Space Talks Zines – Pluralising Research Perspectives in Socio-Spatial Studies

The ‚Space Talks‘ zines emerged from a digital lecture series of the same name. Curated by an interdisciplinary team of CRC PhD and postdoctoral researchers, the series sought to initiate a dialogue with guest speakers to explore diverse perspectives, concepts and approaches to spatial thinking and the study of socio-spatial change. The series also aimed to critically examine the dominant institutional structures, norms and practices within which spatial research has been conducted across various scientific disciplines.

The zine format offered us an opportunity to continue this dialogue in a playful and deeply collaborative way that subverts traditional academic publishing models. The themes range from informality and de/coloniality to challenges to dominant understandings and representations of place and spatiality. Here, different social, political and cultural locations and contexts are not simply taken as ‚case studies‘; rather, they have spawned theories and concepts that critically contest, extend, and redress commonly used spatial concepts. Each zine makes clear that, to understand the complexity of spatial ontologies, orders and actions that may confront or offer alternatives to modernist spatial figures, research perspectives and practices must be decentered.