GRK 2589:  Practicing Place. Socio-Cultural Practices and Epistemic Configurations

• Subject Area: Geography ; Literary Studies
• Term: since 2021
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418843373

The Research Training Group ‘Practicing Place: Socio-Cultural Practices and Epistemic Configurations’ is dedicated to critical reflection on the concepts of ‘place’ and ‘placing’ from a decidedly interdisciplinary perspective. In the context of increasingly global interdependencies and unbounded media, across and through multiple scales of contestation, as processes of (re)localization gain social, cultural and political significance we maintain that place must be thought dynamically. From the outset, our intention has been to explore and facilitate cross-fertilization between the humanities and social sciences to approach place not as a singular, static, entity but a multifaceted, affective, dialogical, often conflictual system of relations. We combine two approaches that focus on the complex structures of practicing place, an interdisciplinarity brought to bear in the complementarity: We focus on the practices of place-making to examine the material, medial, and epistemic aspects; this is combined with analyses of the epistemic configurations and situated forms of knowledge that always already underlie the practices of place and that are actualized, transformed, and articulated anew in the ongoing, relational productions of meaning. We replace the ontological question of ‘what is a place’ with consideration of how a place is continuously (re)produced and (de)stabilised and relatedly how de/re-placings in turn shape (localization) practices. Just as every practice is shaped by, and in, place, at the same time practices reconstitute and redesign places in a performative, ongoing process. Having identified an intensifying conflictuality of practicing of place during the initial phase, for the second funding period we have developed three central research foci: (1) placings of the political and place-based conceptions of the public sphere; (2) human and more-than-human co-production in contested placings; and (3) imaginaries of place in the contexts of post-/decoloniality as well as geo-/ecopoetics. The interdisciplinary composition of the applicants enables innovative and fruitful connections to be drawn and theorized across praxeological sociology, philosophy, human geography, as well as literary and cultural studies. Doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and habilitation candidates collaborate with the faculty as well as the extensive international network of cooperation partners that represent multiple disciplinary networks. Accordingly, the qualifications program is focused upon fostering interdisciplinary connection and building a shared foundation of theoretical and conceptual knowledge on place and practice theory with the intention of preparing our fellows for careers both inside and outside of academia.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Robert Schmidt
• Participating Researchers: Dr. Sarah Earnshaw; Professorin Dr. Miriam Lay Brander; Professor Joost van Loon; Professorin Dr. Imke von Maur; Professor Dr. Christian Steiner; Dr. Jens Temmen, since 6/2025; Professor Dr. Hans-Martin Zademach