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This blogpost uses the phenomenon of the fata morgana – mirage – to illustrate the dynamics of real estate advertisements for exclusive housing developments in Cairo. In doing so, we investigate some of the ways in which public media and advertising create a display of the urban that does not reflect the lived social, spatial, and economic reality of the majority of the population. At the same time, this urban visual is produced and shaped by the intersectional dynamics of embedded societal norms.

After years of contention, Lützerath is completely demolished. In January 2023, police cleared the squatted village of climate activists near the open pit lignite mine Garzweiler II, with bulldozers following on their heels. These events make Lützerath the 22nd village or settlement to be resettled and demolished for mining purposes in the Garzweiler region alone, although none of the others have received comparable attention.

Viele werden sie kennen: die Werbespots von Airbnb aus dem Frühjahr 2022. Dort tauchen wir in „Airbnb Stories“ ein. Wir begleiten glückliche Urlauber:innen, sehen privat anmutende Fotos und hören stimmungsvolle Musik. Die authentischen Urlaube, die hier beworben werden, sind „made possible by Hosts“. Diese Hosts treten in den Werbespots aber gar nicht direkt in Erscheinung. Einzig kleine Grußkärtchen geben einen Hinweis auf sie, im Obstkorb oder bei der Einwegkamera als Begrüßungsgeschenk. Die Gäste, die wir sehen, residieren in eleganten Stadtwohnungen, sonnigen Villen oder gemütlichen Ferienhäusern. Diese Urlaube „made possible by Hosts“ scheinen wenig damit zu tun zu haben, dass jemand ab und zu ein kurzzeitig leerstehendes Zimmer oder eine Wohnung über Airbnb vermietet.

In der südkoreanischen Metropole Seoul drängen queere Menschen seit gut zwei Jahrzehnten immer stärker in die Öffentlichkeit. So hat es das Seoul Queer Culture Festival gegen etliche Widerstände auf den Rathausvorplatz geschafft, und im Stadtteil Mapo fand 2022 die erste Nachbarschafts-Pride-Veranstaltungen statt. Für solche raumgreifenden Veränderungen der LGBTQ-Bewegung interessiert sich Sung Un Gang, Mitarbeiter im Teilprojekt B03. Dabei geht es ihm nicht nur um bereits gut dokumentierte Prozesse, sondern er will auch wissen, wie queere Menschen durch ganz alltägliche Handlungen neue Räume schaffen und alte neu codieren.

As ontological or theoretical insight, methodological approach, analytical perspective, ethical standpoint and political praxis, intersectionality has shed light on how the entanglements of different regimes of power (sex/gender, race, ethnicity, age, class, etc.) shape experiences, processes of becoming and social relations. However, can intersectionality also address questions of space and geography? Why is it so important to bring together intersectionality and spatiality? How can we research intersectionality in political geography? This blogpost constitutes an attempt to answer all these queries drawing from the observed potential of intersectionality to delve into personal (and political) situated experiences of mobility through space.

On 20th-21st of October the CRC 1265 held its fourth international conference, this year titled “My City is a Battleground – Intersectionality and Urban Violence”. After two years of COVID restrictions, we could finally meet in person again, which in itself provided a cause for celebration as participants pleased to mingle with new as well as familiar faces. This year’s theme followed up on the CRC’s interest in socio-spatial conflicts, looking at the way intersectional tensions accompany processes of urban spatial refiguration. Taking its inspiration from decades of research on social inequality, class struggles, migration, violence as well as from intersectional feminist work, the conference turned its attention to intersectional experiences of violence and the way conflicts manifest intersectionally in and through urban space.

The environmental movement of Turkey has three decades of history. A culture of resistance was transferred from the first women's ecological resistance that attracted attention in the Bergama peasant movement to today's struggling women.[1] One of the areas of resistance discussed in this article is the Mount Ida (Kazdağları) Resistance, which is one of the most reported ecological struggles in the press in recent years in Turkey. [2]  Global companies came to this significant area, within the borders of Turkey's Marmara and Aegean regions, to search for gold with cyanide and destroy some regions with the state's approval. Resistance temporarily stopped the destruction and cutting of trees in the area.

Der Zugang zum Internet gilt längst als so elementar wie die Wasser- und Stromversorgung; die UN hat die Online-Kommunikation schon vor Jahren zum Menschenrecht erklärt. Doch trotz der enormen sozialen Bedeutung ist nicht allzu viel bekannt über die Verwaltungsinfrastruktur dahinter, also wer genau nach welchen Vorstellungen die Infrastruktur des Netzes kontrolliert. Das Teilprojekt B02 „Control/Space“ will das ändern, wie Projektmitarbeiter René Tuma erklärt.