Paper short abstract:

How can classical ethnographic methods and more co(l)laborative methods be combined into contemporary research designs on urban cosmopolitics?

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary cities are known, shaped, shared and dwelled in many sites and in multifarious ways. Consequently city life has been described as an "assemblage of discrepant activities" that "seem to pile up on each other" (AbdouMaliq Simone). It becomes increasingly difficult to detect an authority or a discourse, which can claim to represent a city as a whole. These developments pose challenges for classical approaches of urban ethnography, which have been discussed on a methodological as well as on a conceptual level. Based on experiences in building up a network, which brought together a wide range of urban actors from different German cities, I want to contribute to these debates. This network was created as an open forum, in which emerging questions arising from practical engagements focussing on the development, shaping, use or dwelling of urban space, could be discussed, reflected and dealt with. "Problematizations" of current city life and politics were curated in a col(l)aborative process and provided a point of departure for further inquiries into trajectories of contemporary "urban cosmopolitics" (Blok/Farías).