Experiences and Challenges in the Transformation of Cities and Regions – from Peripheral Areas to Metropolitan Centres

Cities and regions across Europe are experiencing profound and uneven transformations. Economic restructuring, climate change, demographic shifts, and social inequalities are reshaping places and creating new demands for planning. These challenges take different forms in peripheral areas and metropolitan centres, reflecting their distinct resources, development trajectories, and capacities to respond. At the same time, these places are connected through flows of people, knowledge, investment, and infrastructure, making their transformation a shared concern.

The conference brings together planning school leaders, scholars, and practitioners from across Europe to exchange experiences and explore the challenges of guiding transformation across diverse territorial contexts. It will consider both the specific conditions of peripheral cities and regions and the dynamics of metropolitan development, with particular attention to the relationships and interdependencies between them.

Beginning in Cottbus and concluding in Berlin, the conference and its accompanying study tours will connect these discussions with direct encounters with places undergoing change. This journey will offer insights into transformation at scales ranging from individual sites and neighbourhoods to cities, regions, and wider territorial networks. Through comparative reflection and dialogue, participants will explore how planners respond to different dynamics of change and how these experiences can enrich planning education and practice across Europe.