The politics of authenticity: a lens for justice in design studios abroad?

Abstract

Training students to detect and address spatial inequities is a priority for many educators of urban design. Yet cultivating an ethos of care in the studio is particularly challenging when focusing on foreign cities, a trend that internationalisation pressures in higher education continue to encourage. Is there a theoretical framework that can support teachers in instructing justice-centred studios abroad? This paper examines authenticity as one such possible framework. Interpreting authenticity as a socially constructed lens that forges people's ideas of what is real and what is fake, the AuthentiCITY studio was held at the Liverpool School of Architecture and focused on Venice. Students were encouraged to explore how constructions of ‘the authentic’ contribute to the oppression of marginalised people and to propose urbanisms that could assist those people in removing barriers to their self-empowerment. Interviews with students and analyses of their projects reveal that authenticity can facilitate three progressive steps of inquiry: theoretical (increasing students’ awareness of spatial injustices), programmatic (pointing to critical themes and sites of intervention), and practice-oriented (forming students’ willingness to deploy design as a force for social change in the future). At the same time, however, methodological shortcomings, employability pressures, and aestheticising trends have estranged some students, reproducing privileges in the classroom. The paper concludes by suggesting authenticity as a valid ally for theoretically framing studios abroad, especially in cities suffering from over-tourism. At the same time, recommendations are made for instructors to always interrogate their methods, share vulnerability with students, and counter hidden curricula of exclusion.