The social construction of "authenticity" in architecture. A cultural sociology of practices of judgement in urban built space

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Situated in the field of a sociology of culture, the project analyses contemporary practices of the social construction of "authenticity" in urban architecture. The background of this research question is the profound processes of "cultural regeneration", of a "culturalisation" of the urban since the 1980s and 90s, in the course of which Western cities are transformed in terms of their genuinely "cultural" qualities (experience value, consumption, touristic value etc.). In this context, the built space of architecture is shifting into the centre of conflicting social practices of evaluation. The project contends that contemporary social evaluation of the architectural dimension of urban space - by experts and everyday users alike - increasingly revolves around the genuinely cultural value of "authenticity". The recourse to the "authentic" seems to refer to something natural, to a immanent measure of the "well done" - in fact, however, these judgements are based upon complex and often contested social criteria of what counts as authentic and as inauthentic. The project thus is situated at the point of intersection of the - newly founded - sociology of architecture, urban sociology and a sociology of the practices of judgment. Its social-theoretical background is a theory of social practices.The conflicts around the criteria for the evaluation of built space are being explored in two case studies: 1) The first case study deals with the criteria motivating the "design" of architecture on the part of professional architects in architectural firms; 2) The second case study deals with the critical discourses of "making" authenticity on the part of the UNESCO and its awarding of architecture as "world cultural heritage". The project draws on qualitative methods such as participant observation, interviews, discourse analysis and documentary research, besides visual methods of photo elicitation and cognitive or mental mapping are applied.