Blog | Longform

This blogpost uses the phenomenon of the fata morgana – mirage – to illustrate the dynamics of real estate advertisements for exclusive housing developments in Cairo. In doing so, we investigate some of the ways in which public media and advertising create a display of the urban that does not reflect the lived social, spatial, and economic reality of the majority of the population. At the same time, this urban visual is produced and shaped by the intersectional dynamics of embedded societal norms.

Viele werden sie kennen: die Werbespots von Airbnb aus dem Frühjahr 2022. Dort tauchen wir in „Airbnb Stories“ ein. Wir begleiten glückliche Urlauber:innen, sehen privat anmutende Fotos und hören stimmungsvolle Musik. Die authentischen Urlaube, die hier beworben werden, sind „made possible by Hosts“. Diese Hosts treten in den Werbespots aber gar nicht direkt in Erscheinung. Einzig kleine Grußkärtchen geben einen Hinweis auf sie, im Obstkorb oder bei der Einwegkamera als Begrüßungsgeschenk. Die Gäste, die wir sehen, residieren in eleganten Stadtwohnungen, sonnigen Villen oder gemütlichen Ferienhäusern. Diese Urlaube „made possible by Hosts“ scheinen wenig damit zu tun zu haben, dass jemand ab und zu ein kurzzeitig leerstehendes Zimmer oder eine Wohnung über Airbnb vermietet.

The environmental movement of Turkey has three decades of history. A culture of resistance was transferred from the first women's ecological resistance that attracted attention in the Bergama peasant movement to today's struggling women.[1] One of the areas of resistance discussed in this article is the Mount Ida (Kazdağları) Resistance, which is one of the most reported ecological struggles in the press in recent years in Turkey. [2]  Global companies came to this significant area, within the borders of Turkey's Marmara and Aegean regions, to search for gold with cyanide and destroy some regions with the state's approval. Resistance temporarily stopped the destruction and cutting of trees in the area.

The mystery surrounding the harem has resulted in rumors of what life behind its high walls actually looks like. Images of beautiful women, sexual pleasure, endless overindulgence have been projected over the reality of this strictly maintained gendered space. It’s easy to dismiss its existence as an example of archaic gender boundaries which have no place in the 21st century. But why? By delving into historical reactions to the harem, we can explore how gendered spaces are constructed and how this bears on our understanding of “freedom”.

This blogpost explores how counterpublic spaces act as intrinsically intersectional spaces shaped by power, history and emotion. In his celebrated 2019 book Afropean: Notes from Black Europe, Johny Pitts sets off by train from Sheffield on a five-month journey across continental Europe. Pitts’ mission seeks to explore the everyday life of black European experiences, beyond the “standoffish academic vernacular” (2019: 5) and to look for instances of “reverse colonialism” that highlight the long-term social and cultural presence and influence of blackness on European culture.

Olena Kononenko has been a guest researcher at the CRC 1265 since mid-May 2022. With Lucie Bernroider and Sarah Etz, she spoke about Kyjiw’s past, present and future, similarities and differences between Kyjiw and Berlin, her experiences at the CRC 1265 and her hopes for future returns – to both Kyjiw and Berlin.

Im November 2020 verwüstete der Wirbelsturm Eta Zentralamerika. Einige Monate später erzählt ein Zeitungsartikel die Geschichte von Byron, einem Familienvater aus Guatemala, dessen Dorf überschwemmt wurde und der daraufhin in die USA emigrierte, um dort Geld für den Wiederaufbau seines Hauses zu verdienen (Abbott 2021). Guatemala befindet sich in einer ökonomischen Krise und die versprochenen Hilfen der Regierung an die Flutopfer blieben aus. So blieb für Byron und viele andere als einziger Ausweg die Flucht in Richtung USA. Der Wirbelsturm – dessen Heftigkeit auf den Klimawandel zurückzuführen ist (Ernst 2020) – war ein erneuter Auslöser für Emigration aus Guatemala.

In this article, I will present five theses concerning the ongoing race for bringing automated vehicles on public roads. Some of my theses are quite disillusioning, some provide hope for a better future of urban mobility with fewer private cars, some concern seemingly “technical” details. What underlies my thinking is the fact that in a field like automated driving, where technical and regulative norms are still evolving and being recalibrated, new technical norms introduce new social norms on our roads, and they enable wholly new patterns of mobility behavior. I study technological innovations as phenomena which are developed within society, within existing power relations, and within constantly changing societal norms and beliefs of what is a “good”, “achievable” or a “bad” future. In most cases, new technologies are presented as means for achieving a better future within a society.