Books by Krzysztof Nawratek
This book delves into the complex relationship between religious imaginaries and the perception o... more This book delves into the complex relationship between religious imaginaries and the perception of space among followers of Candomblé and Pentecostal churches in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third-largest urban agglomeration.
It adopts a dual perspective, examining the broader political, economic, and social dimensions of these religious communities' urbanisation and spatial distribution and their members' individual beliefs and behaviours. Through this approach, the book aims to provide a nuanced and insider's view of these religious positions, challenging our preconceived notions of urban spaces and contributing to the larger discussion of decolonial urban theory and spatialised post-secular thought.
This transdisciplinary book will appeal to a broad range of researchers, particularly those interested in urban and religious studies. Its strong spatial perspective makes it attractive to architects and urban designers. It will be of interest to those in human geography, urban planning, design, architecture, political science, religious studies, and culture studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 license.
This book delves into the complex relationship between religious imaginaries and the perception o... more This book delves into the complex relationship between religious imaginaries and the perception of space among followers of Candomblé and Pentecostal churches in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third-largest urban agglomeration.
It adopts a dual perspective, examining the broader political, economic, and social dimensions of these religious communities' urbanisation and spatial distribution and their members' individual beliefs and behaviours. Through this approach, the book aims to provide a nuanced and insider's view of these religious positions, challenging our preconceived notions of urban spaces and contributing to the larger
discussion of decolonial urban theory and spatialised post-secular thought.
This transdisciplinary book will appeal to a broad range of researchers, particularly those interested in urban and religious studies. Its strong spatial perspective makes it attractive to architects and urban designers. It will be of interest to those in human geography, urban planning, design, architecture, political science, religious studies and culture studies.
Routledge, Jan 30, 2020
Kuala Lumpur is a diverse city representing many different religions and nationalities. Recent go... more Kuala Lumpur is a diverse city representing many different religions and nationalities. Recent government policy has actively promoted unity and cohesion throughout the city; and the country of Malaysia, with the implementation of a programme called 1Malaysia. In this book, the authors investigate the aims of this programme – predominantly to unify the Malaysian society – and how these objectives resonate in the daily spatial practices of the city’s residents. This book argues that elements of urban infrastructure could work as an essential mediator ‘beyond community’, allowing inclusive social structures to be built, despite cultural and religious tensions existing within the city. It builds on the premise of an empirical study which explores the ways in which different communities use the same spaces, supported through the implementation of a theoretical framework which looks at both Western and Islamic conceptualisations of the notion of community. Through the analysis of Kuala Lumpur, this book contributes towards the creation of more inclusive places in multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious communities across the world.
The real strength of today’s protest movements is not conflict, but a reclaimed solidarity and ne... more The real strength of today’s protest movements is not conflict, but a reclaimed solidarity and newly rebuilt sense of community. The real “we are all in this together” of people losing their homes, jobs, life savings and those who know how easily they can succumb to similar misfortune. In the face of adversity, the sense of community is reborn together with a selfless impulse to help. ‘Empathy’ and ‘inclusiveness’ become key words. A new community and the language it establishes emerge in cooperatives and movements working for the common good. In this book we imagine the architecture and urbanism of this emerging community.
Art Training jest podsumowaniem projektu, którego tematem i miejscem realizacji stała się przestr... more Art Training jest podsumowaniem projektu, którego tematem i miejscem realizacji stała się przestrzeń publiczna miasta, rozumiana jako naturalny obszar działania obywateli i dobro wspólne. Wykorzystując zastane warunki wybranego miejsca, zaproszeni przez nas artyści opracowali gry, które zawierają krytyczne spojrzenie na wybrany aspekt funkcjonowania metropolii (Wrocławia, Kijowa i Krakowa). Przedmiotem ich analiz jest kwestia realnego wpływu sztuki na rzeczywistość oraz możliwość animowania zmian społecznych poprzez zachęcenie mieszkańców do aktywnego działania w obszarze miasta oraz szerzej — przestrzeni publicznej. Dystrybuowane w formie plakatów i pocztówek scenariusze gier niosą w sobie potencjał performatywny i partycypacyjny. Za ich pomocą chcieliśmy uruchomić geny współdziałania i samoorganizacji, odpowiedzialne za poziom zaangażowania i partycypacji w sferze publicznej.
The question of citizenship is becoming one of the central social and political problems, where s... more The question of citizenship is becoming one of the central social and political problems, where sovereignty is being challenged by globalisation and militarisation. The old model of citizenship is no longer valid in the contemporary reality of mass migrations and ethnic, religious and cultural integration. Krzysztof Nawratek revives the socio-political potential of the city as a tool for social change. He proposes to establish the city s own sovereignty by introducing a new type of multiple and flexible city citizenship. City as a Political Idea combines reflection on urban planning, architecture, politics and society. It questions reasons for the existence of contemporary cities as well as their future.
Holes in The Whole seeks meaning and reasons for the existence of the city. It demonstrates the u... more Holes in The Whole seeks meaning and reasons for the existence of the city. It demonstrates the urgent need to expand the sphere of urban activity - to define the city not only as a territory of exploitation, but as space of human existence in its fullest dimension. The book defines the conditions under which the city can develop as an entity without falling into the trap of arrogant self-sufficiency. It identifies the mechanisms that promote independent fragments, including people, neighbourhoods and regions, so that they are not random, unsystematic bunches, but stable (yet flexible) structures.
Contemporary capitalism is often described as a economical system based on knowledge, whats indic... more Contemporary capitalism is often described as a economical system based on knowledge, whats indicate a shift from material production to more intangible assets related to exchange, control and circulation. It is strictly connected with something what we can define as a 'language (or communicative) turn' in debate on contemporary city, and particularly on public space. Architects and many urban theorist define public space as a kind of materialisation of Habermas' public sphere idea. However, the basic problem still concerns the relationship between the physical structure of the city, its social structure (in the broad sense) and the intangible constituents of modern capitalism. This paper challenges 'the language turn' in defining public space, focusing rather on production than communication, on a tangible outcome of a communicative action than on the communication itself.
"This is the third volume in the cultural critique series published by University of Plymouth Pre... more "This is the third volume in the cultural critique series published by University of Plymouth Press. Following volume 1 on culture and agency, and volume 2 on cultural memory, this volume asks how cities are envisioned, crossing various academic fields and professional practices from cultural theory to ethnography, and from art to sustainable food production. There is no attempt to define what a present or future city should be, nor to claim special insight for any one group of professionals or academics. The intention is to present a plurality of outlooks and observations, often incidental to debates on urban planning and design – on both of which there are extensive literatures. The volume suggests that new insights emerge in the interstices between approaches. The book is not a tool kit for creative cities, then, but an effort to provoke more serendipitous discussion. Some of the chapters are edited versions of papers from a conference, Nutopia, organised by Jennie Savage in Cardiff in April, 2009 (on which a note is appended). Others were added from academic research in progress at the University of Plymouth and elsewhere.
Together, the chapters indicate a refusal of a single model - the city – in favour of more complex and contingent frameworks. Cities are viewed as sites of contested claims to space, voice and visibility. Peter Marcuse remarked, at a symposium, ‘The Right to the Creative City’, in London in 2011, that of the six words of the title five are problematic (‘to’ is the exception). ‘The’ implies a single right and a single city; ‘right’ disregards the difference between a demand for justice arising from deprivation, a desire for utopia arising from unease; ‘creative’ is problematic when financial services are included in the creative sector; and ‘city’ implies, as said above, a single model which reduces or denies the diversity of urban forms, cultures, social orders, and lives.
The book is not divided into sections, but the first three chapters deal with broad ways of analysing cities. Robert Brown proposes, in a way close to some of Peter Marcuse’s thinking, that cities are palimpsests – constant over- and re-inscriptions in space. Bas Spierings looks at cities from a Dutch experience (but with wider import) as consumption sites. And Krzysztof Nawratek argues that cities have always been sites of contest, even of violence, from their archaic rites of foundation to the present. The next four chapters take different approaches to specific places: Nell Quest uses ethnography to gain insights into multi-ethnic Marseiiles. Aparna Sharma uses walking and photography to investigate contrasting neighbourhoods in Delhi. Gary Anderson and Steve Garrett both look at Cuba, Anderson recalling a visit there which raised issues of revolutionary commemoration, and Garrett celebrating the urban gardens of Havana as a greening of that city. In the next three chapters the focus moves to the arts and cultural work; Peter Dunn reviews his experiences as a community-based artist using digital media for democratic articulation of urban futures. Zoë Skoulding reflects narratively and in a series of poems on the city as a shifting, contingent and sometimes fragile landscape. Jennie Savage recalls her work as an artist in Cardiff, prior to Nutopia, using walking as a means to open dialogue with dwellers and urban professionals. The final two chapters return to theoretical and speculative approaches: Malcolm Miles looks critically, and perhaps a litttle nostalgically, at the overlooked (as if failed) utopian content in European modernist architecture and planning. Then, finally, looking at tools for re-envisioning cities socially, Paul Chatterton proposes nine principles for future urban viability. As said, the book offers no solutions. The Editors hope it will contribute to discussion, and provoke further efforts to gain insights into urban life (and lives), and future possibilities for democratic, empowering, and sustainable urban tactics."
Miasto jako idea polityczna
Papers by Krzysztof Nawratek
Top-Down Revolutions. Negative and Positive Autonomy
This chapter discusses the nature of autonomy, arguing that there are two kinds of autonomy—the p... more This chapter discusses the nature of autonomy, arguing that there are two kinds of autonomy—the positive, defined as a surplus of freedom and agency, and the negative, defined as freedom in the creative interpretation of conditions and expectations imposed by the hegemonic order. In this chapter, I discuss an urban ontology based on a multiplicity of actors and constantly changing hierarchies, and the tension between the positive and negative autonomy of each actor engaged in urban development.
Assemblages, Series, and Empire
This chapter discusses different meanings of the idea of the empire and the diverse mechanisms th... more This chapter discusses different meanings of the idea of the empire and the diverse mechanisms that make people come together. I discuss an empire as closely inspired by a concept of All-under-Heaven (Tian-xia 天下), which exists both as a project (horizon) and as a hidden entity here and now. I argue that this empire could become a political response to the challenge of Anthropocene. The project of the empire in a context of Ernst Junger’s thought should be seen as a process of actualization of the Gestalt. Therefore, it is not fully represented in the current social, economic, and political structures, but it is not a transcendent idea.
Architecture of radicalized postsecularism
The House and the City as Capitalist/Post-Capitalist Hybrids
Following the previous chapter, I focus on the simultaneously relational and ontological nature o... more Following the previous chapter, I focus on the simultaneously relational and ontological nature of space. This chapter discusses the hybrid existence of a house as a space penetrated by capitalist logic and oppression, yet able to create conditions for non-capitalist narratives to emerge.
The Spatiality of (Post-)Capitalism
This chapter focuses on the nature of capitalism and neo-liberalism in order to define their spat... more This chapter focuses on the nature of capitalism and neo-liberalism in order to define their spatial presence. It discusses how capitalism actualises spatially to suggest that any post-capitalist project must be simultaneously spatial (localised) and focuses on relationships between diverse actors (must be contextualised).
Władza Sądzenia, 2014
Artykuł rozważa możliwość i warunki zaistnienia architektury i przestrzeni inkluzywnej, reinterpr... more Artykuł rozważa możliwość i warunki zaistnienia architektury i przestrzeni inkluzywnej, reinterpretując i "uprzestrzenniając" idee powszechnego zbawienia (Orygenes) oraz punktu Omega (Theilard de Chardin, w interpretacji Paolo Solierego). Powołując się na chrześcijański "problem piekła" jako przestrzeni z definicji ekskluzywnej, artykuł konstruuje model architektury, która ów ekskluzywizm przezwycięża. Artykuł przywołuje przykłady zrealizowanych obiektów oraz elementy postmodernistycznych teorii architektonicznych, by pokazać możliwość dalszego rozwoju architektury poza obecnie obowiązujący paradygmat autonomicznego obiektu o zdefiniowanych funkcjach.
Władza Sądzenia, Dec 1, 2013
Współczesna-neoliberalna wersja kapitalizmu często jest przedstawiana jako odrzucenie materialnoś... more Współczesna-neoliberalna wersja kapitalizmu często jest przedstawiana jako odrzucenie materialności na rzecz abstrakcyjnych operacji finansowych (Marazzi 2010), zakwestionowanie lokalności na rzecz globalnych pływów. Nawet jednak taki zdeterytorializowany kapitalizm styka się od czasu do czasu z tym co materialne i lokalne. Tymi punktami styku są najczęściej współczesne miasta. W prezentowanym tekście pokazuję, że miasto może nie tylko walczyć o autonomię poza neoliberalnym paradygmatem, ale może stać się pułapką, punktem podparcia, który ten paradygmat przewróci.
Wywiad z Krzyztofem Nawratkiem "Partycypacja potrzebuje dobrze zdefiniowanego interfejsu" Rozmawiala: Barbara Tusk
Borders, Interfaces and Infrastructure
This chapter discusses spatial mechanisms of mediation between diverse urban logics. I discuss xe... more This chapter discusses spatial mechanisms of mediation between diverse urban logics. I discuss xenophobia as well as the emancipatory approach to segregation. I focus especially on the difference between the Greek Polis, as an exclusive urban community, and the Roman Urbs as an inclusive node of the imperial network. This is followed by a discussion of the tension between spatial-focused and network-focused logic using the example of contemporary China to argue for a holistic, fundamentally spatial logic, which operates in and in-between different scales. In this chapter, I argue for a vision of the world as a fundamentally porous and heterogeneous entity.
Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, Mar 28, 2014
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Books by Krzysztof Nawratek
It adopts a dual perspective, examining the broader political, economic, and social dimensions of these religious communities' urbanisation and spatial distribution and their members' individual beliefs and behaviours. Through this approach, the book aims to provide a nuanced and insider's view of these religious positions, challenging our preconceived notions of urban spaces and contributing to the larger discussion of decolonial urban theory and spatialised post-secular thought.
This transdisciplinary book will appeal to a broad range of researchers, particularly those interested in urban and religious studies. Its strong spatial perspective makes it attractive to architects and urban designers. It will be of interest to those in human geography, urban planning, design, architecture, political science, religious studies, and culture studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 license.
It adopts a dual perspective, examining the broader political, economic, and social dimensions of these religious communities' urbanisation and spatial distribution and their members' individual beliefs and behaviours. Through this approach, the book aims to provide a nuanced and insider's view of these religious positions, challenging our preconceived notions of urban spaces and contributing to the larger
discussion of decolonial urban theory and spatialised post-secular thought.
This transdisciplinary book will appeal to a broad range of researchers, particularly those interested in urban and religious studies. Its strong spatial perspective makes it attractive to architects and urban designers. It will be of interest to those in human geography, urban planning, design, architecture, political science, religious studies and culture studies.
Together, the chapters indicate a refusal of a single model - the city – in favour of more complex and contingent frameworks. Cities are viewed as sites of contested claims to space, voice and visibility. Peter Marcuse remarked, at a symposium, ‘The Right to the Creative City’, in London in 2011, that of the six words of the title five are problematic (‘to’ is the exception). ‘The’ implies a single right and a single city; ‘right’ disregards the difference between a demand for justice arising from deprivation, a desire for utopia arising from unease; ‘creative’ is problematic when financial services are included in the creative sector; and ‘city’ implies, as said above, a single model which reduces or denies the diversity of urban forms, cultures, social orders, and lives.
The book is not divided into sections, but the first three chapters deal with broad ways of analysing cities. Robert Brown proposes, in a way close to some of Peter Marcuse’s thinking, that cities are palimpsests – constant over- and re-inscriptions in space. Bas Spierings looks at cities from a Dutch experience (but with wider import) as consumption sites. And Krzysztof Nawratek argues that cities have always been sites of contest, even of violence, from their archaic rites of foundation to the present. The next four chapters take different approaches to specific places: Nell Quest uses ethnography to gain insights into multi-ethnic Marseiiles. Aparna Sharma uses walking and photography to investigate contrasting neighbourhoods in Delhi. Gary Anderson and Steve Garrett both look at Cuba, Anderson recalling a visit there which raised issues of revolutionary commemoration, and Garrett celebrating the urban gardens of Havana as a greening of that city. In the next three chapters the focus moves to the arts and cultural work; Peter Dunn reviews his experiences as a community-based artist using digital media for democratic articulation of urban futures. Zoë Skoulding reflects narratively and in a series of poems on the city as a shifting, contingent and sometimes fragile landscape. Jennie Savage recalls her work as an artist in Cardiff, prior to Nutopia, using walking as a means to open dialogue with dwellers and urban professionals. The final two chapters return to theoretical and speculative approaches: Malcolm Miles looks critically, and perhaps a litttle nostalgically, at the overlooked (as if failed) utopian content in European modernist architecture and planning. Then, finally, looking at tools for re-envisioning cities socially, Paul Chatterton proposes nine principles for future urban viability. As said, the book offers no solutions. The Editors hope it will contribute to discussion, and provoke further efforts to gain insights into urban life (and lives), and future possibilities for democratic, empowering, and sustainable urban tactics."
Papers by Krzysztof Nawratek