Researchers gather in Wrocław for VISURB workshop on visual approaches to urban change

In May 2026, the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wrocław hosted the VISURB workshop “Images in Transformation: Visual Techniques in Research on the Experience of Spatial Change” – a three-day intensive event organised as the second initiative of the EXNuRB Community of Practice within the Arqus Innovation Fund.

The workshop brought together fifteen researchers and doctoral students from seven institutions across six countries, including Arqus partner universities from Lithuania, Ireland, Spain, and Italy, as well as guests from TU Dresden, and the University of Szczecin.

Led by Dr Maciej Frąckowiak and Dr Łukasz Rogowski, specialists in visual sociology and urban studies from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the programme wove together theoretical sessions on the foundations of visual research with hands-on fieldwork in Wrocław’s urban landscape.

Participants explored a range of methods – from photo diaries and photo-elicitation interviews to walking-with-video – and worked with visual data through a temporal lens, examining how images can illuminate the past, present, and future of spatial transformation.

A highlight of the programme was a session on the use of generative AI tools for future scenario building as a projective technique in focus group research. Field excursions took participants to the WUWA housing exhibition district and the Nadodrze neighbourhood, guided by local experts from the University of Wrocław and Wrocław University of Science and Technology, turning the city itself into a research laboratory.