Travelling Places, Navigating Conflicts: Relational Ontology of Public Space in Urban Climate Transformation

This paper examines the ontological complexity of public space through an analysis of the long‐running dispute over the development of Redlowska Glade, a green area in Gdynia, Poland. Drawing on relational ontology perspective, the study explores how conflicting parties not only debated the future of this space but also enacted different versions of what and where the Glade actually is. Based on empirical material, that is, 30 interviews and qualitative content review, the paper identifies how the Glade was materially and discursively redefined through political, emotional, and spatial practices, revealing “a multiplicity of worlds animated in different ways.” As the dispute evolved, the Glade became a traveling object of conflict, shifting between geographical and symbolic locations, and raising broader questions about urban planning and participation. The study also illustrates how disputes over plans for the redevelopment of public space can move through different world views and relations and change from one “hot” space to another as the dispute progresses, while changing the space that is not fixed but continuously reconfigured through conflict. The article concludes with a discussion that, in addition to a summary, points to directions for further research on ontological conflicts that would complement and extend this analysis.