Syllabus

PLS0071 Criticality in Research/Criticality as Praxis: Knowledge tools for designing urban futures, 4.0 Credits

Subjects

Education cycle

Grading scale

Language

Prior knowledge

Objectives

Purpose:

Thinking is an action, and critical thinking is an interactive process (Bell Hooks). It channels change (Dave Hickey) by offering a means of reflecting on the dynamic interplay of societal forces, professional activities, academic education and research structuring how we view, and make, our world. Criticality does not belong to any one discipline. Rather, it helps us observe how disciplines operate – and to take a position on what we learn from these observations about disciplinary constraints and affordances. Each traditional subject area defines and deploys its own modes and methods of disciplined work: this course aims to mobilize the power of critical thinking to enrich and help evolve those epistemological norms and inherited practices towards new forms of knowledge production relevant to sustainable urban landscape design challenges of our time.

Learning outcome:

The course offers students the following learning outcomes: how to develop an understanding of the concept of „criticality" through reading and group discussion of theoretical literature; how to critically reflect on their own disciplinary research practice and assess how such practices shape the critical positions they adopt in their own work; how to engage in guided peer feedback that constructively comments upon and refines research aims; how to articulate, elaborate and integrate critical thinking in their PhD related research practice; how to use Rhetorical Precis as a tool to support critical research; how to use Critical Precis to formulate arguments and guide writing work.

Content

Pre-seminar coursework: Before participating in the seminar, students undertake 4 types of preparatory work over a period of 2 weeks prior to the 2.5-day group meeting:

• closely read 4 required theory literature texts and prepare a 4-sentence rhetorical précis for each theory text and circulate via mail to all participants (following guidelines provided);

• closely read 3 required critical writing texts

• prepare a 3-sentence critical précis of the critical position they want to develop with the paper (follow guidelines provided)

• prepare a 1-paragraph synopsis of their final paper topic

The aim of this 3rd module of the "Criticality" course series is to strengthen awareness of the range of critical thinking models available to the researcher in the landscape field. While critical research and practice is a cross-disciplinary activity, not restricted to landscape architects, we focus on landscape architecture to guarantee a shared area for our work, and to learn to recognize how products of a specific disciplined knowledge production practices (including but not limited to design research) contribute to the evolution of thought and action. The course takes a landscape architectural perspective on urban landscapes, but is very well suited for researchers from other design disciplines, or those interested in the field of design.

The course consists of a 2.5-day intensive seminar (20h), preceded by a preparation phase (ca 40h) with reading and short writing assignments, followed by a writing up phase (ca 60h) at distance.