Perhaps a defi­ning aspect of the current moment is the playout between the contra­dic­tory forces of rising fascism and of social move­ments defying exas­pe­ra­ting preca­rity, racism and capi­ta­lism. While globa­li­sa­tion is mostly asso­ciated with extra­c­tionist corpo­rate cherry-picking across geogra­phies, in recent years scho­lars and acti­vists are working the global for loca­lised strug­gles. They rely on sharing refle­xive under­stan­dings of elements, systems and networks of oppres­sion to labour contex­tua­lised stra­te­gies and tactics for coun­tering hegemony and explo­ita­tion on intellec­tual and prac­tical levels. Given the contem­po­rary poly­crises – economic, social, poli­tical, envi­ron­mental and corpo­real – we are implored as acade­mics to find and test ways to support the emer­gence of new socio-poli­tical spaces and para­digms that inform the tail­oring of progres­sive urban change.

From this perspec­tive, this inter­na­tional sympo­sium focuses on the one hand on the disjunc­ture between theo­re­tical know­ledge on the comple­xi­ties of socio-spatial urban reali­ties and the multiple layers (re)producing inequa­li­ties; and on the other hand on the sharing and commu­ni­ca­tion of this know­ledge across disci­pli­nary, profes­sional and literacy boun­da­ries. In parti­cular, we want to zoom in on mappings and visua­li­sa­tions as a tool that has the poten­tial to give rise to alter­na­tive, plura­li­stic under­stan­dings of the urban (against the homo­ge­nisa­tion of places as well as of inter­pre­ta­tions) and link works from within and beyond academia. In this respect, we want to inves­ti­gate whether and how maps (in a broad under­stan­ding of the term) can contri­bute to a more dynamic under­stan­ding of resource flows, social rela­tions, power struc­tures and their inter­lin­k­ages; and conse­quently explore whether and how maps can make a diffe­rence in tack­ling urban socio-envi­ron­mental crises.