UEL — Centre of Spatial Sociology (University of Ljubljana) team

The Centre for Spatial Sociology (CSS) was established in 1969. From its beginnings, the centre carried out integrative, multi-level, and interdisciplinary research into society’s spatial organization. Individual researches were conceptualized to transcend the borders of sub-disciplinary research into urban sociology, rural sociology, planning, environmental sociology, in short, spatial and environmental development of society in general.

As early as the 1990s, the centre’s staff “globalized” its research repertoire, focusing on exploring the dialectical intertwining of local and global conflicts, and on the synergies of networking actors in the emerging virtual information space. The centre’s current activities, however, remain focused on integrating a variety of interdisciplinary skills related to society’s operation in the spatial domain. The research group is committed to a humanist and development mission in examining the spatial transformations that are to allow greater autonomy to the stakeholders and overcome the spatial, temporal, sectoral, and hierarchical divisions of modern societies.

Based on the experiences acquired through a series of international scientific research projects, the members of CSS (CPS) combine their theoretical knowledge with the practical identification of good practices in the complex interplay of post-modern spatial and environmental processes. The long-term research, carried out by the CSS’s collaborators, conclusively indicates that the preparation, management, and legitimation of interventions into space and the environment necessarily require the involvement of professionals proficient in analyzing and researching the “social constructions” of space and the environment.