Subject: With the Covid crisis, shutdowns and social distancing measures, a period of hypermobility with cities as cosmopolitan spaces for creativity, hedonistic pleasure, cultural experiences, artistic experiments and urban encounters for global travellers and tourists seems to have come to an end. The cities of the Western world with their closed theatres, art galleries, cinemas, clubs, restaurants, cafés, museums, opera houses, and concert halls as well as their near-empty streets now resemble ghost towns. Berlin has been particularly hard hit by these developments, partly because tourism is – or rather: was - crucial for the city’s economy, but also because the city’s self-image up to 2020 was based on freedom. Starting roughly in 2000, when the “branding” of places became essential in a global competition for financial investment, tourists and the international “creative class”, Berlin had accordingly been the object of various marketing campaigns, all focusing on the liberal lifestyle for which Berlin had become famous. The last one, launched in 2017 and labelled “#FreedomBerlin”, presented the German capital as “the capital of freedom” and stated that “everything that Berlin stands for internationally is based on the great value of freedom.” Now, one year after the first lockdown in March 2020, Berliners are far from the only ones asking themselves what effects the steps taken to fight the spread of the coronavirus will have on future developments in the city. Almost symbolically, and ironically, the agonisingly slow process of building the new airport was finally completed in November 2020 when international air traffic had come to a virtual standstill. In and beyond Berlin, the crisis has triggered discussions about the future of the city: will we see a decline of the open and liberal city as we knew it? Could the cities of the future be sustainable and healthy, with affordable rents, green spaces and intact communities? Will they be abandoned altogether, as more and more people work from home and move to the countryside? Or will cities turn into “smart” places, dominated by digital technology and electronic surveillance? Program: In the first half of the semester, we will look at the development of Berlin and its marketing campaigns between 1990 and 2019 and discuss the concepts of city branding and tourist marketing as well as processes of gentrification. In the second half of the semester, we will examine the more immediate effects of the Covid crisis on Berlin and, possibly, other cities, and then study and discuss ideas and visions for the future of the city proposed by sociologists, urbanists and environmentalists. If possible, students will also venture out into the city individually or in small groups and conduct on-site research. Is this course right for you? This course is open to students from all fields. You should be able and willing to study academic texts in English from the social sciences (urban geography & sociology, tourism, marketing). Workload and Assessment: To obtain 5 ECTS credits, students will have to attend the course regularly and participate in the discussions in class; study the weekly course materials (an average of 15 pages of texts in English per week); if possible: contribute to a working group (on-site research); submit some written work at the end of the semester (2000-3000 words). close