The fundamental insight of contemporary spatial sociology—emerging with the spatial turn in the cultural and social sciences—is that space is not (merely) a fixed container in which things are located and events occur, but is itself constituted through human actions and social practices. Since then, the concept of space has become a cipher for an almost unmanageable multitude of research questions and problem constellations across the various SAGE disciplines. This not only illustrates how the concept of space differentiates in an inter- and transdisciplinary manner, but also shows that it functions as a dynamic nexus at which different disciplines interact and where productive frictions arise between them.

• Empirical research on the spatialization of religion in new urban districts
• The significance of temporary spaces in the context of the settlement movement
• Spatial orientation as a paradigm of social work
• Community organizing as a means of transforming social space
• The care space and its gaps as a reference framework in health and nursing sciences
• Religion, education, and the constitution of public space
• Social change in rural and semi-urban spaces
• Space and Sustainability

For research and transfer activities in this research area, the following colleagues from EHB can be contacted:

• Guthmann, Thomas (Guest Professorship in Design Pedagogy): thomas.guthmann@eh-berlin.de
• Heinze, Cornelia (Chair of Nursing Science): cornelia.heinze@eh-berlin.de
• Lück, Sven (Chair of Medical Fundamentals): sven.lueck@eh-berlin.de
• Renner, Gisela (Chair of Social Work, Focus on Community and Neighborhood Work): gisela.renner@eh-berlin.de
• Schröer-Werner, Sebastian (Chair of Social Work, Focus on Research Methods): sebastian.schroeer-werner@eh-berlin.de
• Steffens, Birgit (Chair of Social Work): birgit.steffens@eh-berlin.de
• Zarnow, Christopher (Chair of Systematic Theology and Ethics): christopher.zarnow@eh-berlin.de

The following research and transfer projects have already been realized in this research area at EHB:

• Decolonization of the Body – COMPA. Empowerment of Bodies in (Post-)Colonial Space (Guthmann)
• Research on Community Organizing (Renner)
• Informal Learning, the Body, and Social Space (since 2008, Guthmann)
• Religion in New Urban Districts: A Comparative Empirical Study (2016–2023, Zarnow)
• Educators as Cultural Storytellers – Reflections on Culture as Pedagogical Space (Guthmann)
• Social Inequality, Communities & Public Space (since 2022, Steffens)
• Social Change in Semi-Urban Space: The Case of Transylvania (since 2013, Schröer-Werner)
• US Settlements Around 1900: Public Space Social Work, Pro-Networks, and Anti-Discrimination Sensitive Social Work (2017–2020, Steffens)
• Future City Hildesheim: Implementation and Evaluation of Several Workshops with Citizens in Different Social Spaces in Hildesheim (2016, Renner)