WINE PLACE SPACE II
Workshop, November 4 – 6, 2026, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Deadlines and Submissions
Wine production and consumption as naturecultural practices are deeply entangled with key ecological and socio-economic challenges of our time. Climate change is strongly affecting long-established wine regions and pushing the frontiers of wine growing. The general decline in alcohol consumption has led to recurring global overproduction crises and financial strain for many wineries. At the same time, growing environmental awareness and rising demand in the organic, biodynamic, and natural wine markets are leading to fundamental changes in the global wine industry, as winegrowers increasingly adopt alternative production methods.
From the perspective of the social sciences, cultural studies, and the humanities, wine has long served as a compelling empirical entry point that provides avenues for discussing issues such as conspicuous consumption and production practices, globalization, class positioning, valuation and qualification (struggles), knowledge circulation, technologies and innovation, labor relations, or digitalization and platforms. Recently, there has been a growing academic interest in post-anthropocentric conceptualizations of human-nature relations as well as alternative understandings of economic processes.
During the workshop, we welcome contributions that discuss a broad range of these developments, drawing on current theoretical approaches in human geography, sociology, philosophy, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and related fields with reference to the spatial configurations of these dynamics, for example, with regard to scales, networks, territories, or places. Moreover, we are particularly interested in contributions that focus on human-nature and more-than-human relations. We invite scholars from the social sciences, humanities, and cultural studies to join the workshop and contribute conceptually rich and empirically grounded research.
Submission of abstracts (approx. 250 words) by March 1, 2026, to wine-place-space(at)ku.de
Registration information
Registration will be opend after acceptance notifications of submitted papers have been distributed.
Organising Team & Contact
Marc Daferner (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
Robert Pütz (Goethe-University Frankfurt)
Gerhard Rainer (University of Passau)
Christian Steiner (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
Contact:
Working Group on Human Geography
c/o Marc Daferner and Christian Steiner
Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Ostenstrasse 18
85072 Eichstätt
Germany
