Space and place are significant and complex concepts for the meeting of people, cultures, religions, ideologies, politics, sacred and secular, “textual territories,” histories and memories, the advantaged and the disadvantaged, the powerful and the weak. The so-called spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences needs to be understood and articulated in terms of the specific interests and concerns of intercultural theology and interreligious studies. This conference sought to address both the conceptual issues concerning “space” and “place” as well as more contextual issues—especially as they relate to Spain (our host for the 2013 conference).

Plenary sessions of the conference discussed the following issues:

• The Routes of Al-Andalus: Spiritual Convergences and Intercultural Dialogue
• The Spatial Turn in Cultural Studies – and in Religion/Theology (Kim Knott and Hans-Joachim Sander)
• Minorities and Migrants Claiming Space (Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez and Mechteld Jansen)
• Syria – Is There A Common Ground? (Paolo dall’Oglio)
• Contested Texts – Critical Gender Perspectives (Gé Speelman and Anne Hege Grung)
• Constructing Secular and Sacred Space (Silvia Martínez and Maya Warrier)
• Interreligious Encounters in Spain: Contestation/Common Ground (José L. Villacorta and Mariano Delgado)
• Common Ground and Asymmetrical Relations (Raúl Fornet-Betancourt)