Seminar: "Loved keystone places: spatializing fundamental human needs for post-growth strategies in rural areas" by Julia Grosinger

The REAL-Postgrowth project (Post-growth – REAL – A Post-Growth Deal) is excited to announce the online seminar "Loved keystone places: spatializing fundamental human needs for post-growth strategies in rural areas" with Julia Grosinger.

Title: "Loved keystone places: spatializing fundamental human needs for post-growth strategies in rural areas"

Speaker: Julia Grosinger, Université Grenoble Alpes

• Date: Tuesday, 22nd September, 2026
• Time: 15.00-16.00
• Venue: Online https://zoom.us/j/97296563347?pwd=SuEFYabjqxNjSEu7guMcqDTFe2lbVe.1

Places and the attachments they foster are crucial to quality of life, yet remain underexplored in post-growth research. Drawing on Max-Neef’s Human Scale Development approach, we explore to what extent “loved keystone places”  can contribute to the realization of a good quality of life beyond material consumption. In a rural village in inland Catalonia, we used mobile and inclusive methods to ask people which places matter to them and why. Walking, as a relational approach brings together people, movement, and the local environment into one story. We discuss what such situated perspectives can make visible for rural communities, place-based research, and local post-growth strategies in rural settings. 

Julia Grosinger is a human geographer researching place attachment and quality of life in rural areas in the European South. Her work combines place-based, relational, and mobile approaches with qualitative indicators to support local municipalities. Currently at Université Grenoble Alpes, she studies art-based methodologies for collective water management in a French Alpine village.