1.1. Code: YY065 1.2. Subject category: Optative 1.3. Duration: 1.4. Credits ECTS: 3 1.5. Head teacher: 1.6. Language: Catalan - Spanish ´´ English
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The elective course Urban Challenges: Resilience, Justice and Inclusion offers students a critical immersion into the intersections between urban planning, society, and the environment. Through a transversal and participatory approach, the course invites reflection on contemporary urban challenges and on the transformative role of architecture in building cities that are more just, resilient, and inclusive.
Organized into four thematic blocks — urban resilience, environmental justice, inclusion and participation, and democracy and spatial agency — the course combines theory and practice through lectures, debates, mapping exercises, role?playing, and creative presentations. The aim is to equip students with analytical and expressive tools to identify and address spatial (in)justices emerging in diverse urban contexts, while fostering critical thinking, collaborative learning, and transformative action.
The course begins with an exploration of urban resilience, where students will analyze a range of hazards?including floods, droughts, heat waves, air pollution, food insecurity, and both natural and human-made disasters?that threaten urban well-being. Case studies from around the world will serve as the basis for examining how cities adapt to these challenges and what architectural strategies support resilience. Next, the focus shifts to environmental justice, where students will critically assess how the adaptation and mitigation measures studied in the first block can produce unequal outcomes. Urban greening projects implemented under the banners of climate adaptation and public health will be examined through a critical lens, questioning who benefits from these interventions and who may be excluded or displaced as a result. In the third block, the course addresses inclusivity and participation by unpacking the power dynamics behind urban transformations. Students will explore inclusive governance models that actively involve marginalized or underrepresented communities in decision-making processes, learning how to design participatory tools that ensure diverse voices are heard and valued in shaping urban futures. Finally, the course turns to democracy and spatial agency, introducing students to cartographic and interpretative mapping tools that reveal hidden urban realities. These tools will be used to visualize and reinterpret the socio-spatial dimensions of the issues studied throughout the course, positioning maps as instruments of empowerment and enabling new forms of agency in urban transformation. By the end of the course, students will have cultivated a deeper understanding of architecture?s potential as a tool for advocacy, empowerment, and transformation in the urban realm.
The course is developed through a combination of active and participatory methodologies designed to foster critical thinking, creativity, and the direct engagement of students with contemporary urban challenges. The course is structured around four thematic blocks that integrate theory and practice, and it is grounded in a transversal and collaborative pedagogy.
Teaching Methodologies
- Short lectures to introduce key concepts and theoretical frameworks.
- Guided readings and critical text analysis to encourage both individual and collective reflection.
- Group debates and discussions to contrast perspectives and generate shared knowledge.
- Project?based learning (PBL), focusing on real cases and specific urban contexts.
- Collaborative learning, through group work that promotes interaction and co?creation of knowledge.
Learning Activities
- Interpretative mapping and critical cartography: tools to visualize inequalities and imagine urban alternatives.
- Role?playing games and simulations: to explore power dynamics and decision?making processes in urban contexts.
- Creative presentations: displaying results through visual or audiovisual formats.
- Site visits within the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona: direct observation and in?situ analysis of urban projects.
- Talks by invited experts: contributions from professionals and academics to enrich discussion and broaden perspectives.
Working Dynamics
- Group work, fostering collaboration among students with diverse backgrounds.
- Continuous assessment, based on active participation, quality of assignments, and critical analysis skills.
- Collective reflection spaces, to review processes, share learning, and adjust strategies.
Assessment in this course is continuous and is based on the student’s active engagement throughout the entire semester. The final grade is obtained from the average of the marks corresponding to the four thematic blocks, each of which includes exercises, activities, and presentations carried out during the sessions.
Each thematic block may include:
Individual or group exercises.
Practical activities (such as mapping, role?playing games, or case analysis).
Oral or visual presentations of results.
Written or multimedia critical reflections.
Particular emphasis will be placed on:
Active participation and commitment to course dynamics.
The capacity for critical and transversal analysis.
Quality and creativity of the proposals presented.
Contribution to collaborative work and the ability to synthesize information.
Attendance is mandatory, requiring at least 80% of sessions. Assessment will consider contributions to discussions and the presentation of original material in each session. Attendance and active involvement in collective work are essential components of the final grade; therefore, physical presence in the classroom is required for all sessions.
(Link to regulations: https://www.salleurl.edu/ca/estudis/graus/informacio-academica/normativa-academica/normativa-davaluacio)
Exams Internal / external reports Exercices, problems, internships Projects Group / individual presentations Self-assessment Class participation / monitoring Project corrections: tutorials Jury corrections
URBAN RESILIENCE
-De Balanzó, R., & Rodríguez-Planas, N. (2018). Crisis and reorganization in urban dynamics: The Barcelona, Spain, case study. Ecology and Society, 23(4), art6. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10396-230406
-Holling, C. S., Gunderson, L. H., & Ludwig, D. (2002). In quest of a theory of adaptive change. En L. H. Gunderson & C. S. Holling (Eds.), Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems (pp. 3–24). Island Press.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
-Amorim?Maia, A. T., Anguelovski, I., Chu, E., & Connolly, J. (2024). Governing intersectional climate justice: Tactics and lessons from Barcelona. Environmental Policy and Governance, 34(3), 256–274. https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.2075
-Calderón-Argelich, A., Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J. J. T., & Baró, F. (2023). Greening plans as (re)presentation of the city: Toward an inclusive and gender-sensitive approach to urban greenspaces. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 86, 127984. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.127984
-Calderón-Argelich, A., Anguelovski, I., Etxeberria, E., Breton-Carbonneau, A. C., López-Gay, A., Shokry, G., Oscilowicz, E., Lown, J., Williams, P. C., & Campos, M. (n.d.). Autores i autors d’aquest informe.
-Milbourne, P. (2012). Everyday (in)justices and ordinary environmentalisms: Community gardening in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. Local Environment, 17(9), 943–957. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2011.607158
-Ruiz-Mallén, I., Baró, F., Bentouhami, H., Blanc, N., Casas, L., Clauzel, C., Colacios, R., Gallez, E., Phillips, A., Presser, P., Reckien, D., & Sekulova, F. (2025). Greening schools for climate-resilient, inclusive and liveable cities. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02519-3
-Sekulova, F., Anguelovski, I., Argüelles, L., & Conill, J. (2017). A ‘fertile soil’ for sustainability-related community initiatives: A new analytical framework. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 49(10), 2362–2382. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X17722167
-Triguero-Mas, M., Anguelovski, I., García-Lamarca, M., Argüelles, L., Perez-del-Pulgar, C., Shokry, G., Connolly, J. J. T., & Cole, H. V. S. (2021). Natural outdoor environments’ health effects in gentrifying neighborhoods: Disruptive green landscapes for underprivileged neighborhood residents. Social Science & Medicine, 279, 113964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113964
PARTICIPATION AND GOVERNANCE
-Amorim?Maia, A. T., Vollmer, A., & Tamas, L. (2024). A guide to street surveys [Manual]. Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ). https://www.bcnuej.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/A-guide-to-Street-Surveys-1.pdf
-Amorim?Maia, A. T. (2023). Creating inclusive and effective climate shelters [Policy brief]. Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability (BCNUEJ). https://www.bcnuej.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Climate-Shelters-Policy-Brief.pdf
-Colacios, R. (2025). Citizen science for healthier and more inclusive environments: Co-creating public play spaces with autistic children. Cities & Health, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2025.2566563
-Halblaub Miranda, M., Ustinova, M., Tregel, T., & Knöll, M. (2023). Growing up in urban school environments. Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek. https://doi.org/10.26083/tuprints-00023307
CRITICAL CARTOGRAPHY
-Kitchin, R., Dodge, M., & Perkins, C. (Eds.). (2011). The Map Reader: Theories of Mapping Practice and Cartographic Representation. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470979587
-Corner, J. (2011). The agency of mapping: Speculation, critique and invention. En R. Kitchin, M. Dodge, & C. Perkins (Eds.), The Map Reader: Theories of Mapping Practice and Cartographic Representation (pp. 89–101). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470979587
-Ortiz Escalante, S., & Gutiérrez Valdivia, B. (2015). Planning from below: Using feminist participatory methods to increase women’s participation in urban planning. Gender & Development, 23(1), 113–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2015.1014206
-Steil, J., & Connolly, J. (2009). Can the Just City be built from below? Brownfields, planning and power in the South Bronx. En P. Marcuse, J. Connolly, J. Novy, I. Olivo, & C. Potter (Eds.), Searching for the Just City: Debates in Urban Theory and Practice (pp. 284–?). Routledge