AESOP newsletter - June 2025

We are excited to announce the launch of the official AESOP Congress App, designed to enhance your experience during the AESOP Annual Congress 2025 in Istanbul.

The app gives you instant access to the most up-to-date version of the programme, including all sessions, speakers, and real-time updates. You can also create your personal agenda and receive live notifications about any changes.

Stay connected and make the most of...

The final session of the AESOP Congress 2025 will culminate in a Closing Panel titled "Reimagining Planning: Institutions, Politics, and the Urgency of Now", offering a moment of collective reflection on this year’s overarching theme: "Planning as a Transformative Action in an Age of Planetary Crisis."

Bringing together three leading scholars in the field — Simin Davoudi, Erik Swyngedouw, and Willem...

We are excited to announce that the 2025 AESOP PhD Workshop has officially begun at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye. From 2 to 5 July 2025, doctoral researchers from across Europe and beyond have gathered to take part in this inspiring event, held just days before the AESOP Annual Congress.

This year’s workshop theme—“Planning for Equitable and Just Futures: Exploring Transformative Approaches”—invites...

AESOP Lecture at Sciences Po Paris

The AESOP Excellence in Education Board and the AESOP Thematic Group in Planning Education organised a webinar on "AI in Planning and Planning Education", which took place online on May 12th, from 15:00 to 16:30 CET.

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 technologies are changing how planners analyze...

The jury received entries from AESOP member schools across a wide geographical range evidencing the ever-growing strength and quality of planning education in Europe. Submissions displayed throughout very high levels of pedagogical quality and in many cases also addressed innovative, future-oriented spatial planning topics. It was a delight and privilege to review the submissions but it also posed a bit of a dilemma to select a winner. It was a very tight race to say the least!...

AAA We will have a

New Technologies and Planning Thematic Group Meeting at the AESOP Congress 2025 in Istanbul

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 9 July at 12:45 - 14:00.

Room A0-07 in building A (Economics Faculty)

Save the date and time!

You are cordially invited to join!

INIVITATION

23rd Planning & Complexity Thematic Meeting | 20th year of the AESOP Thematic Group Planning and Complexity
Registration Deadline: 3 October 2025

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

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

Keynote speakers

REMINDER Call for Papers:

Contested urban policy: breeding concrete utopias

Berlin, 30 September – 2 October 2025

 AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group conference

conference link: https://www.tu.berlin/en/planningtheory/research-publications

What is the potential for urban policy conflicts to bring about change? In its fourth international conference, the AESOP Planning/Conflict...

Event of the AESOP Thematic Group ‘Public SpaceS and Urban Cultures’

10-11 September 2025, Eindhoven, NL

Hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

 Prefiguring Hopeful Futures is a two-day, workshop-based symposium that brings together researchers, designers, artists, and practitioners to explore how small-scale, experimental, and everyday prefigurative practices shape just, sustainable, and multispecies futures....

Meet us in Istanbul 2025 in the Special Session "SMALL TOWNS – Big challenges and high potentials?"

Contested Istanbul: Urban development and planning conflicts in Turkey’s ‘aspiring global city’

(special session organized in association with the AESOP TG Planning/Conflict)

AESOP Annual Congress 2025 Istanbul, July 7th – July 11th 2025

Organizers: Enrico Gualini and Esin Özdemir

Contributions by Deniz Ay, Yildiz Erdoğan, Melis Oğuz Çevik, Adile Avar and Burcu Değerli Çiftçi

Turkish metropoles have experienced in the last...

For a Special Issue on

Planning for Just Energy Transition

Laura Grassini, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
laura.grassini@poliba.it

Enza Lissandrello, Aalborg University, Denmark
enza@plan.aau.dk

The energy transition has become a critical issue in addressing climate change challenges and severe energy crises driven by dependence on energy resources...

This is a full-time, fixed-term position for up to 2 years, with the possibility of renewal. To find out more and/or apply, visit: https://uq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/uqcareers/job/St-Lucia-Campus/Lecturer-in-Urban-Planning_R-51449-1. 

The Department of Community and Regional Planning (CRP) in the College of Design at Iowa State University is seeking an administrator with demonstrated achievements in planning for the role of Department Chair to support and promote the interdisciplinary and collaborative work of all departmental faculty and staff.

As a Carnegie Foundation-designated Research-Extensive institution, we seek an individual in the field who will support the department's long-standing scholarly...

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Land-use Systems Group is offering a postdoc position:

PostDoc in Sociotechnical Research for Digital Spatial Planning

Driven by digitalization, spatial planning is undergoing a disruption that is reshaping the way we plan and deliver values like equity, transparency and efficiency. The DISCLOSE project, funded with an advanced grant from the SNSF, aims to understand the effects of the digital...

This book by Eva Purkarthofer provides a comprehensive perspective on the relevance of the European Union for spatial planning and is therefore ideal for students, academics and administrators who want to grasp how the EU shapes and affects planning practice in Europe’s cities and regions.

European Union policies are intertwined with all sectors of public administration and governance in the member states, including spatial, urban and regional planning. Legal...