AESOP newsletter - September 2025

The AESOP Excellence in Education Board is inviting AESOP school members to apply for AESOP's Quality Recognition Programme.

If your planning programme has been fully delivered and you are looking for:

• opportunities to engage in critical dialogue with us concerning the programme's curriculum...

We are delighted to invite you to the 20th AESOP Heads of Schools Meeting:

Planning Resilient Communities in Uncertain Times: Navigating Climate Change and Emerging Technologies

The event will bring together thought leaders in planning education.

Dates: 11-14 March 2026 
Location: Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås (30 km south of Oslo, Norway)

The event is hosted by the Department of Urban and...

The congress hosted an exceptional line-up of keynote speakers, who engaged the audience with critical reflections on pressing challenges for planning theory and practice:

• Maria Kaika (University of Amsterdam) – Urban Political Ecology: Prefigurative Planning for a Climate Emergency

• H....

AESOP Lecture at the University of Łódź

Akkelies van Nes on “Spatial Networks and Social Equity: Applying Space Syntax for Sustainable Urban Development”

Łódź, 15 September 2025 – As part of the AESOP Lecture Series, Professor Akkelies van Nes of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences delivered a lecture and workshop at the University of Łódź, hosted by the Faculty of Economics and Sociology. The event gathered academics...

 

Spotlight Finland: Contemporary challenges in planning practice and urban development

Guest editors:

Eva Purkarthofer, Aalto University, eva.purkarthofer@aalto.fi

Raine Mäntysalo, Aalto University, raine.mantysalo@aalto.fi

Description: Motivated by the 6th World Planning Schools Congress taking place from 29.6. to 3.7.2026 in Espoo and Helsinki, this special...

We are delighted to inform you that the AESOP Excellence in Education Board has awarded the following planning programmes with the AESOP Certificate of Quality for the period 2025–2031. This prestigious recognition celebrates educational excellence, innovation, and academic rigour in planning education across Europe.

🏅 The following programmes have been...

18–21 March 2026 | Prague, Czech Republic
Organised by the Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU FA), in collaboration with the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

The AESOP Young Academics (YA) PhD Conference is an annual, free-of-charge academic event...

WORLD PLANNING SCHOOLS CONGRESS 2026: Call for abstracts, roundtable proposals and PhD workshop applications is open!

The 6th World Planning Schools Congress (WPSC) will take place from June 29th to July 3rd, 2026, in Espoo & Helsinki, Finland. The WPSC PhD workshop will be organized in Tampere prior to the congress (June 26-29, 2026).

The call for abstracts, roundtable proposals and PhD workshop applications is now open until November 11th, 23:59 EET...

Further to our previous announcment, we are happy to open the Call for Participation!

Workshop location and format

From 2–4 February 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey, the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (in picture), in collaboration with the AESOP Thematic Group Urban Futures, will organise a three-day workshop to address these questions.

Participants will engage...

Registration is now open until 15 August.

Please register at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfNWPO24gMGyikIk3Kpnw0mGw2ukkHVAfBbYuLGES1KOFMBRw/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=101925520454545353151

Call for papers closed on 15 July.

A final program of the conference will be available after the closing of registrations.

Best regards

the Organizers and Scientific Committee

‘Contested urban policy: breeding concrete...

First European Lecture Series on Small Towns will start in autumn/winter 2025. This lecture series explores current research and practices relating to the development of small and medium-sized towns in selected European countries. It discusses ongoing spatial dynamics, ranging from small neighbourhoods and inner cities to regional and national perspectives. These dynamics are closely linked to political debates and planning strategies in the relevant countries, as well as to...

The hybrid event is a two-part academic lecture series hosted in Bratislava, organized within the framework of the EU-funded project “Project Management for EU Urban Transformation in the Context of Climate Change and Energy Transition” (PM4U), and supported by AESOP and the TG Transboundary Planning and Governance. It focuses on Ukraine’s path toward European integration, offering...

INVITATION
Pre-Conference Seminar (ONLINE)

We are looking forward to the upcoming 23rd meeting of our thematic group on Planning and Complexity in Gothenburg (Sweden) on 27 and 28 November 2025. To keep us connected and inspired, we have organised an online pre-conference seminar. Open to all members of the thematic group and everyone who feels connected to the group and/or the topic. You can download the invitation as PDF file here.

Adaptive governance:...

Georgia Tech College of Design will host the 20th annual International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights (PLPR) conference from February 16 - February 20, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Abstract submission is OPEN!  

Deadline: 30 September 2025

You can submit into any of these amazing sessions:

 1_Planning by Contract: Governing Urban Sustainability

 2_Spatial...

We are recruiting two positions: one Associate Professor and one Assistant Professor in Urban Planning. Based in the Department of Geography and Environment, you will contribute to the intellectual life of the School through conducting and publishing outstanding quality research, engaging in high-quality teaching as instructed by the Head of Department, and participating in the School and wider Department activities. You will also be joining a longstanding and successful MSc...

 Curator of the Loeb Fellowship

Harvard Graduate School of Design

Full-time 001179SR 

Nominations may be submitted online here.

Company Description 

Why join the Harvard Graduate School of Design? 

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) educates leaders in design, research, and scholarship to make a resilient, just, and beautiful world. The GSD offers an unparalleled setting for interaction...

The Handbook of Territorial Governancehas just been published!

https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-territorial-governance-9781035317271.html 

Integrating political, social, and technical dimensions of territorial governance, this Handbook provides insights into the topic from scholars across urban and regional planning, policy, geography and economics.
It offers a comprehensive exploration of territorial governance systems across different...