AESOP newsletter - April 2025

This extension applies to all authors who wish to have their contributions included in the Scientific Programme of the AESOP 2025 Annual Congress in Istanbul.

To ensure your presentation is listed in the final programme, please make sure to complete your registration...

Participants who wish to submit their full papers, present online, or contribute with a poster presentation can now find all detailed guidelines and templates at the following link:

🔗 Full Paper & Presentation Guidelines – AESOP 2025 Congress

The page includes:

Instructions...

AESOP is pleased to invite its member schools to apply to host the 20th AESOP Heads of Schools Meeting, which will take place in Spring 2026.

Deadline for applications: 20 June 2025

Applications to be sent to the AESOP General Secretariat (secretariat@aesop-planning.eu) 

Application dossiers should include:

(a) Information about the hosting institution:

AESOP is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief for its journal, Transactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning, starting on 1 August 2025 for a period of 5 years, until 31 July 2030.

Transactions is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal owned and produced by AESOP. It plays a key role in promoting excellence in planning education and research—central goals of AESOP. The journal complements AESOP’s rich ecosystem...

AESOP is seeking expressions of interest for the position of Chair of the AESOP Excellence in Teaching Award Committee, starting from 1 August 2025 for a period of 5 years, until 31 July 2030.

The Excellence in Teaching Award (ETA) is one of AESOP’s most prestigious recognitions. Since its establishment in 2002, the award celebrates and disseminates innovative and inspiring teaching practices across AESOP member...

Deadline for applications: June the 6th, 2025

Context

The management of AESOP has grown increasingly complex in recent years, particularly due to legal and financial considerations. This challenge has become even more evident as the association resumed its full range of activities after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2024 Annual Congress in Paris welcomed over 1,200 delegates, and similar—if not larger—numbers are expected...

Petter Næss passed away on March 29, 2025, during an orienteering race on a beautiful spring day. He cherished his time in nature just as much as he loved his research. Until the very end, Petter remained active and healthy. His untimely death has come as a shock to many of us in the field of planning research and education.

Petter is remembered for his incredibly productive academic career dedicated to the challenging topic of sustainability in planning, particularly through...

 The field of spatial planning, encompassing among others urban design, regional planning, and environmental management, is undergoing a transformative shift due to advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI...

We've noted that while young scholars are interested in AESOP Thematic Groups, their full participation can be challenging. We are working to improve engagement and networking opportunities for these young academics.

As senior scholars with valuable experience in these groups, your insights are crucial. We invite you to participate in a brief survey to share your perspectives on enhancing young scholar involvement. Click HERE for the survey.

This survey seeks your...

AESOP has Thematic Groups where members discuss specific topics. We've noticed that young scholars, while interested, may find it challenging to fully participate.

We need your input! Please take the survey. Click HERE for the survey.

We are gathering feedback to explore potential improvements to discussions and networking opportunities within these groups.

It will help us understand:

Dear colleagues, 

Cardiff University has recently published restructuring proposals that would severely impact on the School of Geography and Planning. We would like to ask planners, friends, colleagues of many years to sign the letter we have drafted below. The letter will be published on major British newspapers and delivered to the University Executive Board.

If you are happy to support us by adding your name as a signatory, please email Francesca Sartorio at...

Looking forward: (re-)imagining planning futures

With apologies for any cross-posting

The organising committee for the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference (PRC) 2025 – hosted by Ulster University, Belfast – is delighted to announce that the conference website and abstract submission pages are now live:

Paper...

Professors Menelaos Gkartzios, Mark Scott and Nick Gallent started a new thematic group that focuses on rural planning research and practice. The TG Rural Planning recognises that, in the course of the last century, rural areas have undergone significant transformations and change; they are not simply defined by primary production or dependent on urban areas. Instead they are characterised by economic differentiation, pressures to compete in a globalised economy and...

Call for Contributions

Walking with Hope: Public Spaces for Wellbeing

AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures Event

Dates: 16-18 June 2025

Locations: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Rijeka and Cres (Croatia)

For the first event in a series “Urban Cultures, Public Space, and Hope” we invite contributions from a wide range of disciplines including and not limited to architecture, urban planning...

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
23rd Planning & Complexity Thematic Meeting | 20th year of the AESOP Thematic Group Planning and Complexity

Abstract Submission Deadline: 26 May 2025
[ Download full Call for Papers as PDF ]

THE DYNAMICS OF PANARCHY –
Sensing, Planning and Designing grounded local-regional transformations

27-28 November 2025
Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Planning and design often remain a hierarchical...

Assistant Prof in Sustainability Education

https://edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_6001/job/6917

Associate Prof in Sustainability Education

https://edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_6001/job/6918

Assistant Prof in Urban Planning and Data Analytics

https://edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_6001/job/6916

Application deadline is 12th May 2025.

Are Spatial Planning Schools across Europe Teaching Climate Change? https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X251329166

It is important that the current and the next generations of planners are well equipped to contribute to the realization and upscaling of effective climate change action as a central element in any urban or spatial planning educational program. Framing the issue in the European context, and building on studies of other global regions, this research is the...

Nick Gallent, Menelaos Gkartzios, Mark Scott and Andrew Purves co-edited a new collection published by UCL Press on “Postcapitalist Countrysides: From commoning to community wealth building”. The book is available open access here: https://uclpress.co.uk/book/postcapitalist-countrysides/