Book Launch: Das Kotti-Prinzip by Christine Bock & Ulrich Pappenberger
Who owns the city? Who is allowed to stay – who has to go? Who decides about it? And by what means? For about six months, Christine Bock and Ulrich Pappenberger accompanied the tenant initiative Kotti & Co to understand how tenants had become influential actors affecting Berlin’s city and housing politics. The study employs an actor-network theory approach in order to talk about the power of the collective. By means of mappings, it sheds light on how spaces, people, time, knowledge and things connect as accomplices of an effective actor-network. The Kotti-principle assembles contributions on the relationship of science and practice and especially on the agency that is gained by the collaboration of researchers, designers, and activists. The publication aims to encourage reflecting on the contributions of critical spatial practices to urban politics and development. And above all, it wants to encourage to engage, because “the small is being unconnected, the big one is to be attached.” (Bruno Latour)
The publication consists of 2 parts: A large-format booklet with axonometric drawings introduces the visible and invisible accomplices of Kotti & Co. The detailed mappings show how actors, places and actions work together over long periods of time and how complex “interfering from below” is in urban development policy processes. It’s about making the strategies and tactics of Kotti & Co understandable so that they can become a model for others. This visual analysis is supplemented by a smaller booklet containing a series of essays, that shed light on the power of civil society and academic engagement for urban development.
With contributions from: Nishat Awan, Christine Bock, Ulrike Hamann, Yamil Hasbun Chavarría, Andrej Holm, Sandy Kaltenborn, Ulrich Pappenberger, Jörg Stollmann.