AESOP’s former president, Ben Davy, passed away peacefully at his home on January 24th, at the age of 68.
He will be deeply missed and mourned by our community and the many academic circles he engaged with throughout his professional life. Until the very end, he remained active in academic debates and discussions, continuously planning ahead for publications and events.
Ben began his academic career at TU Vienna, where he received his PhD in 1980 and held various positions up to Associate Professor. In 1998, he moved to TU Dortmund, where he became Professor of Land Policy, Land Management, and Municipal Geoinformation at the School of Spatial Planning, a position he held until his retirement in 2019. Even after retiring, he continued his academic journey, including serving as a Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg in the Department of Law.
His research interests spanned land policy and land reform, property rights and land ethics, legal philosophy, and planning theories. Justice, in its various dimensions, was a cornerstone of his academic work. He published extensively in both English and German and had a long and impressively broad teaching career.
Ben’s involvement in AESOP was extensive and impactful. He served as Country Representative for Germany (2006–2014) and later as AESOP President (2018–2020), following his roles as Vice President (2017–2018) and Senior Vice President (2020–2021).
Within AESOP, as well as in his broader academic engagements, he was a strong advocate for mentorship and supporting younger colleagues. He actively participated as a mentor at AESOP PhD workshops in Vienna (2005), Manchester (2009), Belfast (2013), Star Lesna (2015), Aveiro (2017), and Grenoble (2024), and was always highly supportive of the AESOP Young Academics Network.
During his presidency, he worked to strengthen collaboration with AESOP’s American twin organization, ACSP, initiating a Memorandum of Understanding between the two associations. This renewed partnership led to the organization of two joint special sessions at the AESOP Gothenburg Congress in 2018, a tradition that continues to this day.
For Ben, international collaboration was fundamental to the development of planning theory and practice. He championed this idea through his coordination of the AESOP Thematic Group on Planning Theories (Plural), which he co-led until his passing, alongside Franziska Sielker (TU Vienna) and Meike Levin-Keitel (TU Dortmund).
At the same time, he played an active role in the development and consolidation of the AESOP Thematic Group on Planning Law and Property Rights, helping it evolve into an autonomous association. He was also deeply involved in the AESOP Thematic Group on Ethics, Values, and Planning.
Beyond academia, Ben was a person who truly embraced life. He loved engaging in discussions and debates, always eager to challenge his own and others’ ideas. He was passionate about music and the arts, often illustrating his academic presentations with his own photographs of art pieces, urban landscapes, and nature. Many of us fondly remember his guitar performance at his final AESOP meeting as president, which, unfortunately, had to be held online due to the pandemic.
His professional achievements, warm personality, and charismatic presence left a lasting impression on the academic community. Our future events and congresses will certainly feel less lively without his energy and smile—and, of course, the sight of his colourful clothing as he walked toward the next session, deeply engaged in conversation.
Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
AESOP Executive Committee
On behalf of President Maria Håkansson
