THEMATIC GROUPS
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures - Call for Expressions of Interest to host the Thematic Group’s Meetings 2022-2024
"Public Spaces, Urban Cultures and Constructing Peace"
Working theme written by Christine Mady (Beirut, Lebanon), Stefania Ragozino (Naples, Italy), Tihomir Viderman (Berlin, Germany), in collaboration with the TG PSUC’s Core Working Group
The construction of peace - the urge to understand how we arrive at peace
The world’s struggle to cope with health, ecological and economic crises, coupled with conflicts across multiple scales – from acquiring geo-political dominion to often invisible struggles that permeate spaces of homes – make the construction of peace the central theme in securing better urban futures. While debates on divides and conflicts in urban societies often shift focus in the range from social polarisation and political exclusion (e.g. political economy or post-foundational theories), over the negotiation of the private-public boundary in everyday life struggles (e.g. feminist critique), struggles over appropriation of public space (urban activism and literature on insurgencies), to insights into spaces of enduring conflicts and divides (Belfast, Baghdad, Istanbul, Nicosia or Beirut), they introduce the ‘securing of’ peace as a normative goal. However, the institutionalisation of peace across the binary of peace and conflict creates a conceptual gap, in which conflicts across the world are described as increasingly pervasive and complex, while peace is offered as rather a one-dimensional goal. Such an abstraction of a complex set of values, symbols, experiences and practices that amalgamate into peace, carries the danger of instrumentalising peace in the construction of hegemonic social, cultural and symbolic spaces. Achieving peace through political and other peace-making processes, too often preserves and produces disparities in power relations, be it at the level of global peacemaking or at the level of the home. The projected image of peace must conform with certain imaginaries of peace and peaceful living together, even when this means casting a veil of silence over past injustices, daily struggles and potential paths of change. Every day individuals, collectives and societies go about their lives, often unaware that the choices they make continuously negotiate between peace and conflict, and, moreover, negotiate what kind of peace is desired. This is why we ask how peace is constructed. How do we arrive at peace in everyday life, and how does urban space mould the understanding of what kind of peace we aim to arrive at?
Understanding peace
From a broader perspective, one might challenge the very understanding of peace, starting with the dialectics between what is perceived as peace and the invisible struggles that such an image might disguise. We ask if urbanisation processes ever aimed at peace. As post-colonial debates or debates on settler colonialism indicate, even within settings, which are perceived as peaceful, (histories) of violence might be permeated. This raises the question of not only peace as a normative goal, but rather how we arrive at peace.
Urban studies, the focus on conflict versus focusing on everyday peace
Urban studies rather focus on conflict, war and divides. But we are interested in how we negotiate peace on a daily basis. At what price is everyday peace constructed in the urban context? It does not come at the same price for everyone, and does not have the same impact on everyone’s daily life. Think of poverty, discrimination across differences, heritage of violent pasts and how these struggles are passed onto later generations. Moreover, negotiating peace could include actions or non-actions, the decision to be a in place, or avoid that place; the acceptance to abide by norms (such as COVID-19 health and safety measures) or not. These choices could lead to inclusion or exclusion from what is considered as the expected norm/ behaviour.
Peace and public space
The first reflection of conflict and ironically its dissolution, occur in urban public spaces. These spaces reflect the discourses and practices of tolerance towards differences and display or disguise the tensions immanent in encounters and exchange across diverse urban cultures. From the mundane acts of conviviality to demonstrations, public space accommodates different expressions of demands and claims for spatial and social justice. These struggles can materialise in various forms, from peaceful to violent in a panoply of endeavours that try to belong and partake in democracy.
Peace, scale and levels of personal/social arrivals
Peace has a transformative power. While considering public spaces as the catalyst for arriving at/ constructing peace and spatial justice, several aspects come to mind. The ‘construction of peace’, or being at peace comes at different scales of experiencing peace. Focus on peace is simultaneously a personal and social endeavour. It includes different scales, from personal space to groups with close bonds, over city, society to global normative goals. It also transgresses the boundary between (industrialised) societies and nature, as humans seek peace in connection to nature, and declaratively seek to resolve the lost peace with nature and the planet. It starts with the individual feeling at peace with oneself and extends to the environment. One could feel at peace when surrounded by crowds, or when isolated in their private dwelling. Peace facilitates inclusion, also for vulnerable groups who feel at peace in public space (gender, age, special needs, cultural and other backgrounds...).
Addressing the call for proposals
The AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures invites proposals that explore the construction of peace at different scales and through diverse disciplines, to reflect the position of urban studies within this process and build on observations, experimentation, and narration of the transformative power of peace within public spaces. The proposals would address the following topics in relation to the construction of peace:
- Care
- Climate
- Digitalisation
- Diversity and tolerance towards differences (community engagement, participation and Co-creation, enabling and establishing possibilities for dialogue)
- Inclusion (age, gender, special needs, backgrounds, ethnicities and so on)
- The Political and Urban Space
- Human-centred spaces
- Spatial justice
- Urban transformation
Proposals should present how in a series of meetings/workshops/conferences or other formats, participants from academia (universities and research institutes), policy, practice and civic society among other, could engage with contributions to the call’s theme, and arrive at tangible, synergetic outputs on the potentialities and different roles that public spaces and urban cultures could have in the global to local construction of peace.
Schedule
- Call launched in AESOP Tartu July 2022
- Submission of expression of interest: 24 October 2022 31 October 2022
- Announcement of selected applications: 31 October 2022 2 November 2022
- Joint Meeting for development of full proposal: 7 November 2022
- Submission of full proposals: 27 November 2022
Mission, aims and engagement within the Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
The AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures critically and constructively inquires into the nature of urban cultures and public spaces (=lived space), offering potentials by confronting and weaving networks with the AESOP Planning Community, other scientific communities engaged with these topics, European research networks, policy makers, local communities, and urban activists among other.
This thematic group aims to introduce the research and design focus on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures in planning-related disciplines. Indeed, the group brings together people from diverse disciplines: Art, Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning, Urban Design, Policy, Urban Sociology, Urban Geography, Urban Ethnography, among others.
The group consists of members focusing on:
- theory, concepts, speculation
- methodology, methods combination, method reflection
- empirical field research and related ethics
- education and learning
- policy, regulation and planning
- civic design, co-production and collective meaning-making
The members of the AESOP Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures discuss and develop approaches proposed under the biennial group’s working theme and engage in peer-to-peer exchange on research and design projects. In addition to the annual AESOP Conference, the group has regular meetings spanning academia, praxis and activism, which take place in the form of workshops, seminars and conferences, accompanied by field trips.
In times of open call for hosting an AESOP TG PSUC, group members and other interested parties could submit a proposal for hosting a TG event (conference/call for abstract/call for paper/workshop/meeting) about current themes of the PSUC Thematic Group. This proposal should contain information about timing, place, host institution, concept and issues to deepen. Once the event proposal has been accepted, the host institution prepares the event in close cooperation with the two TG representatives, who assist the hosting institutional partners in developing the meeting’s theme and agenda. The hosting institution invites the two TG representatives as members of the meeting’s scientific committee. If local funding is not available, the hosting institution assists them in obtaining funding elsewhere. Once the call is prepared, it will be shared with the TG Core Working Group prior to dissemination in order to start the discussion of themes of relevance and to promote participation in the event. A final version of the call will be shared with the local and TG networks through social media.
The format of the event is open. The events are mostly held in the format of two-days workshops/seminars/conferences that often include a field trip. During these events, participants are encouraged to give presentations about their research and design projects on the relevant topic. Apart from the general AESOP Annual Conference Meetings, the AESOP TG PSUC has established the policy that all meetings should be free of cost to AESOP TG members, at least keynote lectures should be accessible for the public without any costs (in place, and/or virtually through livestream), and that, when possible, affordable accommodation proposals are provided by the local host. Participants usually cover their own travel and accommodation expenses.
For questions regarding the organisation of the meetings please send an email to:
We acknowledge as well the institutions and colleagues that have hosted our events so far: Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien (Vienna, Austria); Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (Ljubljana, Slovenia); Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development of Naples, National Research Council of Italy (Naples, Italy); Human Cities Symposium Organizers, Faculté d’Architecture La Cambre Horta and ProMateria (Brussels, Belgium); Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey); Technical University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal); Ozyegin University (Istanbul, Turkey); UN Habitat World Urban Forum (Medellin, Colombia); Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning (Bucharest, Romania); La Villette School of Architecture (Paris, France); Public Space Biennale at Faculty of Architecture Roma Tre (Rome, Italy); University of Glasgow (Glasgow, UK); Czech Technical University Faculty of Architecture (Prague, Czech Republic); CITTA Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, University of Porto (Porto, Portugal); Faculty of Architecture, Art, and Design, Notre Dame University Louaize (Louaize, Lebanon); Tracce Urbane and Laboratory of Urban Studies at Sapienza (Rome, Italy); Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus (Cyprus); Wageningen University (Wageningen, the Netherlands); Gothenburg University (Gothenburg, Sweden); Cardiff University (Cardiff, UK); University of Venice (Venice, Italy); Delft University of Technology (Delft, The Netherlands); University of Technology (Gdańsk Poland); Aristotle University (Thessaloniki, Greece).
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Transboundary Planning and Governance
TG Transboundary Planning and Governance: New name and new coordination team!
Since the AESOP Congress 2022 in Tartu, the Thematic Group has a new coordination team: Eva Purkarthofer (Aalto University) and Alois Humer (University of Vienna) took over from Giancarlo Cotella (Politecnico di Torino) and Stefanie Dühr (University of South Australia). In the TG meeting in Tartu, we have discussed and agreed upon a simplified name for the TG: “Transboundary planning and governance”.
Along with the update of the TG name, we have also reviewed the thematic focus of the group. The TG Transboundary Planning and Governance aims to provide room for discussing new planning spaces, formal and informal governance arrangements and comparative perspectives on planning systems, cultures, and practices in Europe and beyond, across various scales. You can find more information on the thematic scope on the TG website: https://aesop-planning.eu/thematic-groups/transboundary-planning-and-governance
As coordinators, we envision three main ways how the TG can be a useful platform for its members. First, we intend to use the TG to share relevant activities of and with its members, such as calls for papers for special issues, PhD workshops, seminars and other events, information on on-going projects and project applications, as well as invitations to online PhD defenses or online lectures. Second, we intend to organise and facilitate the organisation of events under the umbrella of the TG, such as small conferences, special issues and special sessions or roundtables at the annual AESOP Congress. Third, we aim to enable continuous networking and knowledge exchange between academics with overlapping research interests through the TG meetings and other TG activities.
Our main communication channels remain the AESOP TG website and a mailing list with currently approx. 160 subscribers. If you would like to be included to the mailing list, please contact
In Tartu, we agreed to have two annual TG meetings: One meeting will take place in person at the AESOP Congress and one meeting will take place online in December. Both meetings serve to discuss the focus of the group as well as joint future activities such as special sessions at AESOP or calls for special issues. The meetings are open to all interested – an invitation will be sent through the mailing list and an announcement will appear on the TG website.
We are looking forward to fruitful collaboration under the umbrella of the thematic group and would be glad to hear your proposals for future activities!
Best wishes,
Eva Purkarthofer & Alois Humer
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Ethics, Values and Planning
The AESOP thematic group on Ethics, Values and Planning is searching for candidates who would like to contribute to the growth and success of the network (247 subscriptions to the mailing list). Like every organisation, we need to adapt and evolve to guarantee our long-term survival. Therefore, we want to strengthen the coordination team by including new forces and ideas.
Scope of the thematic group
The TG aims to facilitate lively debates on relevant ethical urban planning issues. It organises colloquiums and annual conferences, and provides an open space for members to initiate debates and workshops.
The TG addresses (mainly) three main themes:
- the interrelation between social/urban justice and spatial governance/design/configurations (this includes, for example, distributive issues, access to resources, freedom of initiative, etc.);
- how to operationalise values in urban design and planning interventions;
- the exploration of different types of ethical approaches.
Possible profiles
- "Senior" scholars/researchers with longstanding experience and interests in the field of ethics, justice and planning;
- "Young" scholars/researchers (e.g. Post-docs and PhD candidates) exploring important ethical questions willing to consolidate and expand their knowledge.
- Students with a strong passion and commitment to urban ethical issues (e.g. students willing to apply for PhD positions).
Important requirements/info
- Within the values of AESOP, this thematic group acknowledges and welcomes the co-presence of different ethical perspectives and different ideas of justice. Respect, pluralism, tolerance and constructive dialogues are essential.
- The TG aims at serious discussions combining the power of logic and individual values. Solid scientific methods will always be favoured over dogmas and ideologically blinded and biased conversations.
- All the TG's activities are based on voluntary work. This commitment entails sacrifices beyond the regular working hours but pays back with enormous benefits in terms of academic/knowledge development and networking at the European and non-European levels.
How to apply
Send an e-mail until September 25 to stefano.cozzolino(at)ils-research.de with:
- A short CV or your professional links (e.g., LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, etc.)
- A couple of sentences to present yourself and motivate your interest.
Recent activities of the TG
Colloquium series 2021
- "If neoliberalism is everything, maybe it is nothing" with prof. Edwin Buitelaar, February 24
- "Our curious silence about kindness" prof.dr. John Forester, March 24
- "Revisiting the concept of the 'just city' with prof. Stefano Moroni, April 21
- "Back to normality or perpetual threat? Exploring scenarios of future urban life and planning", May 26
- "Overcoming the false dichotomy between procedural and distributive justice" with Ali Madanipour, Sabine Weck and Peter Schmitt, October 13
- "Human Dignity in Planning" with Ben Davy, November 23
Open space events 2021
"What are AESOP's shared values?", June 8
Participants in the panel discussion:
- Rachelle Alterman (Technion Israel Institute of Technology and Neaman Institute for National Policy Research - AESOP Honorary Member)
- Claudia Basta (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency)
- Tijana Dabovic (University of Belgrade)
- Pinar Dörder (Technical University of Darmstadt – Chair of YA Coordination Team)
- Francesco Lo Piccolo (University of Palermo)
- Izabela Mironowicz (Gdansk University of Technology)
- Paulo Silva (University of Aveiro)
Annual (internal) conference organisation (Online)
Operationalising the Just City - 24 and 25 February 2022
- 48 participants
Annual AESOP congress – 25-29 July 2022 (Tartu, Estonia)
- Track 9: SPATIALITIES: Making and unmaking spatial inequalities (10 sessions)
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
Meeting of the Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
Tuesday, 26 July, 13:30-14:30 EEST (Tartu time) (UTC +3, 12:30-13:30 CEST)
Forestry Building, Room 2A1
We will discuss the TG's activities and launch the new call for events 2022-2024 "Public Spaces, Urban Cultures and Constructing Peace" by having a lunch together. The local committee will provide lunch boxes directly to our room.
For online participation, please write to
Track#2 CULTURE
This year our TG has co-organized the Track#2 CULTURE. Contributions in this track are divided into in-person sessions, remote sessions, and pre-recorded presentations. Trying to hold these parts together and to arrive at the end of the conference with a unified Track#2 CULTURE reflection, we have organized meeting times to scan our work and share intent, materials, and thoughts, which will be:
Track#2 CULTURE Opening Session #5 “Everyday Life and Public Spaces”
Wednesday July 27th at 10:00-11:30 EEST (Tartu) time (UTC +3; 9:00-10:30 CEST)
Forestry Building, Room 1A5
Track#2 CULTURE Closing Session #10 “Tourism for spatial development”
Thursday July 28th at 12:00-13:30 EEST (Tartu) time (UTC +3; 11:00-12:30 CEST)
Forestry Building, Room 1A5
Book “Care and the city. Encounters with Urban Studies”
Within the Track#14 THEORY, TG member Angelika Gabauer (TU, Wien) will present the contribution “Spaces of Care: Redefining Spatial Justice from a Perspective of Care” about the book *Care and the city. Encounters with Urban Studies*, edited by Angelika Gabauer, Sabine Knierbein, Nir Cohen, Henrik Lebuhn, Kim Trogal, Tihomir Viderman, Tigran Haas, and published open access by Routledge.
Wednesday July 27th 17:16-17:38 EEST (Tartu) time (UTC +3; 16:16-16:38 CEST)
Forestry Building, Room 2B5
TG Representatives for the AESOP Annual Congress Tartu 2022 are:
(in person) Sabine Knierbein (TU, Wien -
(online) Christine Mady (Notre Dame University - Louaize, Lebanon -
You can find detailed information at the following links:
AESOP Annual Congress tartu 2022: https://aesop2022.publicon.ee/en/welcome/
TG PSUC webpage: https://www.aesop-planning.eu/thematic-groups/public-spaces-and-urban-cultures
Track#2 CULTURE abstract: https://aesop2022.publicon.ee/en/tracks/track-2/
Care and the city. Encounters with Urban Studies OA:
For any doubts, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Looking forward to meeting you in Tartu,
Christine, Matej, Sabine, Stefania, and Tihomir
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning, Law and Property rights
Prof Thomas Hartmann will deliver his inaugural lecture as chair of Land Policy and Land Management at the Department of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University on 26th August 2022.
You can join the lecture in person or online. Please register by the 31st July: www.registration.bodenpolitik.de