Çağan Varol

Themes

Keupstraße, urban politics and socio-spatial racism

How Keupstraße and Köln-Mülheim were framed as problems, displacement and entrepreneurial urban strategies, and territorial stigmatisation; the subject of his dissertation.

0312 entries2021–2026All themes

Publications

All publications
2026 Book

Rassifizierte Topographien. Über die Problematisierung von Migration im städtischen Raum

Traces how a migrant shopping street in Cologne has been stigmatised since the recruitment stop of 1973, ethnographically and genealogically, following the official and media readings of “Brennpunkte” and “Parallelgesellschaften” and the counter-narratives of the street’s migrant residents. Using the 2004 attack by a right-wing terrorist group and the investigations that followed, it shows how social work, security agencies and urban development took part in producing a racialised topography. Appears in the Urban Studies series; according to the publisher due on 28 December 2026, about 470 pages.

2026 Dissertation

Verhandlungszonen einer rassifizierten Topographie – Die Problematisierung der Migration in der Kölner Keupstraße und die Materialisierung unternehmerischer Raum- und Stadtstrategien

Examines how Keupstraße in Cologne-Mülheim came to be framed as a problem over roughly 50 years, and how entrepreneurial spatial and urban strategies materialised there. Combines a genealogical-ethnographic approach with interview, media and document analysis. Supervised by Prof. Dr. Gabriele Fischer (Hochschule München) and Prof. Dr. Clarissa Rudolph (OTH Regensburg). The dissertation was defended at Hochschule München in June 2026 and has not yet been published.

2026 Book chapter

Der soziale Raum des Rassismus

Brings together labels such as Brennpunkt and Parallelgesellschaft, the social-mix model, the broken-windows thesis and Wacquant’s concept of territorial stigmatisation (building on Bourdieu’s social space), and develops from them a concept of institutional racism as a local power-knowledge apparatus shared by social work, urban development and other actors.

Writing

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Talks & media

All talks and media items
14 June 2026 Hochschule München News

Erste eigenständige Promotion der HM

Announces the successful defence of his dissertation, the first independent doctorate of an HM doctoral candidate and the first completed doctorate at the PZSGT.

24 June 2025 Umkämpftes Erinnern in der postmigrantischen Gesellschaft, Hochschule München Conference paper

Erinnerung an die Opfer des Nagelbombenanschlags auf der Keupstraße – Zwischen unternehmerischen Stadtpolitiken und der Entpolitisierung von aktivistischen Praxen

Paper in Panel 2, “Gedenken im öffentlichen Raum als Praxis der Problematisierung”, at the conference of the German Sociological Association (DGS) sections “Soziale Probleme und soziale Kontrolle” and “Migration und ethnische Minderheiten”.