reassess­ment of public spaces and places enable and obstruct belonging, and chal­lenge conventional power structures? How can urban infrastructures and en­­viron­ments, and built heritage re­pre­sent and support democratic values, and diversity? And what role do history, me­mory and re­mem­brance play in this?

The workshop will bring to¬gether members of the HERA project en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belong¬ing through culture and contact in pu¬blic space and place with associated partners and ex¬perts in the fields of ur¬ban history and heritage, migration and museums to reflect upon and discuss dis¬courses, processes, and practices of be¬longing in public spaces.

Program  

Susannah Eckersley (Newcastle University/ZZF Potsdam), Achim Saupe and Kristin Meißner (Leibniz-Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam) 
Introduction & Moderation

Christoph Bernhardt (Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung Erkner, Berlin)
Urban Authenticity

Verena Pfeiffer (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg/Berlin)
Recalling and Belonging in Urban Space

Q & A

Wulf Kansteiner (Aarhus University)
Commemoration Culture and Belonging: Can Museums go Agonistic?

Elisabeth Tietmeyer (Museum Europäischer Kulturen, Berlin)
Participation and the creation of belonging in museums

Q & A