Track 09 THEORIES

Track chairs: Thorsten Wiechmann, Meike Levin-Keitel, Franziska Sielker, Shuwen Zhou 

Within the overarching theme of the 2027 AESOP Congress “From Grey to
Green: Planning and the De-Carbonisation of the City”, this track focuses on exploring and challenging the theoretical foundations of planning in response to the critical challenges of our time. As the world grapples with unprecedented environmental, social, and economic crises, the role of planning theories becomes increasingly vital in understanding and shaping transformative action. Moving from grey to green is never a purely technical endeavour: it raises fundamental questions about the purpose, legitimacy and knowledge base of planning, about the path dependencies inherited from industrial urbanisation, and about the roles and self-understanding of planners.

This track seeks to examine conceptual frameworks, theories, and analytical approaches that can support planning in times of multiple intertwined crises and uncertainties, as well as during broader processes of transition and transformation. We welcome contributions exploring how planning thought can help to understand, analyse, anticipate, and respond to challenges related to the interconnection of climate change, decarbonisation, digitalisation, social inequality, resource depletion, geopolitical instability, and political change. Particular attention may be given to concepts that enhance strategic, adaptive, and equitable planning practices in rapidly changing urban and regional contexts.

Furthermore, this track invites contributions that critically engage with traditional and emerging planning theories, encouraging participants to rethink and redefine the core concepts and assumptions that have historically guided planning practices. It also welcomes discussions interrogating the epistemologies, ideologies, and methodologies that underpin planning and exploring how they can be re-envisioned to address urgent planetary crises.
Reflections on the relationship between theory and practice, on theorising across disciplinary boundaries, and on the diversity of planning cultures are equally welcome. The track is open to conceptual, empirical, and methodological contributions from all theoretical traditions.

Keywords: Critical approaches to planning theory and practice; theories in and for planning; theory building and assessment; planning epistemologies; theories of transition and transformation; theory–practice relations; planning cultures.