Intercultural interaction and "situational places": A perspective for urban cultural geography within and beyond the performative turn

Abstract

With the performative turn in social sciences and the humanities the concept of performance has arrived in human geography. Performance denotes an understanding of social actions and practices as constitutive for non-representational realities. This paper looks at the relationship between places and performance especially in urban geography and develops the new term "situational place" to grasp the increasing phenomenon of (intercultural) encounters in the cities of modern world society. "Situational places" are situated performances of these (intercultural) interactions between strangers in cities of the contemporary world society. With the aid of performance theory the influence of the omnipresent interactions between strangers in cities on urban space is conceptualized. Therewith, we hope to present some fruitful theoretical and empirical possibilities for a cultural urban geography within and beyond the performative turn. © Author(s) 2010.