The University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning presents...the Second Michigan/Mellon Symposium, "The Egalitarian Metropolis: Common(s) Sense City."

The Michigan/Mellon Project on Egalitarianism and the Metropolis is a 4.5-year academic and research initiative focused on architecture, urbanism and humanities research in Detroit, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. It is made possible by a $1.3 million grant from the A. W. Mellon Foundation. The project allows design theory and practice to inform and be informed by questions of social justice, social movements and transformative creative arts movements - both past and present.

Common(s) Sense City brings together designers, scholars, humanists and cultural workers to examine the conceptual and lived experience of the public commons and the multidimensional task of theory and design to articulate ideological forces at work in our individual and collective coherence of the city. What is the status of the public commons, notions of the common good, and public space in the metropolis? How do we collectively “sense” the city - through our interaction with data, film, space, and physical proximity to fellow humans? What are the governing protocols between the dominant and subordinated classes? Panels on rethinking modernist orthodoxies, privatizing the commons, capital and justice, and political space of media - with an interdisciplinary group of speakers - are designed to foreground discussions on the implications of egalitarianism and the commons from the perspectives of inhabitants in three different contexts: metropolitan Detroit, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. We invite capacious thinking that links humanists and designers in the twin task of elaborating egalitarianisms role in the development of the contemporary city. The unfinished projects of modernity, capitalism, egalitarianism, and the civil rights and human rights movements provide a dizzying array of interpretations. The role of the symposium is to clarify the ideological commitments to each of these projects and to catalyze new thinking that is accessible to the polity at large.

About University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning:

The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan is a leader in interdisciplinary education and research with a focus on creating a more beautiful, inclusive and better built environment. The college and its alumni are committed to pushing the boundaries of architectural practice, advancing global engagement, and significantly enhancing diversity in the profession. The college offers the following degrees: Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Master of Architecture (currently ranked #6 nationally; ranked #1 in 2010 by Design Intelligence Report), Master of Science in Architecture, Master of Urban Planning, Master of Urban Design, and PhD programs.