AGRARIAN QUESTIONS UNDER EXTENDED URBANISATION
Urban Theory Seminar,
Spring Semester 2022, Thursdays 16-18, ONA Fokushalle 


As the prospect of complete urbanisation increasingly becomes a concrete rather than abstract reality, architecture and urban studies is increasingly confronted with the agrarian question. This becomes evident in the increasing number of publications, journal articles, and special issues in the recent years that have attempted to explore the links between the urban and agrarian questions. A Swiss Portrait by Studio Basel, Implosions/Explosions by the Urban Theory Lab, and the Countryside by OMA are only some of the many publications that deal with this topic. This course attempts at a systematic engagement with the agrarian questions in its many facets. From the classic question of land enclosure, colonialism, and primitive accumulation, to the ongoing debates on urban farming and greening. The course which is organised along a number of thematically designed sessions, straddles the various revolutions and counter-revolutions that have emerged in the global countryside, the utopias of agrarian urbanism, and the world ecology of agriculture.