11. Newsletter | October 2023 | read in your Web Browser |
Dear colleagues and
friends of the CRC 1265,
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Welcome to the latest edition of the CRC 1265 newsletter! Just recently, we had the pleasure of gathering with international scholars at our latest conference, the symposium "Spatial Figures of the Anthropocene", to discuss some of the major transformations of our time from a spatial perspective.
In addition, our Summer School in September featured a varied program, providing lots of opportunities for knowledge exchange.
Last semester we welcomed our first Journalist in Residence, Céline Lauer, whose visit resulted in an engaging and insightful blog series in which CRC researchers talked about what’s on their minds. And we're currently accepting applications for next year's Journalist in Residence!
Find out more about these and other endeavors, and read up on our Center’s recent and upcoming activities in this issue of the CRC 1265 newsletter. All the latest information can also be found on our homepage and on our Twitter-Page.
We hope you enjoy reading!
The CRC 1265 Central Management Office
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Conference “Confronting European pasts in the present: theoretical reflections and methodological approaches to researching formations of ‘race’ and whiteness”
— TU Berlin, Institute for Sociology, Room FH 804, Fraunhoferstraße 33-36, 10587 Berlin —
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| Over the past decade activist movements have ‘forced’ societies across the Global North to actively reflect on how colonialism, racism and whiteness shape both institutional and material structures, and everyday affective encounters. This conference invites a dialogue around what theoretical and methodological lenses we use to study ‘race’ and whiteness in societies across the Global North and South, and what sort of knowledge of the social world our approaches either generate or obscure. Co-organized by CRC associate member Christy Kulz, the conference is part of the section “Migration and ethnic minorities” of the German Sociological Association (DGS) and is hosted in collaboration with the CRC 1265. It is supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. Attendance is free, but please register at sektionMueM@gmx.de. For more information, click here. |
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Panel discussion “Refiguration of the series industry in West Africa” at Afrikamera Film Festival
— Kino Arsenal, Potsdamer Str. 2 10785 Berlin —
With Samantha Biffot (Gabonese-French film director) & Séverine Marguin (Cultural sociologist, Technische Universität Berlin)
In cooperation with Afrikamera 2023.
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“Infrastructure Walk in Rural Area”
— Bad Belzig —
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| The walk will focus on the topic of digitalization in rural areas, especially in relation to Smart City or Smart Village activities, using Bad Belzig as an example. The main areas of interest are the challenges and opportunities that arise in creating and maintaining a Smart City or Smart Village in rural areas, including the unique prerequisites for digitalization in the form of rural digital infrastructures and the physical, technical, structural and spatial changes associated with them. The event is organized by PI Gabriela Christmann. |
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Integrated Research Training Group (MGK) Supervision Day
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“Konsequenzen der Refiguration: Raumtheorie, Sozialtheorie und Gesellschaftstheorie weiter denken?”
Public lecture by Gunter Weidenhaus
— TU Berlin, BH-N 230 / 18.00 - 20.00 —
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Conference “Spatial Figures in the Anthropocene”, October 5th-6th 2023, ICI Berlin
The CRC’s 5th international conference, titled “Spatial Figures in the Anthropocene”, explored how the concept and reality of the Anthropocene challenges established spatial figures, as a plurality of actors grapple with, act upon and re-imagine contemporary spatial practices and formations. Bringing together leading scholars from the fields of anthropology, sociology, architecture theory, science and technology studies, urban studies, and human geography, the event facilitated a vital interdisciplinary conversation about contemporary transformations across the globe. Guest speakers included Gaston Gordillo, Chris Kelty, Alexandra Arènes, Jennifer Gabrys, Marcela Suarez, Tomás Usón and Susanne Hauser. Talks from the conference will soon be available online.
Workshop: Collaboration with Research Training Group “Practicing Place”, October 12th-13th 2023, Eichstätt-Ingolstadt Catholic University
The members of the CRC’s integrated research training group held a joint workshop with colleagues from the research training group “Practicing Place” at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. They focused on questions of rural and urban environments, digitalization, and spatial imagination, as well as discussing their dissertation projects. In addition, they engaged in a discussion with Martina Löw and Robert Schmidt (spokespersons of the CRC 1256 and the “Practicing Place” research group, respectively) about their current thinking on spatial theory.
International Participatory Summer School: “Power and Space”, September 13th-15th 2023, CRC 1265 Berlin
How is power reflected in space? How can spaces of resistance be created? And how can practices contribute to (re)defining power relations in different spaces? These questions and many more were discussed during the Summer School "Power and Space". Organized by PhD researchers from our Integrated Research Training Group (MGK), the event brought together doctoral and post-doctoral scholars from four continents and various disciplines. Together, participants reflected on the positionality of the researcher in intersecting fields of post/de/anti-colonial and feminist research. Two public keynotes, by Johanna Hoerning and Nihad El-Kayed, explored notions of power and space in relation to urbanization processes and refugee reception. Beyond the academic space, participants were also able to experience physical and political spaces in Berlin, which provided examples of how power is mapped onto space. The Summer School moreover included a workshop on multimedia art forms and research, challenging participants to rethink the notion of "data" and to imagine forms and figures better suited to investigating power and space.
Workshop: “Media, Urban Space and Cultural Production” (with Angela McRobbie), July 11th 2023, TU Berlin
During this workshop, participants discussed recent and globally expansive research currents within the study of cultural industries, including creative and inventive methodologies informed by difference, diversity, and the urban experience. Questions raised included: How do people live in cities in a post-pandemic environment of increasing social inequalities? How does the crisis of space affect workers in the urban creative economy? How are difficulties addressed, alleviated or embellished by popular media formats? The event followed three previous collaborations co-organized by Angela McRobbie (Goldsmiths) and CRC spokesperson Martina Löw.
Workshop: “Conflicts in Space – Spatial Conflicts. Current Research Perspectives”, June 22nd 2023, TU Berlin
In this workshop, members of the CRC discussed the Center's main concepts with researchers from other project contexts and learned about their ideas about conflicts in and over space. For a long time, globalization was seen as an unstoppable development. However, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has made us painfully aware of the limits of spaces, resources, and social orders. According to the CRC, these limits are linked to conflicts that manifest themselves as conflicts in and over spaces. The workshop was organized by CRC spokesperson Hubert Knoblauch and PI Barbara Pfetsch.
Filmscreening – "MigraTouriSpace"
As one of the finalists of the Architecture Video Award 2021, "MigraTouriSpace" - produced by Stefanie Bürkle and Janin Walter – was selected to be screened at the exhibition “Atmosphérique, filming architecture” at arc en rêve in Bordeaux. The exhibition was produced by arc en rêve in collaboration with TRANSFER and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. For more information, please follow this link.
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New Call for the CRC Journalist in Residence Program 2024
The CRC 1265 is issuing a new call for applications for its "Journalist in Residence" program, which offers a guest residency to journalists who are interested in spatial transformations and conflicts in the fields of urban/rural development, public space, digital networks and infrastructures, global circulations, appropriations of space, and other topics related to space. The "Journalist in Residence" will have the opportunity of a four-week paid stay at our network to exchange ideas with our researchers and thereby gain insights into our research. Please visit this link for further information.
Methods for studying hybrid spatial practices and cyber-physical spaces
Anna Juliane Heinrich, together with Maxi Heitmayer (University of the Arts London), has been awarded a start-up grant from the British Academy for the project "Towards a Multi Modal Methodology of Studying Human Experiences in Hybrid Spatialities". The methodological experiment will explore how we can better understand hybrid spatial practices and cyber-physical spaces through videographic recordings with subcams, narrative maps designed with the app MAP REPUBLIC, and interviews. The project will be conducted from July 2023 to November 2024.
Emmy Noether Programm
Vivien Sommer, associate member of the CRC, has been awarded a grant by the German Research Foundation (DFG) to establish a junior research group in the Emmy Noether Program. For an initial period of 36 months with the prospect of an additional 36 months, the DFG will fund the research project with a total of approximately 1.6 million euros on the topic: "The Socio-Spatial Memory of European Borders: Dispositifs of Remembering and Forgetting."
The junior research group will be established at the Leibniz Institute for Society and Space in Erkner and will work in close cooperation with the CRC and the Institute of Sociology at the TU Berlin. Together with three doctoral students, Vivien Sommer will investigate how borders are remembered in society and what influence the memory of borders has on the current status of a supposedly borderless Europe.
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Professorship
Stefan Kirchner, project leader of the subproject C07 “Platform Economy”, has accepted a professorship for Economic and Industrial Sociology at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg.
Junior Professorship
Johanna Hoerning, associate member of the CRC, has been appointed the junior professorship of "Sociology of Space" at the Department of Sociology, TU Berlin.
PhD
Associated CRC Member Miro Born has successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: “Placing Meritocracy. Urban Marginality and the Ideal of Social Mobility” at the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Congratulations, Stefan, Johanna and Miro!
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We are happy to welcome the following visiting scholars this semester!
A warm welcome to:
Oliver Frey (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Umwelt in Nürtingen): September 2023 – July 2024
John K. Shadrack (University of Nairobi): Novmeber 2023 – January 2024
Afra Foli (University of Amsterdam): November 2023
Joana Martins (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro): November – December 2023
Ata Messan Koffi (Université Bordeaux Montaigne): November – December 2023
We are also very happy to continue to host Paula Medina García (Complutense University of Madrid/ January 2022 – December 2023) and Simone Lafontaine (October 2023 – September 2024).
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Over the last few months, several more publications containing CRC research have been released! A comprehensive overview of all publications can be found on our homepage.
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Edited by Dominik Bartmanski, Henning Füller, Johanna Hoerning, Gunter Weidenhaus. Open Access
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by Ignacio Castillo Ulloa, Anna Juliane Heinrich, Angela Million, Jona Schwerer. Open Access
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Kultursoziologische Stadtforschung. Grundlagen, Analysen, Perspektiven.
Edited by Ignacio Farías, Martina Löw, Thomas Schmidt-Lux, Silke Steets. Campus 2023
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by Collaborative Research Center “Re-Figuration of Spaces” (CRC 1265)
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Blog Series: “Nachgefragt” (German)
More than eighty people work and research at the CRC 1265 – each with their own passions, perspectives, and problems. What inspires these researchers, what do they reflect on, what drives them? Several CRC researcher answer these questions in the blog series "Nachgefragt", initiated by urban anthropologist and science editor Céline Lauer as part of her stay as Journalist in Residence in June 2023. The idea behind the format: a mix of coffee chat and lab report, in which the interviewees give an insight into their experiences and reflections – strictly subjective, and always introduced by the same question: "What's on your mind?".
Find the posts here (contributions are in German).
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Guest Tanja Bosch (University of Cape Town), CRC 1265 postdoc Eric Lettkemann and PhD candidate Simon Pohl exchange talk about their research on AirBnB, Instagram and TikTok, discuss digital/physical spatial directionalities, and reflect on how to decolonize digital methods.
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Host Christopher Heidecke reflects with his two guests, Letteria G. Fassari (Sapienza Rome) and Dominik Bartmanski (HU Berlin), on spatial quality and qualification, perception and sense, in Berlin and Rome. This session was recorded immediately after the final presentation of a two-day CRC workshop on the same topic at the end of May 2023.
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Guest Jamie Hakim (King’s College London), associated researcher Anna Steigemann (University Regensburg) and CRC 1265 postdoc Sung Un Gang discuss different understandings of care, e.g. the Care Collective’s ‘Care Manifesto’, a world-wide care movement and the term ‘promiscuous care’.
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Numerous talks and profile videos are available on our YouTube-Channel.
For instance, lectures from the online lecture series “SPACETIME MATTERS”: The series invited international spatial scholars integrating temporalities into mapping methods to discuss their work.
The series was hosted by the CRC’s Hybrid Mapping Working Group and the Chair of Urban Design (CUD), TU Berlin.
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Rewatch both keynotes from the Summer School 2023 @aquarium Berlin:
Dr. Nihad El-Kayed (HU Berlin): „Spatial Power Dynamics in the Context of Refugee Reception“
Prof. Dr. Johanna Hoerning (TU Berlin): „Struggling for Land: Places and Spaces of Power, Dominance, and Contestation“ |
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In the second Mutiple Spatialities film of the Collaborative Research Center 1265 "Re-Figuration of Spaces", Sezgin Sönmez (B02) and Mirjana Mitrović talking about the digitalization of spaces and how digitalization influences our everyday actions.
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