Public Space, Architecture and Democracy: Teaching Politics to Students from Different Cultures

Docents often claim to face problems in teaching exchange students. This article focuses on tackling such problems in a comparable course concerning ‘politics and public space’. The concept of public space allows discussions concerning subjects of political science as power, democracy, segregation, privatisation and citizenship. On the other hand, the contributions from different academic fields (sociology, social history, arts) and the use of multiple teachings methods make the course attractive for students of other disciplines. The assignments show that students' eyes were opened not only to Dutch and Finnish spaces but also to those in their home countries.