Ben Davy is a former Chair of Land Policy, Land Management, and Municipal Geoinformation (TU Dortmund University) and since 2019 Visiting Professor of Law (University of Johannesburg). He was President of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR) and of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). He was Essay Editor of Planning Theory, co-editor of the Town Planning Review, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the American Planning Association. Ben is member of the editorial board of Planning Theory and Practice and co-coordinator of the AESOP Thematic Group Planning Theories (plural). He has published on planning theory, property, border studies, and spatial justice

Juliet Davis is a Professor of Architecture and Urbanism and Head of School at the Welsh School of Architecture. She trained originally as an architect. She worked for nearly ten years in architectural practice before returning to university to study for a PhD in 2007. Supported by an AHRC doctoral award, she wrote this at the London School of Economics’ ‘Cities Programme’, focussing on exploring the impacts of the early stages of regeneration connected to the 2012 Olympic Games. Following the PhD, she took up a Senior Lectureship at the Welsh School of Architecture in 2012. Today, Juliet Davis is the author of two books and numerous other publications reflecting interests in issues and potentials of design connected to urban change and regeneration, megaevent-led transformation, the role of the past in urban futures, care, health and wellbeing. Her research has been funded by UKRI, Grosvenor, Cardiff University, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and others.

Jean-Michel Roux is a qualified planner and a full Professor in Urban Planning at the Institute of Planning, Tourism & Urbanism of University Bordeaux Montaigne (IATU) and researcher at Passages (CNRS - National Centre for Scientific Research). He has been Director of the Planning Institute of Grenoble and deputy director of the research in social sciences at Grenoble Alpes University. He teaches studios in France and abroad for which he was awarded in 2019 AESOP Excellence in Teaching Prize (Association of European School of Planning) and Prix PEPS for excellence in teaching (2019). His research focuses on relationships between cities and the stadia (architecture, ambiances and publics), history of urbanism, urban morphology and planning education.

Eric Verdeil is full professor in Geography and Urban Planning at Sciences Po. He teaches at Sciences Po Urban School and is researcher at the Center of International Studies. After his PhD at Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne University (2002), he was research fellow at CNRS in Lyon (2003-2015), and spent several years at IFPO, the Institute in the Near East in Beirut (Lebanon). His research initially dealt with urban reconstruction and planning in war-torn countries, specifically Lebanon. He then focused on the political ecology of urban infrastructure, in Middle Eastern Cities as well in France. His latest books are Atlas des mondes urbains(Presses de Sciences Po, 2020), Atlas of Lebanon. The new challenges (with G. Faour and M. Hamze, 2019, IFPO) and he coedited with S. Jaglin the theme issue « Electrical Hybridizations in Cities of the South », in the Journal of Urban Technology (2023).

Ianira Vassallo | Architect, PHD in Regional planning and public policy (IUAV-Venice). She's actually assistant professor in urban planning at DIST - Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning of Politecnico di Torino. Her research interests focus on the interplay between informal practices and projects of spatial transformation in the contemporary cities. In particular she works, between academic research and fieldwork, on the construction of spaces, policies and values related to the urban commons processes. On this topic she published several papers and edited the volume Spatial tensions in urban design. Understanding Contemporary Urban Phenomena (Springer, 2021. with Michele Cerruti But, Agim Kercuku and Giulia Setti).

Historian and planner, Charles Ambrosino is Professor of Urban Planning. He teaches urban design, urban, landscape and planning theories, and contemporary issues on urban development. His research works and publications in scientific journals (Riurba, Espace géographique, Projets de paysage, Revue de géographie Alpine, Espace et Société, Géocarrefour, Métropolitiques, EspaceTemps.net, Urban Planning International, Territoires en mouvement, Métropoles, etc.) focus on three main themes : (1) the links between artistic practices, creative economy and urban transformation; (2) city making in the age of experimentation; (3) the epistemological renewal of urban planning through the theoretical and conceptual cross-fertilisation between urban design, landscape studies and transition studies. Using Grenoble as an example, his latest book, 'La métropole géographique et ses urbanismes' (Ed. Autrement, 2022), explores the relationship between urban policies and metropolitan geographies and landscapes, with a view to increasing urban resilience.

Federica Gatta is an architect and urban planner. She trained in Architecture at Roma Tre University and obtained a PhD at University of Paris-Nanterre. She is today associate Professor in Urban Planning at Grenoble Alpes University where she had coordinated different international and interdisciplinary master degrees. Her work mixes the spatial approach of architecture and urban planning with the theory and tools of anthropology and explores the role of ethnographic methods in spatial design practice. She focuses on the observation of the relation between urban policies and organized civil society in the space transformation processes. She is the author of publications in French, English and Italian reviews based on ethnographic researches on French and Italian case study rising the issue of the role of social critique in the city project; the evolution of participation policies in planning; the use of qualitative methodologies in urban planning and urban studies.

Dr. Adriana Diaconu is associate Professor at the Institute of Urban Planning and Alpine Geograpghy (IUGA) of Université Grenoble Alpes and researcher at Pacte Social Sciences Research Unit. She is trained in Architecture, Urban Planning and Social Sciences and holds a PhD from University Paris 8. She is interested in international comparisons and transfers in the management of urban transformations and has coordinated international Master programs in urban planning at IUGA (Mundus Urbano, in cooperation with TU Darmstadt, and Transformative Urban Studies). She is involved in European research networks on the theme of sustainable and affordable housing (OIKONET and MSCA-ITN RE-DWELL) and in national research projects in France, such as “The Sale of Social Housing” (USH) and POPSU Métropoles (PUCA). Her research and publications address housing and transformations in housing systems through alternative practices and experimentations. Her recent work focuses on the relation between social and environmental challenges in housing, on vulnerability and access to housing for the homeless and on interrelations of social policies and city management.

Frédéric Santamaria is Professor of spatial planning at Grenoble Alpes University. He is a member of the Pacte social science research laboratory. He has a degree in Political Science from the Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux, and a doctorate in Spatial Planning and Geography. His teaching focuses on spatial and urban planning, as well as research methods in these fields. In research, he has worked on European spatial planning and on the issues of spatial and urban planning in small and medium-sized towns. He has taken part in several projects as part of the ESPON (European Territorial Observatory Network) programme. He has published book chapters in French and English, and articles in several French, foreign and international journals (Town Planning Review, Belgeo, Transactions) in connection with his research topics, and is a member of editorial boards of journals including Transaction of AESOP.