[GeoIT.org] CfP: PLATIAL'26 Symposium on Platial Information Science

Westerholt, René rene.westerholt at tu-dortmund.de
Mo Feb 16 16:00:23 CET 2026


Dear All,

We are delighted to invite you to the Fifth International PLATIAL'26
Symposium, which will take place in Salzburg, Austria, on 16–18 September
2026! The event aims to put forward the notion of place in geographical
information science. We accept short paper submissions, which will be
published with separate DOIs online in high-quality proceedings. In
addition, we are encouraging submitting proposals for 1–2-hours mini
workshops.

We are looking forward to your submissions, and to exciting discussions
in September!

Best wishes,
Franz-Benjamin Mocnik and René Westerholt

PS: Please spread the word to your personal networks and forward this
call to anyone for whom it might be interesting and relevant.

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# PLATIAL'26 Symposium on Platial Information Science

Motto: Platial information practices between idealization, cliché, and
        stigmatization

16–18 September 2026
Salzburg, Austria

Short Papers (3–5 pages)
Mini Workshops (1–2-hours each)
Submission Deadline: 29 May 2026

Confirmed keynotes by Alice Butler-Warke and Andrea Ballatore
(see below for details)

https://platial26.platialscience.net

=========================================================================

# PLATIAL'26 Symposium on Platial Information Science

Places can be experienced and conceptualized in very different ways.
Personal preferences and behavioural patterns, recurring
misunderstandings, and varying influences from institutionalized
interests are only some of the reasons for this variation. Not only exist
significant differences between places but also in how they are
represented. Places are commonly idealized to attract tourists, films
frequently reimagine places, faraway places are subject to becoming
clichés, and social hotspots are often stigmatized. Salzburg – where
PLATIAL'26 will take place – is a prime example of such a place. Loved by
tourists, experienced as a place of everyday living and working, and
having been subject to an eventful history, Salzburg is often portrayed
as a cliché in North American films and idealized in tourist guides due
to its Alpine location. Such distortions are not exceptions but the rule
when it comes to the communication of place.

PLATIAL'26 invites researchers from a wide range of disciplines to
explore the various facets inherent to place and platial information.
Among other aspects (see below), our chosen theme particularly invites
submissions on differences in place perception, forms of place
representation in media and art, and ways in which such representations
can be unintentionally or deliberately distorted. Submitted research may
concern both fundamental, theoretical considerations as well as
methodological advances and practical examples.

Additional to this year's theme, we welcome submissions on the following
topics:

* Which approaches of place representation exist in different fields,
   and how can these be integrated?
* What are suitable strategies for addressing subjectivity in platial
   information?
* In what ways can platial information theories accommodate the
   complexity of places?
* How can we account for dynamics, change, and fluidity in platial
   information?
* What is the role of scale in platial information?
* In which ways can places be visualized, or conveyed in other forms?
* In what ways could platial information inform future applications and
   technologies, such as question answering systems, scenario-based
   planning, and virtual/augmented reality?
* Which novel perspectives could a platial lens enable in geographical
   information science, geography, the (non)digital humanities,
   philosophy, planning, and cognate fields?

Further topics that fit the overall scope of the symposium are welcome.

## IMPORTANT DATES

29 May 2026           Submission deadline for both short papers and
                       mini workshops
16–18 September 2026  PLATIAL'26 Symposium

## VENUE

University of Salzburg, Austria

## HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

We are seeking high-quality contributions on the topics proposed. For
this, we offer two different formats: compact mini workshops possibly
accompanied by citable, joint recap papers; and short papers that will
be orally presented in the regular track of the symposium.

### SHORT PAPERS

Regular short papers submitted to PLATIAL'26 should not exceed 3–5 pages,
including abstract, figures, and references. Your papers should be
prepared in adherence to the guidelines found in the Overleaf template:
   https://platialscience.net/overleaf26
Submission of your paper (i.e., the PDF) should be done via EasyChair:
   https://platialscience.net/submission26
We will only approach you upon paper acceptance to ask for submission of
all finalized files (including the compiled PDF, LaTeX source files,
figures). All submissions will be reviewed double-blind by at least two
members of the programme committee. Therefore, please prepare your
documents in anonymized form (see instructions given in the template and
on the submissions page on the PLATIAL website). Submissions prepared
using a Microsoft Word-based template are also possible:
   https://platialscience.net/word26
Please note, however, that this format entails a higher downstream
(unpaid) editorial effort for both authors and organizers, as ultimately
all contributions are to appear in a single collected volume. Submissions
using our LaTeX template are therefore strongly encouraged.

### MINI WORKSHOPS

PLATIAL'26 offers the innovative format of mini workshops. Being concise
and to the point, these will allow peers to discuss specialized
cutting-edge topics in a laid-back, intimate atmosphere. The idea is to
have 1–2-hours sessions dedicated to specific platial topics. These
sessions will be prepared, organized, and conducted by the workshop
convenors who proposed the respective sessions. The format can be chosen
freely and purposefully to allow for fruitful and creative interaction.
For each mini workshop, the results achieved will ideally then lead to a
joint paper of all attendees that will be given a suitable deadline for
submission after the event. These contributions will undergo the same
rigorous peer review by members of the programme committee as regular
short papers. If you are interested in proposing a mini workshop on your
topic of choice, please submit an informal one-page proposal in PDF
format to mail at platialscience.net by 29 May. You may want to get in touch
with the organizers prior to submission in case of any questions about
topics you want to propose. We especially encourage early-career
researchers to take this opportunity to discuss their ongoing research.

### LONG-TERM CITABILITY

We value your contributions! Therefore, your work should be visible and
sustainably citable long-term after the symposium. All short paper
contributions will be published online with individual DOIs as ZENODO
Symposium Proceedings, an outlet funded by the European Commission to
support publication of high-quality proceedings.

Please find the proceedings of the previous PLATIAL events here:
https://platialscience.net/proceedings-of-platial23
https://platialscience.net/proceedings-of-platial21
https://platialscience.net/proceedings-of-platial19
https://platialscience.net/proceedings-of-platial18

## HOW TO REGISTER?

Please find information on the registration procedure as well as further
information about the event online:
   https://platial26.platialscience.net

## KEYNOTES

Title to be announced
Alice Butler-Warke  (University of Reading, UK)

Title to be announced
Andrea Ballatore  (King's College London, UK)

## PROGRAMME COMMITTEE

The programme committee will be announced at a later date.

## FOLLOW US

LinkedIn:  @PLATIAL'X
Bluesky:   @platialx.bsky.social
Mastodon:  @platial_x at mastodon.social

## SYMPOSIUM CONVENORS

Franz-Benjamin Mocnik
University of Salzburg, Austria
franz-benjamin.mocnik at plus.ac.at

René Westerholt
TU Dortmund University, Germany
rene.westerholt at tu-dortmund.de

Do not hesitate to post your questions to mail at platialscience.net.

https://platial26.platialscience.net

-- 
Prof. René Westerholt

TU Dortmund University
Spatial Modelling Lab, Department of Spatial Planning
August-Schmidt-Str. 10, 44227 Dortmund, Germany

[Voice] +49 (0)231 755 2287
[Email] rene.westerholt at tu-dortmund.de
[Web (uni)] https://ram.raumplanung.tu-dortmund.de
[Web (private)] https://www.westerholt-giscience.net
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