Sociology of Architecture, Sociology of Space and Urban Sociology

The second aim of the Potsdamer Platz Research Project (developed in various stages from 2001 to 2004 together with Michael Makropolous) is to develop a sociological diagnostics oriented towards a sociology of space. Here, the question of a sociology of space has been conceptualized (because of the omnipresence of built environment) as a sociology of architecture and specified as Urban Sociology. In order to sidestep any premature commitment to a single theoretical direction, various sociological paradigms have been summoned, or, as the case may be, constrained, to deploy ‘built society’ (Delitz) as an instrument of their respective modes of social analysis. This conceptual strategy establishes the condition for the entrance of the dimension of space into the center of a General Sociology, even if only indirectly, via the synchronization of various social and cultural theories. This research approach was firmed up by the case studies of the Postdamer Platz and of the ensemble of the Prager Straße in Dresden and their structures of power and inequality.

This research focus has been developed together with Bernhard Schäfers, Herbert Schubert and the architect and sociologist Heike Delitz since 2005 through the formation of the GSA research group ‘Sociology of Architecture’, a research group established as a cooperation of the Section on Sociology of Urban and Regional Sociology with the Section on Cultural Sociology. Through various conferences and publication projects, its research results were disseminated from the Technical University Dresden to different disciplines (see Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Theorien für die Architektursoziologie [2009]) and to the general public (see special issue ‚Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte’: Architektur der Gesellschaft [2009]). The research group has organized workshops on current debates in urban development (Universität Bamberg, July 2009) and on the methodology of an architecturally oriented Sociology of Space (Universität Leipzig Feburary 2010).

The decisive impulse for the development of an Urban Sociology, which is based in a Sociology of Space and serves the interpretation of society is the recognition that built space is constitutive for every social structuring of space – architecture is defined as a “heavy communication medium” of society. This will allow for a definition of contemporary architectural debates on built society (which are, in its intensity, rather confusing to the sociologist at first), debates that bind modes of social engagement, debates that can be seen as vital for the self-organization of a society that struggles along various lines of differentiation (classes, generations, gender, ethnicities, regions, functional subsystems) for its built presence and symbolical representation.

 
Publications and Papers

Potsdamer Platz. Theoretische Perspektiven zur Kultursoziologie eines Ortes der Moderne. (Potsdamer Platz. Theoretical Perspectives for a Cultural Sociology of a Location of Modernity), annual convention of the GSA Section on Cultural Sociology, Berlin 2002, together with Michael Makropoulos.

“Der Potsdamer Platz als gesellschaftsdiagnostisches Artefakt” (Potsdamer Platz as an Artifact of Sociodiagnostics), in: Ästhetik und Kommunikation, 116/33, spring 2002, 84-119.

Systems Theory (Andreas Ziemann)
Philosophical Anthropology (Joachim Fischer)
Critical Theory (Christine Resch / Heinz Steinert)
Discourse Analysis and Semiology (Michael Makropoulos)

Potsdamer Platz. Soziologische Theorien zu einem Ort der Moderne (Potsdamer Platz. Sociological Theories for a Location of Modernity. ed., together with Michael Makropoulos), München 2004.

“Der Potsdamer Platz aus der Perspektive der Philosophischen Anthropologie” (Postdamer Platz from the Perceptive of Philosophical Anthropology), in: Ausdruck und Gebrauch. Dresdner wissenschaftliche Halbjahreshefte für Architektur - Wohnen - Umwelt, Achim Hahn (ed.), 1 (2002), 105-118.

“Exzentrische Positionalität. Der Potsdamer Platz/Leipziger Platz aus der Perspektive der Philosophischen Anthropologie” (Excentric Positionality. Potsdamer Platz / Leipziger Platz from the Perspective of Philosophical Anthropology), in: Ästhetik und Kommunikation, 33. 116 (2002), 87-95.

“Prager Straße. Zur utopischen Energie eines sozialistischen Stadtensembles” (Prager Straße. On the Utopian Energies of a Socialist Urban Ensemble) paper presented at the colloquium Kolloquium 'Stadt, Raum, Utopie, June 07-09, 2002 Dresden-Hellerau.

“Prager Straße in Dresden. Zur Architektursoziologie eines utopischen Stadtensembles” (Prager Straße. On the Sociology of Architecture of a Utopian Urban Ensemble), in: Ausdruck und Gebrauch. Dresdner wissenschaftliche Halbjahreshefte für Architektur Wohnen Umwelt, 5 (2005), 4-14.

Bürgerinitiative zur Erhaltung und Neunutzung des ‘Rundkinos’ auf der Prager Straße in Dresden (Citizens' Initiative for the Preservation and New Use of the ‘Rundkino’ at the Prager Straße in Dresden, 2004-2010), http://www.rundkino-dresden.de/

“Die Bedeutung der Philosophischen Anthropologie für die Architektursoziologie“ (The Relevance of Philosophical Anthropology for the Sociology of Architecture), in: Karl Siegbert Rehberg (ed.): Soziale Ungleichheit - Kulturelle Unterschiede. Verhandlungen des 32. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in München 2004, Frankfurt/New York 2006, CD, 3417-3429.

Website “Sociology of Architecture” (Heike Delitz): www.architektur-soziologie.de

Arbeitsgemeinschaft "Architektursoziologie" / Research Group “Sociology of Architecture” at the GSA; in cooperation with the Sections on Cultural Sociology and Urban Sociology, since October 2004, an initiative of Bernhard Schäfers, Joachim Fischer, Herbert Schubert, Heike Delitz.

“Leitsysteme zum Neuen” (Guidance Systems for the New), Research Advisor for the convention and exhibition on urban visions in Dresden, Motorenhalle für zeitgenössische Kunst, August 2005.

“Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Architektur der Moderne im Blick soziologischer Theorien” (Architecture of Society. Architecture of Modernity from the Perspective of Sociological Theories), 2. Convention on Sociology of Architecture, April 28-29, 2006 at the Technische Universität Dresden.

Architektur als räumliche Verkörperung der Gesellschaft (Architecture as Spatial Embodiment of Society), Ad-hoc-Group at the GSA Convention Die Natur der Gesellschaft (Nature of Society), Kassel 2006.

Joachim Fischer / Heike Delitz (ed.), Stadtvisionen für Dresden - vom Barock bis zur Gegenwart (Urban Visions for Dresden – from Baroque to Present), Dresdner Hefte, 25/92, 4/2007.

Joachim Fischer / Heike Delitz: “Stadtvisionen. Idee zu einer neuen Stadtanalyse” (Urban Visions. Ideas for a New Urban Analysis), in: Stadtvisionen für Dresden - vom Barock bis zur Gegenwart (Dresdner Hefte), 25/92, 4/2007, 3-4.

“La Prager Straße à Dresde. Sociologie architecturale d’un ensemble urbain utopique” (trans. Chloe Voisin), in: La Revue Histoire Urbaine, numéro 24 (2009), 69-83.

Joachim Fischer / Heike Delitz (ed.), Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Theorien für die Architektursoziologie (The Architecture of Society. Theories for a Sociology of Architecture), Bielefeld 2009 (with contributions from Bernhard Schäfers, Herbert Schubert, Markus Schroer, Martina Löw, Achim Hahn, Markus Dauss / Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Detlev Schöttker, Heike Delitz, Dirk Baecker, Stefan Meissner, Susanne Frank, Udo Göttlich, Jens S. Dangschat, Joachim Fischer).

Joachim Fischer / Heike Delitz: “Die ‘Architektur der Gesellschaft’. Einführung” (The Architecture of Society. Introduction), in: Fischer / Delitz (ed.), Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Theorien für die Architektursoziologie, Bielefeld 2009, 9-17.

“Zur Doppelpotenz der Architektursoziologie: Was bringt die Soziologie der Architektur - Was bringt die Architektur der Soziologie?” (On the Double Potential of Sociology of Architecture: How is Sociology Useful for Architecture – How is Architecture Useful for Sociology?), in: Fischer / Delitz, Die Architektur der Gesellschaft. Theorien für die Architektursoziologie, Bielefeld 2009, 385-414.

“Architecture as Society’s Heavy Medium of Communication,”, Phenomenology, Social Sciences and the Arts. An International Conference, May 1-16, 2009, University of Konstanz.

Special Issue “Architektur der Gesellschaft”, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (APuZ), 25/2009, Juni 2009 (with contributions from Christian Illies, Joachim Fischer, Heike Delitz, Susanne Frank, Markus Schroer, Jens S. Dangschaft, Harald Bodenschatz).

“Architektur als 'schweres' Kommunikationsmedium der Gesellschaft” (Architecture as Society’s Heavy Medium of Communication), in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (subject: Architecture of Society), 25/2009, 7-10.

“Architektur als ‘schweres Kommunikationsmedium’ der Gesellschaft. Zur Grundlegung der Architektursoziologie” (Architecture as Society’s ‘Heavy Medium of Communication’. On the Foundation of Sociology of Architecture), in: Peter Trebsche / Nils Müller-Scheeßel / Sabine Reinhold (ed.), Der gebaute Raum. Bausteine einer Architektursoziologie vormoderner Gesellschaften, Münster 2010, 63-82.

“Rekonstruktivismus als soziale Bewegung. Der Fall Berlin” (Reconstructivism as Social Movement. The Case of Berlin”, in: dérive. Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung, 38 (2010): Schwerpunkt: Rekonstruktion und Dekonstruktion (Heike Delitz), 7-12.

Heike Delitz / Joachim Fischer: ”Konstruktion, Dekonstruktion, Rekonstruktion der „Berliner Republik“ - Architektursoziologische Überlegungen” (Construction, Deconstruction, Reconstruction of the Berlin Republic – Considerations of a Sociology of Architecture).
Series of Lectures and Seminars on “Raumproduktion in der Berliner Republik” (Production of Space in the Berlin Republic), Akademie c/o Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, Schloßplatz, 10178 Berlin, July 06, 2010.