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In this article, we discuss methodological issues and problems in researching relational space. We argue that despite all innovations after recent spatial turns, research on space is often still marked by what we call 'presentism' and 'concretism'. Instead, we seek to show how spatial encounters today are more and more marked and shaped by different absences. Using some insights from the poststructuralist take on assemblages we argue that any spatial method to understand spatial complexity is incomplete if the role of absences in shaping spatial presences and spatial encounters is left unconsidered. Addressing ques-tions of methodology and methods we vote for the ethnographic approach which, to us, has the strongest potential to undertake spatial research sensitive to the problem of present absences, i.e. that the complexity of places is often shaped by absent spatial events.

The German city of Bamberg offers lessons in how continuity and change interact within the context of the inner-urban land use of commercial horticulture, thereby informing sustainable urban transformations in historic cities. The case of Bamberg shows that urban food production is not just well-established, but a consistent and centuries-old cultural structure that influences the fabric of today's city. In this article, we discuss what forms of urban horticulture (and thus also food production) are evident from Bamberg's past and which may prevail in the future. Two questions structure our analysis. First, how are historical sites and spatial structures of horticulture shaped in the tension between continuity and change? Second, which practices/forms of urban horticulture are taken up and how are they updated by which actors? Both the heritage and contemporary practices of urban horticulture, it is argued, can be conceived of as a resource to create sustainable places and ways of life for citizens. Two new contributions result from this work. First, the article highlights the ongoing cultural heritage dimensions of urban horticulture in a field still dominated by eco-technical contributions associated with post-industrial innovation in urban planning; in this respect, heritage should be recognised as a dynamic that shapes urban change. In addition, secondly, the application of Luhmannian concepts of evolution in social systems reinforces the interdependence of continuity and change in urban settings.