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SFB 1265:  Re-Figuration of Spaces

Subject Area Social and Behavioural Sciences
Construction Engineering and Architecture
Humanities
Geosciences
Term since 2018
Website Homepage
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 290045248
 
The Collaborative Research Center (CRC) investigates the much neglected role of space in the process of social change by analyzing the reorganization and restructuring of society as a refiguration of space. Its empirical research focuses on the fundamental societal changes since the 1960s, which are characterized by the evolution of digital communication technologies, radical changes in the capitalist economy, ecological crises as well as shifts in the global political geography. The first two funding phases have shown that the term refiguration should be used in the singular, since key aspects and processes of socio-spatial change can only be understood as globally interconnected. Empirically, these processes manifest themselves in the form of new figurations and spatial arrangements. In the first funding phase, we focused on developing the theoretical foundations to describe the qualitative characteristics of new spatial arrangements and their processual production. Analytically, four spatial figures exhibiting different spatial logics of action and patterns of arrangement could be identified: territorial space, network space, trajectory space, and place. A central insight of the first phase was that refiguration can only be understood as a result of the links, tensions and conflicts between these spatial figures. During the second funding phase, the spatial figures were further developed into topological ideal types and supplemented by empirically based topographical spatial figures. By specifying the empirical findings through the lens of conflict theory, the CRC was able to show in detail that many social conflicts arise from tensions between the different logics of action of spatial figures. Varieties of refiguration were observed to be the result of diverging coping strategies and orders of knowledge, as well as of stabilizing path-dependencies and power constellations. The observed spatial dynamics were thematically condensed into three conflict fields: "Limits of Pluralization", "Politics of Infrastructuralization", and "Ruptures of Ecologization". In the third funding phase, the CRC will synthesize the empirical findings into an overarching theory of refiguration, from which critical diagnoses of contemporary societies can be derived, alongside practical applications in architectural and urban planning contexts. Research will continue to be organized around three key areas: "Spatial Knowledge", "Spaces of Digital Mediatization", and "Circulation and Order", brought together via the concept of figuration. The empirical foundations of the four topological spatial figures will form the basis for the development of a model to explain spatial refiguration processes, which will be evaluated by consulting "deviant cases". Longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses will facilitate the systematization of varieties of refiguration. This systematic approach will enable the final elaboration of an empirically grounded theory of refiguration.
DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

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Applicant Institution Technische Universität Berlin
 
 

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