Blog

31. January 2025

Care for whom? Reflections on care practices in the city of Berlin

Joana Martins

Care can be understood in different ways depending on the social-political context in question. What for some may seem like a lack of care, for others is just a different way of caring. By researching environmental/urban education activities with children, the author seeks to relate children´s autonomy regarding urban issues in Berlin to care practices. This blog article shows some of the first reflections of Joana Martins' field work in Berlin as a visiting fellow at CRC.

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10. January 2025

What does theory have to do with anything? Between our theoretical ruminations on “ruralities” and spatial practices at the rural Thai-Myanmar border

Jae-Young Lee

How does spatial theory inform spatial practice? What can we, as practitioners, gain from reading a scientific paper? The following lines are a personal reflection on our recent CRC 1265 working paper on multiple understandings of rurality and its links and parallels to the practice of Gyaw Gyaw, a locally-run architectural NGO located at the rural Thai-Myanmar border.

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13. December 2024

Decolonizing knowledge production in Dakar, Senegal

Elettra Griesi

This blog post aims to reflect on the ways in which the decolonization of knowledge can be actively pursued through the co-production of research. It focuses on examples from the author’s own research activities in the field of cultural anthropology in a historically marginalized district of Dakar (Senegal). The blog post also discusses the challenges posed by research co-production in terms of methodological issues of validity and legitimacy, as well as challenges that endangered the field research (e. g., power relations among the research participants, the tendency to gain individual control over the project, gender biases that implicitly shape the design and implementation process).

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22. November 2024

Conflicts in Space – Climate Conflicts, Cultural and Intersectional Conflicts, Migration Conflicts

Zoé Perko | Dr. Daniela Stoltenberg | Nicole Oetke | Eva Korte

The 2024 annual conference of the Collaborative Researcher Center (CRC) 1265 Re-Figuration of Spaces brought together research at the intersection of space and conflict. It tackled the question of how […]

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1. November 2024

Conflicts in Space – Conflicts in Politics, Physical Violence, and the Economy

Zoé Perko | Christina Hecht | Dr. Lucie Bernroider

How do conflicts over and within space unfold? In this first of a two-part blog post, we highlight some of the answers give by scholars from various disciplines and research projects gave to this critical question at the CRC’s annual conference in October.

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1. October 2024

Urban Battlegrounds: Non-Violent Resistance in Occupied Cities 

Iryna Ignatieva

This blogpost reveals how Ukrainian cities under occupation have become unexpected battlegrounds of non-violent resistance. Amidst surveillance and oppression, civilians employ ingenious tactics to defy the occupying forces, reclaiming urban spaces with symbols of hope and resilience. This exploration delves into the strategies of silent protest and civic defiance that transform everyday streets into arenas of courage and solidarity.

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30. August 2024

How we took our cases to the “Comparison Clinic” – A report

Christina Hecht

In June 2024, four CRC projects brought their empirical cases to the “Comparison Clinic”. Together with guest researcher Jennifer Robinson and CRC PIs Séverine Marguin and Silke Steets, this workshop invited the participants to explore the prospects of comparative analysis. This report summarizes the discussions and highlights how valuable comparisons are for the development of concepts such as refiguration.

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2. August 2024

Encounters with a humanitarian agency 

Qusay Amer

In Jordan, many refugees from various backgrounds seek asylum. However, the limited resources and the interconnectedness of social, political, and economic crises, all exacerbated by climate change, lead to frustration and increased competition between the different refugee groups, as well as between the refugees and the host community. This has resulted in complaints and blame being directed at authorities and international actors, aggravating spatial conflicts within the refugee communities. This vignette shows some of the stories that CRC doctoral researcher Qusay Amer collected during his fieldwork in Amman, in the context of a workshop titled “Data justice for refugees.”

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