EURA 2025 Conference – Call for Participants

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CONFERENCE TRACKS

Track 1: Creating Healthy and Liveable Places

Chairs: Dr Michael Buser, Dr Owain Hanmer, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, and Professor Marichela Sepe, Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy

Geographical and spatial inequalities of health are far from a new phenomenon, yet the persistence of these inequalities demands critical new perspectives to help create healthy places. In particular, the intensifying and intersecting crises (including the climate and ecological emergencies and political-economic instability) introduce further challenges for creating healthy places today and in the future. Yet, in considering the complexity of ‘place’—not as a static thing but as a dynamic relation of physical, social, cultural, environmental, political, and economic processes that interact across time and space—this raises questions as to the possibilities and limitations for place-based interventions to support such change in healthy places. (Keep reading)

Track 2: Regenerating the City

Chairs: Professor Valeria Fedeli, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, Dr Stephen Hall and Dr Andrew Tallon, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. 

Cities across the developed and developing world have experienced striking and profound changes since the mid-twentieth century.  Their economic bases, their social composition, their physical landscapes, their modes of governance, and their relationships with host nations and with other cities, have all been transformed.  The academic and practitioner debates on urban and regional change and spatial inequality have been given an increased profile internationally, since the financial crisis of 2008, by the widespread use of descriptors such as “left behind places”, “places that don’t matter” and, in the UK, “levelling up”. Many policy approaches have been followed at local, regional, national, and supra-national levels to try to regenerate and renew urban fortunes. (Keep reading)

Track 3: Smart City Governance driving Green and Digital Transitionsy

Chairs: Le Anh Long, Assistant Professor of Public Administration, University of Twente, The Netherlands and Professor David Ludlow, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.  

Rapid advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) are ushering in a new era in which, to take a hopeful view, pervasive electronic connections have the potential to make cities both more liveable and more democratic.  In a more critical vein, some smart city initiatives appear to be dominated by an at times misplaced optimism around technology-centred solutions to urban problems. Those holding this view argue that it is the exercise of wise judgement about how to bring about desired societal outcomes that should be guiding how cities make creative use of new technologies, including new developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI).  (Keep reading)

Track 4: Regulating the City: Planning and Beyond

Chairs: Dr Katie McClymont, Associate Professor Hannah Hickman, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Cornelia Roboger, Technical University Dortmund, Germany.

Cities are shaped by rules, regulations, and codes. Some of these are overt, municipal-led land use or development plan criteria, others can include land markets, development viability and criteria for regulating design and sustainable building. However, the relationship between regulations and outcomes is not always apparent and often remains overlooked. We need to further consider the workings of regulation, and its impact on places, communities, and developments. Part of this is exploring the interplay of different regulatory regimes at different spatial scales. This raises questions about the relative roles of different actors involved in these acts of regulation. It also raises questions about the nature of knowledge and professional identities - who has the skills and training to regulate, and on what grounds?  (Keep reading)

Track 5: Enhancing Democratic Governance in Changing Cities

Chairs: Dr. Anna Dabrowska, University of Warsaw, Emeritus Professor Robin Hambleton and Dr. Amanda Ramsay, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.

In many countries the arrangements for delivering democratic and accountable governance are under strain – not just at the city level but also at the level of the nation state. In a growing number of societies trust in politics appears to be in decline. In national politics public discourse has become increasingly polarised and fraught. When it comes to debates about democracy cities are on the front line in two respects. On the one hand, because cities are experiencing particularly rapid economic, technological, and cultural changes, societal tensions are often heightened in cities. Conflicts between different interests in the city present major challenges for civic leaders. (Keep reading)

Track 6: Strategic Thinking for City Futures – looking beyond City Boundaries

Chairs: Associate Professor Hannah Hickman, Dr Katie McClymont, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Assistant Professor Marta Lackowska, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Cities have complex and dynamic relationships with not only their immediate hinterlands but beyond, through connections to other cities both nationally and internationally. Engaging with and understanding these inter-connections is critical to city futures and maximising the role of cities and urban areas in addressing key global challenges around climate, housing supply, infrastructure, and spatial inequality. In practice, the primacy given to strategic thinking in city futures has been unstable. In the UK, for example, the longstanding principle of strategic planning at a greater than local authority level ceased in 2010, whereas this feature remains in much (although not all) of continental Europe. (Keep reading)

Track 7: Inclusive Futures and Spatial Practices

Chairs: Dr Elahe Karimnia, Sustainable Planning and Environments, and Digital Cultures Research Centre, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. Dr Roberto Rocco, Department of Urbanism, Tu Delft, The Netherlands.

Amidst growing environmental concerns and social inequity, planning and designing inclusive cities has become an urgent topic advocating for equitable futures. However, the result of colonial ideologies, disciplinary biases, and uncritical methodologies in urban planning and design practices, counter-publics—underrepresented and minority groups, as well as silenced voices (both human and non-human, and the spaces/dynamics between them)—have often been rendered invisible or superficially represented. This is particularly challenging when it comes to co-existence of natures-cultures, which is frequently shaped via normative values of public space, favoring dominant cultural forms and fixed narratives, (public/green) space imaginaries and territories. These frameworks fail to recognise counter-publics (Warner, 2002), or to represent their everyday practices and participation in the city properly; instead integrating them into the existing system and perpetuating their unequal spatial relations and symbolically violating their differences. (Keep reading)

Track 8: Designing accessible cities: towards low-carbon and inclusive mobility futures

Chairs: Dr Eda Beyazit, Dr Daniela Paddeu, Centre for Transport and Society (CTS), University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, Dr Sonia de Gregorio Hurtado CTS, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.

Urban areas are responsible for over 70% of carbon emissions, namely through transport. The shift towards sustainability requires a multidisciplinary systems approach accommodating diverse mobility needs, prioritising low-carbon modes, reinforcing the “city of proximity” model, and ensuring inclusive access to places, opportunities, and goods. Despite sustainable urban mobility having, in general, had a positive impact on air quality in cities, many studies have found that the most deprived areas face disproportionate exposure to pollutants, often falling below acceptable standards and leading to adverse health outcomes. Future transport systems should foster inclusivity and equitable opportunities for all residents, enabling sustainable mobility options for people and goods. Accessible cities need to be designed in ways that are socially and spatially just and environmentally sustainable with equity as a specific asset. Such cities create opportunities for everyone to thrive and participate fully in urban life. (Keep reading)

Track 9: Greening the City

Chairs: Professor Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, Dr Heather Rumble, Professor Danni Sinnett, Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK and Yarden Woolf, Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.

This track is dedicated to research on urban greenspaces and how they can promote healthy cities through design, delivery and effective governance. In cities, green spaces (including blue spaces) promote people’s mental health and well-being and contribute to environmental sustainability. Urban populations are expanding, particularly in developing countries, increasing the strain on greenspaces and the ecosystem services they provide. Therefore, cities must establish greening policies and practical solutions to urban greening, to ensure the health of humans, wildlife, and the environment. We invite the submission of both panels and papers on topics related to the urban greening of cities. (Keep reading)

Read the detailed list of conference panels

IMPORTANT DATES

• Submission of Abstracts deadline:  31 October 2024
• Early-bird registration ends: 28 February 2025

Information on registration fees here

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