Art-based Public Sociology

This article reflects upon the experience of a two-semesters research project at the Department of Sociology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. It deals with a participant observation of the first international real-time architecture festival »72 Hour Urban Action«, which took place from 2 to 5 May 2019 in the middle of the large housing estate Lobeda West in the periphery of Jena. The mission of the architectural intervention was to create ten new meeting places and to encourage the neighbourhood’s residents to participate in the design of public spaces. As field researchers, we worked closely with urban planners, cultural and creative artists and by doing so became part of the research object. We developed artistic forms of presentation and provided relevant knowledge about the district throughout the process of realizing the architecture festival. The aim of this article is to shine a light upon the potential of participatory urban space development and the role of performative social science in the process.