Planning and Complexity

The aim of the group is to contribute to the creation and maintenance of a network of lecturers and researchers, who are willing to explore and debate new developments influencing both planning theory and practice in the light of non-linearity, resilience, adaptivity, complexity, complexity thinking and complex adaptice systems.

Coordinated by: Dr. Ward Rauws

New Technologies & Planning

The GOAL: improve the communication and the knowledge between AESOP members on what is the state of the art, the methodologies and the practice of New Technologies in Planning.

Coordinated by: Paulo Silva

Planning, law and property rights

Law is an essential element of planning. Statutory law, as interpreted by the courts, defines planning powers, the planning process, and the mandatory elements of binding development plans. Although the law often attributes a wide margin of discretion to the planning authority, it also limits planning powers for the protection of individual rights.

Coordinated by: Dr Linda McElduff

Transboundary Spaces, Policy Diffusion, Planning Cultures

The aim of this group is to create and grow a network of researchers interested in, broadly speaking, the Europeanisation and internationalisation of spatial planning, and the various forms it takes – the creation of new, softer planning spaces and corresponding governance arrangements, the change of policies and practices through ‘travelling ideas’ etc.

Coordinated by: Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Cotella

Urban Design in Planning

The main intention of the urban design group is to develop a better understanding of status of urban design within planning education across Europe, and of its relationship to both the professional disciplines of planning and architecture.

Coordinated by: Dr. Alan Reeve

Transportation Planning and Policy

The Goal of this group is to create and grow a network of researchers interested in the complex interlinkages between transport behaviour, transport infrastructure, the role of technology, sustainability, governance structures and interventions.

Coordinated by: Dr Enrica Papa

Ethics, Values and Planning

This TG is based on the contention that research into planning raises ethical issues which are distinctive enough to warrant more attention than the routine references to standard social science discussions which are the usual responses of research monographs and doctoral theses.

Coordinated by: PhD Claudia Daniela Basta

Resilience and Risks Mitigation Strategies

The Thematic Group “Resilience and Risks Mitigation Strategies – RRMS” has the overall aim to enhance debate, educational coordination, research, policies and practices on resilience strategies and risk mitigation and adaptation for sustainable spatial development within Europe

Coordinated by: Prof. Dr. Richard Sliuzas

French and British Planning Studies Group

French and British Planning Studies Group

 

Groupe d'Etudes sur l'Urbanisme Français et Britannique

 

 

Coordinated by: Dr Lauren Andres

Evaluation in Planning

This group of AESOP researchers is focused on the evaluation of planning interventions - both of physical developments and application of new tools for evaluation. Initially set up to run as a series of conferences to be held every 3-4 years with invited experts presenting case-studies of robust evaluation methods.

The early facilitators of these conferences were Nathaniel Lichfield, Abdul Khakee and Dino Borri.

The 7th international workshop was organised by Angela Hull in Edinburgh in 2008, and the 8th international workshop was organised by Johan Woltjer in Groningen in March 2013.

The main outcomes of these conferences are a series of edited books to disseminate the latest approaches to evaluation in planning. The latest book: Hull, A., Alexander, E.R., Khakee, A., and Woltjer, J., (Eds) (2011) Evaluation for Participation and Sustainability in Planning, Routledge: London.

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415669450/

 

Coordinated by: Professor Angela Hull

Sustainable Food Planning

Aims

This Group aims to bring together academics, policy-makers and practitioners from an international audience and provide a forum for discussion and development of sustainable food systems.  Fashioning a sustainable food system is one of the most compelling challenges of the 21st Century.  Because of its multi-functional character, food is an ideal medium through which to design sustainable places, be they urban, rural or per-urban places.

Meetings

Meetings are held annually, hosted in different cities.  The four meetings that have been held so far have attracted between 80-100 participants and discussed a wide variety of issues within sustainable food planning.  Further details of keynote speakers and all of the meeting presentations can be found in the blog posts.

Coordinated by: Prof. Dr. Arnold van der Valk

Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Coordinated by: Dr. Gabriella Esposito De Vita

Planning/Conflict

The AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group aims at bringing together different perspectives on conflicts around urban planned developments, with a focus on the role planning practices may play both in defining/framing and in possibly solving/reframing conflicts. The purpose of the Planning/Conflict thematic group is to offer a durable framework for scholarly exchange, focussing on the empirical analysis of planning conflicts and promoting their critical/interpretive inquiry, in order to highlight what planning conflicts can teach us:

• about changing features of urban development policies and trends and their impact on local societies and communities;
• about changing conditions under which urban planning practices take place;
• about the effectiveness and legitimacy of established planning practices in dealing with conflicts;
• about the transformative potential that might be brought to light by facing planning conflicts;
• about the potential productive and innovative contribution of agonistic practices in view of a democratization of planning.

The AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group is open to participants’ proposals for joint initiatives: Please do not hesitate to advance proposals!

Would you like to contribute and/or to keep informed?

• please log into the AESOP website in order to post a comment
• please sign the application form                            or sent an email to                   planningconflict@planningtheory.tu-berlin.de  to subscribe to the thematic group´s mailing list

Coordinated by: Enrico Gualini

Sustainable Cities

The challenges presented by Climate Change are becoming more pressing as time continues. And as international negotiations are in a deadlock, cities are taking the lead in climate adaptation and mitigation. These are the places where the impact and associated cost of climate change will be greatest. However as prime sources of greenhouse gasses and polluting activities, they also offer the greatest potential for change. More and more researchers are joining the search for more sustainable and healthy cities and it is important for the planning community to be a part of this movement. By collaborating and sharing knowledge we can genuinely influence the cities of tomorrow. 

We currently have a googlegroup and linked in group: 
https://groups.google.com/d/forum/sustainable-cities
https://www.linkedin.com/grps/Sustainable-Cities-Thematic-Group-Aesop-8105481

If you would like to know more, do not hesitate to contact me.

Mendel Giezen

Coordinated by: Dr Mendel Giezen

AESOP Discussion on the New Urban Agenda

This is blog describing AESOP involvement in Habitat III Process.

 

Coordinated by: Dr Lauren Andres

Urban Futures

This Thematic Group aims at fostering new ideas and ways of understanding urban futures. In this sense, we encourage to consider the possible evolutions of some environmental, technological, political, social variables or conditions in the very long term and, subsequently, envision specific urban scenarios at the local, regional or global scales. These scenarios can refer, for example, to the impact of radical climate change (flooding, extreme scarcity of fresh water in given regions), pervasiveness of smart technologies or security measures, dismantling of statehood, radical modifications in current geopolitical order, massive migrations or other similar changes.

 

Coordinated by: Prof. Dr. Peter Ache

Planning Education

2019 - 2020 Plans

On behalf of Artur R. Pires and myself – as coordinators for the TG Planning education – a huge thank you for the keen interest and enthusiasm in regards to the Planning Education Thematic Group.

We had two short lunchtime meetings during the 2019 AESOP congress (9-13 July) which were filled with wonderfully lively dialogue and discussion. It was fantastic to feel the energy amongst the group members attending.

Over the next year we want to progress the ideas muted at the meetings.

The main one was to develop an AESOP Planning Educators Workshop. Conceptually, this is would be mirroring other Association activities such as the PhD workshop (AESOP) or the Writing Workshop for new scholars (ACSP, our sister association in North America). If this is successful – it would be then the goal to have this develop into a regular, annual activity of AESOP in the long term as a means to increase the profile of planning education/pedagogy in and for spatial planning. This workshop would hit all three aspects that Artur and I proposed as high level aims of the TG as well as suggestions of participants regarding publishing our work, building community (and doing research/projects together with funding).

Initial ideas are:

+ 2-day workshop that consists of a mix of theoretical inputs and practical activities

+ select a theme or two to keep the event focused (e.g. transformational pedagogies; community interaction/involvement; digital; internationalization; co-learning; becoming/being?)

+ organized in a location that is fairly easy to get to.

+ interested individuals apply for places with a Limited number of participants so that there is time and space to engage in deeper conversations.

+ apply of TG funding and other sources to make the workshop free (i.e. catering/materials/facilitator) (with travel and accommodation to be paid by participants)

It would be great to get a few volunteers and establish a working/task group to develop the Workshop idea in the next 2 months.

If you are interested – please email Artur and me (arp@ua.pt and aifrank2016@gmail.com ) no later than 31 July to let us know and we can start a dialogue and arrange perhaps a skype meeting to develop the details to a level at which we can apply for funding.

Finally, in the spirit of disseminating what is going on in terms of pedagogical research and sharing resources – please do let us know of future events, activities or publications in respect to planning education that we can share amongst our blossoming community of practice.  We will work with the AESOP executive to see how we can find a suitable means to make this martial available via the website/social media. We do hope also you post your news via the AESOP news pages (if your institution is an AESOP member you can register and submit news about events via the AESOP website).

Kind regards and looking forward to working with all of you

Andrea and Artur

Coordinated by: Dr Andrea Frank

REGIONAL DESIGN: Impacts on Territorial Governance and Planning Practice

The thematic group activities aim to explore new paths for planning at the regional and metropolitan level, in a context of governance rescaling in which spatial planning policies and practices, still traditionally anchored to rigid administrative boundaries, are now challenged to be reinvented.

Processes of defining and redefining sub-regional boundaries call for spatial visioning and design for shaping the boundaries of urban regions, providing pro-active knowledge of their characteristics and trends and conceiving shared visions of their spatial development.

The performance of regional planning and the contribution of regional design practices in these settings will be the focus of the TG, relating this performance to characteristics of the institutional context.

Coordinated by: Associate Professor Valeria Lingua

Urban Transformation in Europe and China

Since the beginning of the 21st century China and Europe are getting closer and closer. Together, European enterprises are making more and more business in China, and more and more Chinese enterprises are investing in Europe. Tourists from Europe and China like to explore the respective other region. The one-road-one belt Initiative, driven by the Chinese government is reducing geographic distance and transport time.

The aim of the thematic group is to explore the potentialities of transferring European experience, both successes and failures, to China, and löearn from Chinese experince. It will confront European participants with the challenges of urban regeneration in Chinese cities, and it will give Chinese practitioners and academic planners an insight into regeneration practices in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Austria.

Coordinated by: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Yi Xin