Ciudades 29 (2026)
“Processes, actors and temporalities of the institutionalisation of urban planning. On the seventieth anniversary of the 1956 Spanish Land Law”
Dear colleagues, this call aims to stimulate contributions aimed to address the implementation and consolidation in Spain of a modern legislative framework for town planning. All proposals that address this issue in its various dimensions and manifestations are welcome. Below are three indicative lines that can guide the proposals, by way of suggestions and without the intention of being exhaustive:
1) Theory-Rules-Practice of urban planning in Spain
The aim would be to examine the way in which the principles and instruments of urban planning, forged in the post-war period or even before the conflict, gradually moved from discussion and debate among specialists (mostly technicians or administrativists) to their inclusion in the legislative, administrative and operational framework before and after the enactment of the 1956 Spanish Town Planning Law. This perspective could be developed by studying certain key issues of the law (land classification, system of institutions and bodies and the distribution of functions among them, including municipalities, etc.).
2) Actors and places of the consolidation of modern urban planning practice in Spain
The aim here is to study the places, bodies or organisations that have contributed to the formalisation and perpetuation of the practice of urban planning. Proposals can focus on central and decentralised bodies, including: public agencies; local administrations; teaching and training centres; architecture and town planning agencies; private property development companies, etc.
3) Addressing the international perspective
The process of affirmation and institutionalisation of town planning as the preferred technique for the planning and organisation of cities observed in Spain in the mid-20th century is not isolated. Suffice it to mention the general town planning law of 17 August 1942 enacted by Mussolini's Italy (1922-1943), and the urban planning laws of 15 June 1943 under the Vichy regime (1940-1944) and the ‘orientation foncière’ of 1967 in France. The modernisation of town planning legislation and the institutionalisation of town planning regulations in these and other Western European countries are part of two closely linked processes: the extension of State action to town planning, encouraged by wars and reconstruction projects (together with the institution of an operational town planning with clearly functionalist values), and the identification of this discipline with town planning, in a context of international exchange of ideas. Hence the international similarities and the continuity of national urban planning policies in Spain and abroad, beyond the changes of political regime.
For this reason, this call is open to proposals that examine the influences in the field of urban planning towards or from Spain during the 20th century. Above all, it is a question of evaluating the influence of foreign ideas and examples on the configuration of Spanish urban planning policies, since it is known that the drafting of the LS 1956 was based on a detailed study of international legislation. It would be necessary to go deeper into this, and to analyse how the urban planning practice forged by the law could have been influenced by practices and methodologies from other countries after its enactment. It would also be useful to analyse whether the LS 1956 inspired other urban planning laws outside the Peninsula (through the Francisco Franco Scholarships in the field of urban planning, the diploma for urban planning technicians open to professionals from Latin America, etc.), whether the instruments and practices of urban planning in Spain have been transferred or appropriated in other countries, or whether it gave rise to a specifically Spanish urban planning culture.
But, in addition to a cross-perspective, this call also wishes to encourage the comparison of the institutionalisation of urban planning in Spain with other cases in Europe or the rest of the world, based on studies that compare the modalities of this process or some of its aspects in two or more countries, one of which could be Spain, or that analyse them in a specific country. Such a comparative effort can shed light on certain insights, such as the concomitance between authoritarian regimes and the affirmation of state action in urban planning, observed both in Spain and, for example, in France and Italy. This ties in with the broader discussion on ‘planning cultures’ in different countries, which allows us to address similarities and differences, delimit singularities and specificities, define ‘models’, etc., which is also of interest to this call.
Coordination: Céline Vaz, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France, France (
Deadline for the submission of papers: September 30, 2025
Further information (Editorial guidelines): https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/ciudades/about/submissions
Further information (Journal): https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/ciudades/index
The secretary of Ciudades, Federico Camerin
