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Department of Spatial Planning

PLATIAL'23 – International Symposium on Platial Information Science

Begin: End: Location: U-Tower, Dortmund

Motto: Transforming Places

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 will take 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 particularly invites 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.

Additional to the symposium’s theme, we welcome submissions of papers on the following topics:

  • Which approaches of place representation exist in different disciplines, and how can these be integrated?
  • How can we move forward the integration of platial information with GIS?
  • What are suitable strategies for addressing subjectivity in platial information?
  • In what ways can platial information theories accommodate the complexity of places?
  • How can we account for dynamics, change, and fluidity in platial information?
  • What is the role of scale in platial information?
  • In which ways can places be visualised, or conveyed in other forms?
  • In what ways could platial information inform future applications and technologies, such as question answering systems, scenario-based planning, and virtual/augmented reality?
  • Which novel perspectives could a platial lens enable in GIScience and cognate fields?
  • (Further topics are welcome if they fit the overall theme of this symposium.)

For further information including submission types, deadlines, the programme committe, and keynotes, please visit the PLATIAL'23 homepage:

http://platial23.platialscience.net/