Conflicts in Space – Climate Conflicts, Cultural and Intersectional Conflicts, Migration Conflicts
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 a spatial perspective can shed light on social conflicts. On October 11th, the second day of the conference, four panels composed of CRC researchers and invited guests addressed this question and shed light on specific thematic areas. In the second part of our conference coverage, we highlight key arguments and results of the panels. Read the first part here!
Spaces of Climate Conflicts – Panel III
Panel III dealt with climate change as not only a global, but a distinctly spatial issue. The panel brought together interdisciplinary perspectives to understand how climate change and climate mitigation are constructed and negotiated spatially. This focus ranged from global movements constructing contested spaces down to city- or even building-level practices, such as insulation and the planting of trees.
The panel kicked off with Daniela Stoltenberg (FU Berlin/CRC 1265) presenting joint work with Diógenes Lycarião, Kateryna Maikovska, Zozan Baran, Annie Waldherr, and Barbara Pfetsch on Instagram activism for the preservation of Amazônia rainforest. The group argued that activist actors on digital platforms engage in placemaking practices to make global struggles concrete and, at the same time, construct places as meaningful and worth protecting. They particularly focus on visual communication as an affective and intuitive way of constructing place. Based on 30,000 Instagram images, they show that translocal actors from the Global North – most of whom will have no personal experience of the rainforest – tend to engage in either idealized depictions of wilderness or in imagery of catastrophe. Local and indigenous actors, on the other hand, tend to politicize Amazônia through creative depictions or by showing protest to a larger extent.
Continuing the theme of climate activism, Anna Roosvall (Stockholm University) presented ongoing work on artivism, i.e. the use of arts and crafts to highlight and negotiate social issues. Prominent examples include the Rebel Moms’ knitting of long red lines, which were taken to the EU parliament in Brussels in protest of failure to meet climate goals, as well as painting the Finnish parliament red to draw attention to the issue of peat extraction in a joint action by Swedish and Finnish activists. Artivism, Roosvall argued, is significant for its ability to change and reimagine a space, as well as connecting it to other spaces. This occurs across the dimensions of mental, material, and mediated space and through forms of action which can be characterized as collective and connective.
The third presenter, Elisabeth Luggauer (HU Berlin), drew our attention further towards the materiality of climate-related conflicts. Her work focuses on contestations around re-greening and green spaces in cities. Trees can offer immediate relief and comfort during hot weather, while also playing a key role in the long-term mitigation of the climate crisis. Yet, as her fieldwork in Las Vegas/Henderson (USA), Berlin (Germany), and Villach (Austria) shows, there is a stream of contestations around the question of how much nature cities can support. Issues range from the pollution of pools to the loss of parking spaces or damage to infrastructure, such as pavements, by roots. Luggauer argued that to grasp these negotiations, we need to follow the roots and connect spaces above and below the ground. This enables us to grasp the friction of matter and materials that occurs in urban greening.
Finally, Margherita Tess (HU Berlin/CRC 1265) conceptualized insulation as a spatial conflict. Based on fieldwork from Fukuoka, they explained how the Japanese city with its heat stroke alert system distinguishes between a dangerous outdoors and a comfortable, air-conditioned indoors. Yet, due to a lack of binding rules regarding insulation, this distinction is empirically tenuous, as humidity and heat often remain high even with air conditioning running. They argued that historically, insulation has mostly been provided for the homes of wealthy foreigners, and that there has been a lack of research into how insulation functions appropriately in Japan’s climate, understanding houses as entangled with their environment. Therefore, insulation should be understood as a socio-technical apparatus that is not neutral but deeply political.
Thus, the panel addressed the question of climate spatialities at scales ranging from the local to the transnational, with entangled actors ranging from experts and policy makers to activists and everyday individuals engaged in discursively and materially making the places of climate change.
Culture, Language, Law, and Religion – Panel IV
Panel IV on “Culture, Language, Law, and Religion” brought together thought-provoking presentations that covered a wide range of examples of spatial conflicts.
Martijn Oosterbaan (Utrecht University) presented on the relationship between religion and informal governance within Rio de Janeiro’s peripheral neighborhoods, which are governed by a mix of formal and informal armed actors. He highlighted how the informal, often criminal governance structures are intertwined with religious practices in the peripheries. A growing Pentecostal religious culture in these areas seems fostered by and closely entangled with these informal governance actors. However, some of the Pentecostal churches try to steer clear of these forces and oppose the incorporation into protection rackets. As a counter-example, Oosterbaan highlighted how Afro-Brazilian religious groups are left marginalized and vulnerable within this mix, partly due to limited government support.
Anne Storch (University of Cologne) discussed the transformative potential of sound, using examples from her research on sonic weapons and voice as a spatial tool. Storch examined Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs) as instruments of state control, often deployed against migrant groups. These devices, which produce sound at an extremely high decibel level, create a tangible, violent experience that not only invades personal space but also affects those targeted physically. Used for example by coast guard border patrols, LRADs not only inflict a high level of stress on the targets but can also cause permanent hearing damage. Storch contrasted this with the subversive power of voice, using examples from Nigerian sound artists who reinterpret sound as a medium of resistance.
Bettina Rentsch’s (FU Berlin) presentation delved into the implications of armed conflicts for what is perceived as “spatial justice” from an international law point of view. She argued that modern conflicts are redefining concepts like sovereignty and the legitimacy of territorial claims, often complicating the traditional understanding of “spatial justice.” By examining both positivist and constitutionalist interpretations of international comity, Rentsch proposed a procedural framework that evaluates armed conflicts based on the conduct and tools used, rather than the question of legitimacy, also proposing a shift from General International Law to Humanitarian Law when scrutinizing armed conflicts. This juridical approach shed light on how armed conflicts influence the perceived fairness and legal order in spaces affected by conflict.
Jochen Kibel (TU Berlin/CRC 1265) and Makau Kitata (University of Nairobi) presented a case study on Nairobi’s Makongeni and Kaloleni neighborhoods, two urban areas that illustrate the impacts of colonial planning. Their research highlighted how three main variables fuel socio-spatial conflicts in Nairobi today: first, the legal insecurity regarding land ownership as a colonial heritage; second, the power of architecture and city planning shaping the spaces inhabited by Nairobi’s citizens; and third, cultural aspects. Different governance practices in the two contrasting neighborhoods, where in Kaloleni citizens were granted extensions while in Makongeni built extensions were regularly ploughed down, highlighted how the same socio-spatial practices were treated differently depending on the history of the neighborhood. The speakers described the unique architectural and cultural characteristics of each neighborhood, linking them to broader issues of identity, colonial legacy, and community cohesion.
This panel brought to light the powerful role of cultural and religious expressions, sound, and spatial perceptions in shaping both conflict and governance. Each presentation showcased how these factors can either enforce control or foster resistance, contributing to a richer understanding of urban life in diverse global contexts.
Intersections and Sociospatial Conflicts – Panel V
Moderated by Anna Steigemann (University of Regensburg/CRC 1265), the second to last panel of the annual conference covered a range of topics, all anchored in the common theme of intersections and socio-spatial conflicts. By drawing on case studies from three countries the panelists explored questions at the intersection of colonial history, queerness and identity construction and space.
Noa K. Ha (DeZIM/Kunsthochschule Weißensee) opened the panel by presenting insights from her recently published anthology “European cities: Modernity, race and colonialism” (edited with Giovanni Picker). By focusing on Berlin as a case study, Ha demonstrated the importance of taking a race-conscious, critical perspective to move beyond dominant Eurocentric notions when considering the idea of the European city. Ha argued that colonial history is simultaneously embedded in urban spaces and rendered invisible through the construction of Berlin as a European city. These narratives and representations, however, are contested by racialized communities in Germany. The Black Lives Matter movement for instance, played an integral part in rendering the monuments of the colonial past visible and contesting these spaces.
In his presentation Sung Un Gang (TU Berlin/CRC 1265) explored the ways in which queer individuals in Seoul negotiate conflicts and feelings of placelessness from an intersectional perspective. Gang analyzes how queer individuals navigate on- and offline space in Seoul to prevent conflicts. While the Seoul Metropolitan Area is often the destination of queer migration in Korea, social conflicts often lead to the spatialization of these conflicts, including the marginalization of queer people and events in public spaces. These conflicts lead queer people to carefully manage conflicts by adjusting their appearance and curating their presentation in on- and offline spaces, causing feelings of detachment and a lack of safety, which Gang terms “queer placelessness”. These feelings of placelessness are often exacerbated by intersectional belonging, as people at certain intersections feel out of place in community spaces.
Iryna Ignatieva (National University Odesa/TU Berlin/CRC 1265) presented results from her work concerned with the protective strategies adopted by forced migrants at Ukrainian check points. Ignatieva demonstrated how individuals carefully navigate and mask their identities to pass border checkpoints as safely as possible. To create safe identities, forced migrants needed to carefully curate their cell phone and online histories, adjust their language and change their appearance. Ignatieva demonstrated how these protective strategies are especially crucial at the intersection of gender and Ukrainian identity.
While addressing different themes across a range of contexts, all presentations spoke to questions of space, especially the idea of the “public space”. The final discussion picked up on this common theme, emphasizing that it is important to ask who the public is and who has access to public spaces and under what conditions. By employing a critical lens, we can engage with the perceived paradox of a public space that is indeed only comfortably accessible to a select “public”.
Migration and Circulation – Panel VI
Panel VI of the CRC 1265 conference focused on the theme of “Migration and Circulation,” highlighting the spatial conflicts that arise from the tensions between migratory movements and policies across different regions.
Bernd Kasparek (HU Berlin) argued that migration is often seen as an intrusion into the space of the nation-state, and borders are consequently viewed as indispensable instruments of migration governance. The increasing surveillance along migratory routes have turned borders into spatial objects of government intervention, with detention centers strategically placed along these routes. However, Kasparek invited the audience to reconsider this perspective by suggesting that the physical movements of migrants and the transnational social relations established thereafter contribute to the formation of a transnational socio-political space. In this context, borders can be seen as an intrusion into this newly formed space, thus framing migration governance as a spatial conflict. Kasparek called for a rethinking of how migration and borders are conceptualized in international relations, suggesting a shift away from the nationalistic view of borders toward one that acknowledges the transnational dimensions of migration.
Following this, Cathrine Talleraas (University of Bergen) presented on the local implications of externally driven migration governance in Ghana, West Africa. Over the last two decades, millions of Euros have been invested by external actors, such as the European Union, to enhance border control in the region. This has led to the implementation of stricter policies and increased reliance on external support, resulting in altered social relations at border checkpoints. Talleraas emphasized that these efforts have criminalized legal emigration, particularly migration that is suspected to be Europe-bound. This neocolonial practice clashes with local understandings of mobility, illustrating the spatial conflicts between local and global governance frameworks. The criminalization of migration not only marginalizes migrants but also disrupts long-standing local mobility traditions.
Oroub El-Abed (Birzeit University, Palestine), delivered an online presentation because of visa issues and flight uncertainties that prevented her from attending the conference in person—an irony that underscored her talk’s theme. She focused on the global imbalance in the response to the refugee crisis, criticizing the paradoxical behavior of the international community. While global powers fund arms and wars, they also support organizations that provide protection and assistance to refugees. El-Abed pointed to the stark contrast between the Global North and Global South in hosting refugees. For instance, the Global North has hosted 44,000 Syrian refugees over the last decade, while Somalia has managed to host nearly the same number. She noted that funding is often used to contain and externalize refugees, confining them to marginalized areas with uncertain legal status and creating spatial and social exclusion, trapping them in a perpetual state of limbo.
The final presentation, by Rebecca Enobong Roberts (TU Berlin/CRC 1265), focused on how conflict and migration are driving the rapid urbanization of northern Lagos, Nigeria. The arrival of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has led to the emergence of informal urban spaces, with chaotic yet organized structures that shape the city’s landscape. Roberts highlighted how colonial city planning created divisions between inhabitants, contributing to the marginalization of IDPs. Even though many IDPs have lived in Lagos for years, they are still seen as outsiders—particularly Muslims, who are often labeled as national security risks. This exclusion leading to IDPs being “out of place” raises questions about the right to the city and how migration challenges existing urban structures.
The panel concluded with a discussion that allowed us to go deeper into the spatial conflicts inherent in migration and circulation, underscoring how policies and local realities regularly clash.
Author biographies
Zoé Perko is a research assistant at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and conducts research in the CRC subproject C01 “The Borders of the World II: Conflicts and Tensions in the Formation of Macro-Territorial Borders“ on border and migration regimes in regional integration arrangements.
Daniela Stoltenberg is a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin and the CRC 1265. Her research interests include digital public spheres and the relationship between communication and space, as well as computational research methods.
Nicole Oetke is a research associate at the CRC 1265 and a PhD candidate at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Nicole is particularly interested in belief formation with regard to inequality in relation to intersectionality and space.
Eva Korte is a PhD student at the CRC 1265 and a research associate in the subproject ‘At Home: Living Spaces and Self-Images of the Kenyan Middle Class’. Her main areas of interest are spatial theory, spatio-temporal correlations, biographical research and different notions of home.