SOCIO-POLITICAL MAPS: A PARTICIPATORY PUBLIC DISCOURSE ON THE CITY

On the occasion of the publication of Sophie Hochhäusl’s book Otto Neurath – City Planning: Proposing a socio-political Map for modern Urbanism (Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2011), the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Van Alen Institute present a round table discussion on the question of urban mappings and participatory public discourse on the city.

Austrian philosopher, economist and member of the Vienna Circle, Otto Neurath (1882 – 1945) investigated representational maps for more than two decades of his life. In search of “humanizing knowledge” he revolutionized the discipline of chart making through the use of quantitative maps (picture statistics) accessible to a large public. In a response to the undertakings of CIAM IV, Neurath published his map “City Planning,” to emphasize that a discourse on modern urbanism allowing for a pluralism of ideas, in which a broad public could partake was long overdue.

Under this premise the invited panelists discuss the state of socio-political mapping in architecture and urbanism historically and today.

PARTICIPANTS

Christine Gaspar (Center for Urban Pedagogy)
Sophie Hochhäusl (PhD student, Cornell University)
Prem Krishnamurthy (Project Projects)
Bart Lootsma (Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck)
William Menking (The Architect’s Newspaper)
Nader Vossoughian (New York Institute of Technology).