Blog | Space & Conflict

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 […]

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.

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.

Cameras on public roads, inside buses, trains, parks and squares; private video surveillance systems that also record street images; geolocation mechanisms; drones flying over large avenues; the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition in different spaces of circulation of people. Urban public spaces are increasingly interwoven with information and communication digital devices and infrastructures. These transcend physical limitations and install mechanisms for gathering individual and collective personal data; they promote changes in social dynamics, aggravate territorial conflicts and expand the surveillance potential of cities.

Bei fortlaufendem Drogenhandel und -konsum in einem Quartier einer Großstadt sind vielfältige Konflikte zu vermuten. Doch wie genau bilden sich dieser Handel und Konsum sozial-räumlich ab, wie gehen sie vonstatten und wie manifestieren sich darin dennoch und mit ihnen spezifische Ordnungen? Ausgangspunkt meiner Überlegungen ist, dass sich diese Ordnungen nicht allein materiell im und am konkreten Ort zeigen, sondern durch die sozialen Praktiken aller Beteiligten hergestellt und angezeigt werden (vgl. Löw 2001: 158 ff.). Die Teilnehmenden werden demnach als Teil einer (Interaktions-)Situation (Goffman 1967) begriffen, die gemeinsam erst hervorgebracht und sowohl gemeinsam durchgeführt als auch, in Anlehnung an Goffmans Maxime, dramaturgisch aufgeführt wird. So ist davon auszugehen, dass in jedem Quartier Bewohner*innen vor Ort lernen, sie zunehmend ein ‚lokales Wissen‘ erwerben und besitzen und damit Relevantes von Nicht-Relevantem unterscheiden können. Im Nachfolgenden versuche ich das Beschriebene exemplarisch und qualitativ-ethnografisch anhand eines solchen Quartiers einer Großstadt herauszuarbeiten.

This post presents a personal account of my experiences growing up in Ramallah, Palestine, studying at Al-Quds Bard university in Palestine and then emigrating to France. It is an overview of all the spaces I had to interact with throughout my life which have now come to define my identity. By observing the different political and social atmospheres in different spaces and their effect on me, I have come to realise that my identity has no static definition and is continuously redefined through every space I exist in.

In the city of Antofagasta in Northern Chile, 16,396 people live in around 62 so-called informal settlements which lack basic service provision – with water access being the residents’ main concern. Drawing on extensive qualitative fieldwork carried out between 2018 and 2020, this blog post offers a hydro-social analysis of the informal practices of water acquisition employed by the residents of Antofagasta’s informal settlements. By taking into account both the material elements of these practices as well as their underlying logics and rationalities, the author aims to shed light on the reciprocal relationship between official water access and social belonging, paving the way for a more nuanced discussion of urbanisation processes.

Idealised values of common identification and consensus often attributed to urban neighbourhoods are romanticised, transfiguring and problematic. The socio-spatial construct of the neighbourhood is constituted not only by what we have in common and what we share, but also by dissent and conflict. We argue that conflict is not to be seen as deficient but can rather be constitutive and, in some cases, even productive for the socio-spatial (re)production of urban neighbourhoods. A research design that combines theory on social negotiations, rules and conventions in the public sphere with critical mapping techniques based on workshops conducted in the field helps to analyse the ambivalent role of conflicts in Berlin-Neukölln.