Transforming places. Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Platial Information Science (PLATIAL'23)

Abstract

Places are not static. For example, social-ecological sacrifice zones influence how people see their own existence in partly economically shaped areas with detrimental social and health characteristics, or even support the formation of these zones through place-making. Likewise, gentrification can lead to territorial conflicts, including cultural hegemony, possibly leading to othering of previously resident people. The Ruhr – where PLATIAL'23 took place – is a prime example of transformation itself, as it has undergone significant change as a (post-)industrial area over the last 150 years. These processes of transformation are not exceptions but the rule when it comes to fluid instantiations of place. PLATIAL'23 invited researchers to explore how transformations (in a broad sense) not only manifest in places themselves but are also reflected in platial information. Concepts of place based on social ontologies instead of merely geometric space conceptions are inherently predisposed to fluidity and change. However, this character is often not reflected in the way GIScience and related disciplines represent and analyse platial information yet. The symposium contributed to this topic in terms of both conceptual and empirical contributions from a range of disciplinary backgrounds.