This article explores how LGBT organizations in Germany create safer spaces for queer asylum seekers and refugees. With the help of interviews with experts and an analysis of their websites, different constructions of space are identified. Although the organizations use different concepts of safer spaces, they mainly fall back on essentialist notions of space. The assumption of an essentialist safer space bears the risk of oversimplification, which does not meet the needs of the target group.

The terms left behind, Abgehängte (suspended), and structurally weak have gained popularity to describe regions with increased support for right-wing populist parties in Germany and elsewhere. These concepts are not clearly defined. We give meaning to left behind places in Germany both by identifying the dimensions and varieties of left-behindness and by framing it as an outcome of peripheralisation processes. 

In this paper, I introduce urban extractivism as a decentred concept that is helpful to study urban infrastructure megaprojects (monsters) in Mexico City that extract life from bodies (the ghosts) and territories (the ruins). I also provide a special focus on collaborative research practices critical to reframing urban theory. Engaging with such a socio-territorial approach, I conclude, helps urban geographers discern future-oriented practices that embrace social and environmental justice.

This contribution offers a double-barrelled argument: that we should answer epistemological debates and better our practices by centering teaching in our scholarship for once and that we should consider the classroom a space for theory formation by students.

This interface contribution reflects on the aftermath of a concerted national media campaign that targeted the Urban Studies unit at the University of Basel in November 2023. It shows how the advancement of the media's storylines by university leadership not only undermined critical urban scholarship and socially engaged pedagogy but also paralleled attacks against other critical theories elsewhere, which are reframed as divisive concepts.

The paper outlines the need for discussing and analysing the locations from which the research questions and concerns arise. Using these arguments, the paper postulates a more inclusive future for geography. Moving away from universal theory or global research, the paper argues for plurality and pluriversal (as opposed to universal) politics.

Contemporary debates are increasingly focused on dealing with crises that span many systems and sectors. These crises have transformed the process of doing research itself, impacting research funding, the type of research being done, and the subjects of research. Through this intervention, I argue for a need to invest in developing systems and processes that build resilience within Global South institutions to be able to deal with crises as they emerge.

This essay shares a researcher's experience navigating the compounded crises of COVID-19 and the Myanmar coup during her PhD journey. The author reflects on the difficulties encountered in transitioning her fieldwork from Myanmar to Switzerland due to crises. Institutional double standards often exacerbate these challenges, especially for Global South researchers at northern institutions. Crisis experiences can serve as a critical starting point for promoting more just academic communities.