The aim of researchers in the interdisciplinary field of spatial research is to understand spaces in their richness of facets, their complexity, their simultaneity, the meanings attributed to them, and their change. In order to understand the constitution of spaces, researchers use an almost endless spectrum of data: including interview transcripts and field notes, tweets and chat threads, plans and maps, sketches and photographs, videos and films, tracking data and survey data, and so on. Certainly, the most prominent discourse concerns the combination of qualitative and quantitative data in mixed methods designs, but integration can also be thought of at the level of the medium in multimodal design between textual, numeral, and visual data. If not only different data but also different types of data are used within a research project, this is particularly challenging as it results in demands on methodology and research practice. In this session, we would welcome methodological reflections about the challenges of data integration for spatial research. The following questions can be addressed: (a) What epistemological challenges does the integration of heterogeneous data pose? How can they be met? (b) How does integration take place in concrete terms? What steps are necessary? Which protocols can be followed? What set of methodical rules need to be developed here? (c) What does it mean concretely for the study of space? What can a multimodal mixed-methods approach provide for analyzing processes of the spatial constitution, but also spatial ordering and circulation? (d) We would be particularly interested in contributions based on their own empirical research designs. We are welcoming experimental innovative integration attempts.
