UrbanMetaMapping
Mapping and Transforming: An interdisciplinary analysis of city maps as a visual medium of urban transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939–1949
Main Phase
UrbanMetaMapping is a research consortium which brings together scholars from different countries and of different academic backgrounds to examine war damage maps of European cities as an interdisciplinary historical source. Initiated in November 2020 under the leadership of Dr. Carmen M. Enss (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg), the group brings together several academic institutions in Germany and cooperates with partners abroad.
This international and interdisciplinary group of scholars not only reexamines the familiar historical sources from previously overlooked perspectives, but also aims to bring to light other understudied maps and make them available to the academic community. The research will offer original and comparative insights that will contribute to the scholarship of European urban history, wide beyond the narrow limits of the case studies.
- gathers damage maps from the Second World War and other thematic urban maps covering Central and Central Eastern Europe
- investigates urban mapping as a cultural practice of transformation
- unlocks knowledge about the social and spatial development of post-war cities
- observes how heritage was mapped and historical consciousness was formed
- traces how maps were perceived and reinterpreted after the end of the war
- explores the visual programme of maps and information graphics
These topics are researched in several sub-projects.
UrbanMetaMapping Transfer Phase
The UrbanMetaMapping Transfer phase focuses on the following topics:
- An international research network will be established for methodological innovation in the field of “Spatial Humanities and Heritage”.
- The historical maps annotated, digitised and vectorized in the main phase will be made available as training data (open data) and examined in depth.
- Cartographic machine learning methods will be explored in collaboration with the research network.
- Methodological approaches to data analysis from historical maps using GIS will be discussed, further developed and published in exchange with experts from the spatial humanities community.
The UMM Tranfer Team consists of Carmen M. Enss, Seraphim Alvanides, Klaus Stein, Anastasia Bauch.
The UMMT kick-off workshop brought together international experts from various institutions.