AESOP newsletter - July 2025

  

Your exceptional professionalism, tireless commitment, and flawless organisation have made this year’s AESOP events an extraordinary success. From the inspiring academic sessions to the seamless logistics and warm hospitality, every detail reflected your dedication and vision.

A special thank you also goes to the amazing team of volunteers, whose energy, kindness, and constant support were essential in making everything run smoothly—both...

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Best Congress Paper Award at the AESOP 2025 Congress in Istanbul!

The award for Best Congress Paper goes to:
🔹 YaZhen Cai, Tzuyuan Stessa Chao
Exploring the Application and Challenges of Urban Planning Legal Systems Guided by Nature-Based Solutions: A Case Study of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

This outstanding contribution was recognised for its theoretical...

We are delighted to announce that the AESOP community continues to grow year after year, welcoming new institutions and individuals committed to the advancement of spatial planning education, research, and practice.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome all new members who have joined AESOP in 2025, further enriching our diverse and vibrant network of scholars and professionals from across Europe and beyond.

Full Members

• Faculty...

We are pleased to announce that the AESOP Council of Representatives has appointed Josselin Tallec (University of Brest, France) and Linda Fox-Rogers (University College Dublin as the new Co-Chairs of the Excellence in Teaching Award (ETA) Committee.

On behalf of the entire AESOP community, we warmly congratulate Josselin and Linda and wish them every success in this important role supporting innovation and quality...

Marco brings to this role a deep commitment to academic excellence, a strong international profile in planning research, and a clear vision for the future development of the journal. We are confident...

AESOP is pleased to announce that the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) has been selected to host the AESOP Heads of Schools Meeting 2026. The selection was formally approved during the AESOP Council of Representatives meeting held on 7 July 2025.

The event will take place at NMBU's Ås Campus, located 30 km south of Oslo, in a vibrant academic environment that brings together research and education...

The Institutional Repository of AESOP is no longer referred to as "AESOP Eprints". It is now called the "AESOP Digital Archive". This reflects better what it is. We have also updated the repository itself from DSpace 7.6 to 9.0. The repository can be accessed using https://archive.aesop-planning.eu/

📢 Off the press the book

📖 In the Mirror of Urban Landscapes: Sharing Experiences and Grounding
ISBN: 9789464981834

📚💬by Juan Luis de las Rivas, in conversation with Ana Ruiz-Varona and Federico Camerin

as part of the ‘Conversations in Planning Theory and Practice’ collaborative e-publication project between AESOP - Association of European Schools of Planning & AESOP Young Academics Network

Read it at https://eprints.aesop-planning.eu/items/58a1baa3-dce0-4276-8708-90a089888723

🎓...

Held on 13 March at The Women’s Organisation and hosted by the University of Liverpool, the meeting featured three insightful keynotes:

• Nick Small, Cabinet Member for Growth and Economy, Liverpool City Council – Liverpool’s...

Their contribution, titled "Assessing Green Transition Initiatives: A European Comparison Perspective between Paris, Milan, and London",...

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!...

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...

An editorial team in AESOP Sustainable Food Planning is launching a call for chapters for the edited volume “The Changemaking of Urban Food Systems: a Methodological Lens”

This volume seeks to bring together contributions from the diverse field of urban food planning and urban food systems, with a critical focus on the role of methodologies as tools to reveal, analyze, or shape food system dynamics. Chapters’ contributions will...

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

15/16 September 2025

Newcastle University/Newcastle Contemporary Art, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Partner organisations:

Newcastle University, School of Architecture, Building and Planning, Newcastle upon Tyne

(United Kingdom), Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom), Vrije

University Brussels, The Brussels Centre for Urban Studies...

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

• Jon Norberg: Professor at Department of Ecology,...

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...

UN-HABITAT is launching a call for housing practices, in WUF 13 in Baku, Azerbaijan. More information here: https://unhabitat.org/call-for-submissions-showcase-your-housing-practices-at-the-world-urban-forum

The Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions International Conference has reached the 5th edition, and it is taking place in Bolzano (Italy) from 9 to 12 December 2025. The conference is organised by Eurac Research (AESOP member), specifically by the Institute for Renewable Energy, a leading research centre in energy efficiency, renewables, smart mobility and sustainable urban planning.

Students, researchers, experts, and policymakers...

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 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...