A central question linking our research to Civic Strength is: How is memory integrated into the urban field and how does it affect our togetherness? The city possesses a dense network of memory layers which are of central importance for the collective togetherness. These layers can not only be found in their monuments, museums, and historical sites, but also in ephemeral signs and traces of memory, such as graffiti or in their names. Though cultural memory always has to be understood as a propeller for political mobilisations and social change as well. Approaching territorial, political, and cultural aspects jointly within memory research can lead to public integrations and exclusions within urban representation and thus contribute to the research of Civic Strength and urban togetherness.
In her research, Ulrike Capdepón as a political scientist with a cultural sciences approach engages with the question how society as a whole copes with a burdened past and which contribution to civic strength is done by cultural processes of memory. Another research field are human rights and the judicial reappraisal of dictatorship and mass violence. Her regional focuses are set onto the Iberian peninsula and southern Latin America.