Urban research − understanding urban change in its diversity

ILS researcher Isabel Ramos, in collaboration with Heike Hanhörster from TU Berlin, has observed different forms of institutional discrimination, which deepen school segregation and counteract the function of elementary schools as places of encounter between different population groups. For their recent paper in the journal „Berichte. Geographie und Landeskunde“, they interviewed experts and parents and analyzed the interplay between institutional structures and practices and segregation at school. They identified three dimensions of institutional discrimination in access to elementary school: the strategic goals of a school in handling segregation, the admission process and the profile development and information policy of a school. These factors prove to be subtle, but decisive facets of institutional discrimination, that co-produce and perpetuate spatial and educational inequalities. https://doi.org/10.25162/bgl-2025-0013. Further current selected papers can be found here.

Simon Liebig from the ILS research group “ Urban Social Space” has published an article together with Jan Üblacker from the EBZ Business School in the journal “Berichte. Geography and Regional Geography“. The article examines online neighbourhood groups on various platforms as local communication spaces. Based on 20 interviews, the article analyses the extent to which spatial concepts shape the accessibility of these groups and how interactions are shaped under the conditions of virtual co-presence. The results show that online neighbourhood groups are to be understood as localized networked publics that are characterised by persistent contacts and a geographical location reference. The users’ ideas of space form the content-related communication framework, function as a symbolic connection between the group members and determine accessibility. https://doi.org/10.25162/bgl-2025-0016. Further current specialist publications can be found here.

Together with colleagues, ILS-Researcher Barbara Schröter has published an article in the journal „Futures“. They present three radical visions of the Amazon they co-created with 20 Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) from the Putomayo department in Colombia. Storytelling serves as a tool to capture the BIWOCs differentiated experience of the world and their collective emancipation from different forms of oppression. This way, western dominated imaginaries are challenged and decolonial practices incorporated in to sustainability transformation research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2025.103638. Further current selected papers can be found here.

Nils Hans, resarcher in the ILS research group „Urban Social Space“ has published a contribution to the „Handbuch Stadtsoziologie“ together with Miriam Neßler from TU Berlin. They explain the concepts of arrival quarters and arrival infrastructures. These concepts provide a new angle to gasp the interplay of migration and urban development. They are an expression of a changing view on neighborhoods shaped by immigration and answers on current migratory dynamics, such as increasing diversity and changed immigration patterns. The concepts offer important perspectives for understanding and describing arrival dynamics and conditions. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-42419-0_12-1. Further current selected papers can be found here.

ILS-researchers Dr. Kathrin Specht and Chiara Iodice, in collaboration with other colleagues, published a paper in the journal „Sustainable Cities and Society“. In this paper, they challenge claims about the presumed immeasurability of social impacts of City-region food system initiatives (CRFSIs). Through the review of 234 research papers, they retrieved social indicators and metrics that underline the proven and measurable impact of CRFSIs on social sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2025.106462. Further current selected papers can be found here.