Urban Futures (MA)

The master urban futures is not a degree programme where the classical qualifications for urban and regional planning are taught. The focus is on inter- and transdisciplinary project work, but not on urban planning or urban design as is usually the case in planning degree programmes. We deal with the diverse questions of sustainable urban development in an interdisciplinary way. The article "Learning Transformation" describes the intentions, methods and teaching formats of the study programme in more detail.

The composition of the master's programme is interdisciplinary: About half of the 20 places in each year are allocated to students with a background in planning and design, natural sciences and technology, and the other half to students with a background in cultural and social sciences. In concrete terms, these are mainly geographers, urban and regional planners, architects, cultural and social scientists, political scientists, designers, media and communication scientists, psychologists, economists, but also cultural work, social work, information and library sciences, art history, choreography are represented disciplines – if there is a strong interest in the city and interdisciplinary work.

In the master's programme, a distinction is made between compulsory and elective subjects. The programme is designed so that the compulsory courses take place from tuesday to thursday. On mondays and fridays, as well as in the peripheral periods, there is the possibility to take elective subjects, to prepare for and follow up on courses, for self-study and for part-time work.

Further information on the study structure, the study and examination regulations and the module regulations

The master's degree programme offers plenty of scope for deepening individual study interests within the framework of the electives. In addition to the electives at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (practically from all degree programmes), you can also attend courses at other universities and receive credit. Furthermore, MOOCs or "special forms" (such as summer schools, etc.) are possible course variants.

Since the introduction of the master's programme in the winter semester of 2016, we have seen a steady increase in demand. In the last two years, we have had between 90 and almost 120 applicants for every 20 places. Since the selection for the admission procedure is based on the bachelor's grade and the application letter, no clear NC can be determined for admission. If you are interested, we recommend that you apply regardless of your grade point average.

Get all important information on the application procedure.

Individual part-time study is also possible. Please see our further information and requirements.

The aim of the research internship in the third semester (module 9 with a scope of 20 ECTS credit points or 600 working hours) is to gain practical experience with organisational structures and operational processes in the internship institution and to work on complex research questions in the context of urban transformation processes. With a qualified secondary activity, the intended qualification goals can also be achieved during the course of study; crediting of secondary activities for the research internship is therefore possible upon application. In order to avoid a time overload, other study achievements may then have to be completed in deviation from the planned regular course of studies.

Doing well by doing good: Entrepreneurial strategies for a sustainable society

In the next generation, humanity must move from an economic model in which natural resources are consumed to one in which economic activity is integrated into natural material cycles. In the long term, prosperity must not come at the expense of the regenerative capacity of natural resources.

At the same time, large parts of humanity still live in inadequate conditions (despite all the progress made in the fight against poverty). Around 700 million people alone have no access to electric light; worldwide, the median income is barely more than 200 euros per month per person. Against this background, it is important that all people and countries have the right to (economic) development, similar to what the West enjoyed in the first wave of industrialisation. We are therefore faced with the challenge of improving global economic conditions quickly and massively, while at the same time reducing resource consumption just as quickly and massively.

What is the role of private companies in this? On the one hand, private enterprise has historically proven to be an effective and fast social mechanism to generate as much wealth as quickly as possible. On the other hand, private companies (especially in the discourse of Western societies) often have to accept the reproach that their pursuit of profit comes at the expense of ecological responsibility. The realisation that companies must actively face up to the challenges of climate change is also increasingly gaining acceptance among corporate leaders, such as Larry Fink: The CEO of the asset manager Blackrock, and thus responsible for over 8.6 trillion dollars of investors' money, is calling for "responsible and transparent capitalism" (Letter to CEOs 2020).

A whole series of renowned non-fiction authors have dealt with the constructive role of companies in the climate crisis - with encouraging results, e.g. Bill Gates, Andrew McAfee or Steven Pinker. A lot of hope is placed on start-ups, as for example Google's recently launched start-up accelerator programme for "Climate Change" shows.

In this context, questions such as the following are the focus of the projects in the upcoming Master's programme Urban Future: What responsibility do companies bear for the necessary ecological turnaround? Can the tension between the pursuit of profit and the common good be resolved? Or does the following still apply in the 21st century: "The business of business is doing business" (Milton Friedman), so that ecological issues are the sole responsibility of the state.

From a business perspective: What are the strategic consequences of the discourse and global political action on sustainability for business activities? What risks arise from future environmental regulation (e.g. bans on technologies such as combustion engines), taxation (e.g. CO2 taxation), liability rules (e.g. supply chain law) or public discourse (e.g. loss of reputation in social media)? Conversely, what opportunities arise from new markets (e.g. state-generated demand or changing consumer awareness)?

Finally, on a very practical level: Can we develop our own ideas for the promising foundation of our own companies, which with their business model contribute to solving the global social and ecological problems of the 21st century, but also generate a good income?

The master's programme urban futures will work closely with the FHP Entrepreneurship School & Gründungsservice on this year's topic, a project of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam to train entrepreneurial skills and support start-ups from within the university.

Living Labs for the 2,000-watt society

„Wir sind dran. Was wir ändern müssen, wenn wir bleiben wollen“ ("Our turn. What we need to change if we want to stay"). The title of the latest book by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman once again highlights current perspectives and requirements for action for a sustainable society. [1] In 30 years, all energy production in Germany should be nearly CO2-neutral in order to contribute to meeting the global challenges of climate change and resource conservation. The transition to a CO2-neutral society requires not only technological innovations and a huge restructuring of urban (infrastructure) systems, but above all sustainable lifestyles. This touches on all questions of living and working, mobility and consumption behaviour, nutrition and food production. In Switzerland, the concept of the 2,000-watt society was developed more than 20 years ago.

A maximum average energy output of max. 2,000 watts per inhabitant is defined as the target for a sustainable society. Many Swiss municipalities have now made this concept the guiding principle of their urban development. [2] Since the food sector alone, through the production, processing and distribution of food, consumes about 800 watts, more than a third of the targeted energy budget, it is clear how ambitious the formulated guiding principle is. In addition to the 2,000-watt society, we will also deal with other models of sustainable development such as „Der globale Green New Deal“ ("The Global Green New Deal") [3] or "Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI)" [4] as well as with methods for environmental assessment. Building on these foundations, we develop concepts for living labs (real labs) in the context of current neighbourhood developments and investigate which strategies, measures and transformation processes are required to achieve these goals. An excursion to Switzerland is planned for the beginning of the second semester in April 2021 to visit model projects.

[1] Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Anders Wijkman (2017): Wir sind dran. Club of Rome: Der große Bericht. Was wir ändern müssen, wenn wir bleiben wollen. Eine neue Aufklärung für eine volle Welt.
[2] 2000-Watt-Areal, www.2000watt.swiss
[3] Jeremy Rifkin (2019): Der globale Green New Deal. Warum die fossil befeuerte Zivilisation um 2028 kollabiert – und ein kühner ökonomischer Plan das Leben auf der Erde retten kann.
[4] Gunter Pauli (2009/12): The Blue Economy. www.zeri.org

Resilience and transformation of urban systems

Whether it is global warming, demographic change, digitalisation processes, the future of work or the further development of technical infrastructure systems - when it comes to adapting to change and shaping transformation processes towards a sustainable society, a concept for explaining the development dynamics of complex systems has gained in importance: Resilience. Resilience refers to the ability of a complex system to return to its initial state or to establish a new system state that even exhibits improved system behaviour compared to the initial state, despite strong external disturbances. Understood in this way, resilience includes a system's inherent ability to learn and develop. In recent years, resilience has become a key concept in the discourse on sustainable urban development. While resilience is sometimes referred to as the "new sustainability", there is also criticism of the concept's theoretical vagueness and lack of practical relevance.

Using concrete examples of urban and neighbourhood development, we examine what the concept of resilience can achieve in theory and practice. How must smart and liveable neighbourhoods in the 21st century be structured in order to meet the requirements for a regenerative energy supply, sustainable mobility, local climate adaptation, social cohesion and other pressing issues? What role will digital platforms play in the planning and management of neighbourhoods in the future? Can participatory planning processes, the sharing economy, new forms of communal living or community gardens make a significant contribution to neighbourhood development? And how must transformation processes be designed to achieve these goals? The focus of our research is Berlin, which with the planned Urban Tech Republic at today's Tegel Airport, the New Garden Field and many other neighbourhood developments is already a real laboratory of urban innovations and an arena of social debate. At the beginning of the second semester (April 2020), an excursion to the Netherlands is planned to inform us about international positions on the topic of sustainable neighbourhood development and resilience.

Smart Cities interculturally: Europe vs. East Asia

The vision of "smart cities" is associated with hopes of finding better solutions to the pressing problems of cities by using new digital technologies. These include the urgent need to reduce resource consumption and adapt to climate change, smarter forms of mobility, but also issues of social division and demographic change.

While the discourse on smart cities and sustainability is a global one and cities worldwide face similar challenges in principle, cultural and historical factors as well as different institutional conditions influence the respective regional perspective on urban futures. Using the example of European and East Asian cities (e.g. in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan or Japan), questions such as the following are the focus of the projects in the upcoming year of the Master's programme:

What are the commonalities and differences of perceived urban future challenges and visions? How do usage habits and assessments of smart city concepts differ in different regions of the world? How do different attitudes, e.g. regarding privacy and data security, influence the design of digital services and digital governance? What is the general openness towards new technologies, sustainability paradigms, consumer orientation, participation, etc.? How can productive and respectful global discourses on the future and development strategies be developed in the face of differing local needs, values and moral systems in different societies? What is the significance of path dependencies (e.g. the organically grown European city vs. centrally planned new smart cities in East Asia) for the design of sustainable cities?

The core of the thematic examination of the topic will be an exchange with lecturers and students from the National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech) in Taiwan, which cooperates with the FHP. A 2-week excursion is planned for May or June 2019 with a visit to the Pearl River Delta (Hong Kong, Guangzhou), a workshop week at Taipei Tech together with students there and a visit to a globally operating mobility company. When applying for the Master's programme, students should therefore have sufficient English language skills and be willing to contribute to the costs of participating in the excursion. The University of Applied Sciences Potsdam will endeavour to finance a major part of the costs through third-party funds, but a personal contribution must be expected.

City.Country.Digital

The vision of "smart cities" is associated with hopes of finding better solutions to the pressing problems of cities through the use of digital technologies. These include the urgently needed reduction of resource consumption and adaptation to climate change, smarter forms of mobility, but also issues of social division, demographic change and political participation. However, "smart city" means very different things to many actors. Some envision technologically advanced metropolises where global technology companies provide the critical digital infrastructure. Others rather see the potential to enable marginalised social groups and regions to work on a smart and socially inclusive "city from below" through cheap, easy-to-learn open source technologies that can be used by individual actors. The projects in the coming year of the master's degree programme move within the field of tension of these different smart city visions, with the aim of developing critical and constructive perspectives on the role of digital technologies. Particular attention will be paid to the disparity between urban and rural areas that is currently often discussed in public. This can be clearly felt in Potsdam: half an hour's drive in one direction is the globally important metropolis of Berlin, half an hour in the other direction are small towns and villages.

We want to answer questions like the following in the master's projects under the title "Stadt. Land. Digital" ("City. Country. Digital"): How different are the future opportunities and challenges in metropolises and rural areas? Are the supposed opposites irreconcilable? What do desirable and feasible concepts for "smart cities" look like beyond the lighthouse metropolises that receive worldwide attention? Can digitalisation also become a lever for self-empowerment and levelling social differences? How can we use digital technologies to develop better urban planning tools that are adapted to different circumstances and take into account participation needs (e.g. simulation tools, data visualisation, interactive maps, augmented reality)?

Smart cities and communities in the 21st century

The digitalisation of society is leading to sustainable changes in cities and municipalities. These changes are driven, among other things, by the requirements of sustainable use of natural resources (energy and material flows, use of space), by new technological possibilities and new business models (e.g. car sharing services, autonomous driving), by social and demographic processes (growth/shrinkage, individualisation, diversity) and new simulation, analysis and representation methods (big data, system models, information visualisation). These changes are part of fundamental societal transformation processes and equally affect citizens, businesses and municipal administrations and other actors in their everyday practice. They have an impact on urban infrastructures, on forms of communication and mobility, on forms of work and living. Students and lecturers together examine what "Smart Cities and Communities in the 21st Century" look like and what perspectives and possibilities of influence the various urban actors have on these processes of change.

What role do municipal actors such as city administrations or municipal utilities play, how do they have to change and how can they influence or steer transformation processes? What opportunities and risks arise for metropolitan regions and rural areas as a result of these transformation processes? What research methods or digital planning and simulation options are available to anticipate possible future developments and make better decisions today for tomorrow?

Applications for the winter semester are accepted online at from 15 May to 15 June via the MyCampus university portal of the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences.

Documents to be submitted

When applying online, the following documents must be submitted as PDF files in the application portal:

• University degree certificate(s) including diploma supplement or current overview of achievements with the ECTS credit points and grade earned to date, if the degree programme has not yet been completed.
• Letter of motivation (max. two pages): The letter of motivation should provide information about the motivation and identification with the chosen degree programme and the intended profession. In particular, the motivation to study should be explained in a differentiated manner and placed in the context of the applicant's previous career and professional prospects.
• Project outline – description of a possible research project – for the master's degree programme, maximum two pages in length.
  - State of the art in research or technology on the topic, with a reference to relevant literature
  - Description of the research objective
  - Content-related proximity to the current year's topic is desired
• Tabular curriculum vitae

Checklist

After completing your online application in the MyCampus university portal, you will receive a personal checklist with the following information:

• List of all supporting documents that you have uploaded as PDF files according to the information you provided in your online application
• Notes on the further course of the procedure

Selection procedure

Applicants who fulfil the admission requirements take part in the procedure for awarding places.

In the allocation procedure, the following are deducted in advance from the number of study places to be allocated:

• All applicants who were unable to accept an earlier admission due to service and all applicants who belong to the national squad of a national sports federation of the German Olympic Sports Confederation
• 11 % for applicants with a foreign university entrance qualification
• 3 % for applicants who are to be considered on the basis of hardship.

The remaining study places are allocated 90 % according to the result of a university selection procedure and 10 % according to waiting time.

The result of the university selection procedure is determined on the basis of the following criteria (weighting in brackets):

• Grade of the professionally qualifying university degree (40 %).
• Project outline for the Master's programme (30 %)
• Letter of motivation (30 %)

Admission

Following the university selection procedure, the award procedure is carried out. Applicants with a correspondingly high ranking receive a time-limited offer of admission in the MyCampus university portal, which they must actively accept. After accepting the offer of admission, you will find your notification of admission in the MyCampus university portal. If you do not accept the offer of admission by the deadline, the ranking list will continue to be processed and the place will be reallocated.

You have accepted the offer of admission and received your letter of admission? Then you have the opportunity to submit an enrolment application for the upcoming winter semester in the MyCampus university portal of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Once you have submitted your online application for enrolment, please submit the printed and signed application together with all required documents in paper form by the deadline. The day of the enrolment deadline is decisive for the submission of the documents, whereby the date of receipt by post at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is decisive.

Documents to be submitted

• University entrance qualification
• If applicable, further documents according to the enrolment application form.

Do you have questions about the enrolment process at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam? We have compiled frequently asked questions and answers regarding enrolment and admission.