Tandem Cooperation

An important format to ensure the integration of the collaborative research process are our theory tandems, which further refined our sensitizing concepts (mediatization, polycontexturalization and translocalization), based on the empirical work conducted in the subprojects, and thereby helped advance the related methodological discussion. The theory tandems are annually changing teams consisting of project leaders, who, alongside the spokespersons of the CRC, are responsible for integrating the results of individual subprojects and cross-sectional groups, principally by organizing the annual conference and other event formats. Each theory tandem is moreover tasked with elaborating one central theoretical desideratum of the CRC’s agenda during their term and, in doing so, organizes the joint theory building along the lines of their annual topic.

Theory-Tandem (2022/23)
New Spatial Arrangements (Silke Steets/Ignacio Farías)

The theory tandem, consisting of the sociologist Silke Steets and the anthropologist Ignacio Farías, concerns itself with the identification and description of new spatial arrangements which are constituted in the course of the refiguration of spaces. On early October 2023, the international symposium “Spatial Figures in the Anthropocene” took place at ICI Berlin.

Tandem Guest: Nikolaus Gansterer
Student Assistant: Tiziana Ratcheva


Theory-Tandem (2023/24)
Conflicts (Barbara Pfetsch/Hubert Knoblauch)

The theory tandem focuses on the new spatial conflicts that accompany current processes of change and asks how and when spatial conflicts arise from the tensions within and between spatial figures. A first workshop “Conflicts in Space – Spatial Conflicts” in June 2023 brought different research perspectives into conversation with each other; an international conference is planned for October 2024.

Previous Theory Tandems