5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

The sociology of place remains an undeveloped sociological theme in sociological literature in favor of the sociology of space occasioned or precipitated by the the Industrial Revolution. This revolution is placed in the west and imposed it on the rest. With the globalization of space in this internet age, place is more and more neglected. Most of the available sociological literature on place was written between 1980’s and 1990’s and place is discussed side by side with space. There is no exclusive place for place. We need to heed the urgency of place in our sociological discourse. The sociology of place will focus on the global south whose places are continually colonized by transnational corporations of the global north. In particular, we will focus on the Philippine setting as a case. The lands and parks are transformed into business districts, the mountains and forests are destroyed by mining corporations. The urban poor communities and the indigenous peoples are dislocated. Business interventions to places have practically deterritorialized and displaced them. We need to return to place and theorize it. We understand place as ”the experience of, and from, a particular location with some sense of boundaries, grounds, and links to everyday practices.” Moreover, ’place integrates ”body and environment with each other and gathers things, thoughts, and memories in particular configurations” (Escobar, Culture Sits in Places, 2001, 152 &143).