Practicing Place – Socio-Cultural Practices and Epistemic Configurations

About the Research Training Group

The interdisciplinary Research Training Group 2589 “Practicing Place: Socio-Cultural Practices and Epistemic Configurations” is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and located at the KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. We research the intersections, tensions, and dynamics of place and practice. Every practice is shaped by given places, while it at the same time also designs and produces new places in a performative, ongoing process. Seen this way, places can never be conceived of as singular static entities, in the sense of ‘Heimat’ or a closed life-world; rather, places have to be thought of in terms of a dynamic, multifaceted, dialogical, often controversial, affective, and especially participatory system of relations, informed by aspects of performance, construction, perception, production, experience, recognition, and inscription. Our goal is to unpick the ‘how’ of places in relation to the situatedness of any and all practices.

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News

In Memory of Professor Michael F. Zimmermann

It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of our colleague and friend, Michael F. Zimmermann, who died on April 9, 2025. Michael was a founding member of “Practicing Place” and an integral part of our team. He was a wonderful colleague with great enthusiasm for research, always ready to […]

“Practicing and Placing Imaginaries” Published

We are thrilled to announce that our book, Practicing and Placing Imaginaries: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Conceptual Ideas, and Case Studies is now available. On transcript’s homepage you can download the PDF or get the printed volume. The contributors to this volume explore the intertwined relationship of imagining and practicing from different fields of study (sociology, philosophy, […]

Stories of Texas Petro-Geographies and an American Imaginary by Jessie Martin

The dominance of oil as an energy source persists because of how the substance has been and continues to be culturally imagined. In September last year I visited the U.S. state most associated with oil production, and ‘energy capital of the world’, Houston, Texas, to explore how a ruling imaginary of oil has materialised through […]