THEMATIC GROUPS
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning and Complexity
08/12/2025
By Christian Lamker (Groningen), Nils Björling (Gothenburg), Joanna Gregorowicz-Kipszak (Gothenburg)
The Dynamics of Panarchy: Sensing, Planning and Designing grounded local-regional transformations
23rd meeting of AESOP Thematic Group on Planning and Complexity
Non-hierarchical and mutual interaction, self-organization between actors, as well as structures and scales of transformation that follow. Around 40 researchers and practitioners from 7 countries met on 27 and 28 November 2025 in Gothenburg at Chalmers University of Technology for the 23rd meeting of the thematic group on Planning and Complexity within the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). Key notes by Jon Norberg (Stockholm University) & Sara Brorström (University of Gothenburg) helped kick off discussions on complex adaptive systems, panarchy, organisation, and long-term failures and successes of planning. Jon Norbert talked about “The origin and science of panarchy: a complex adaptive systems perspective” at the start of the conference. Sara Broström reflected on “Multilevel planning and panarchy in the Gothenburg harbour area” before the whole group went out for an excursion guided by the City of Gothenburg to the harbour area, Lindholmen, and finished in the Lindholmen Science Park.
Thinking about complex systems, adaptive cycles, diversity, dependencies, and uncertainties, structured the two full days of presentations, discussions, conference dinner, and excursion. Six conference sessions and themes dealt with: 1. Rethinking Roles and Paradigms in Complex Spatial Transformations, 2. Flows, Networks, and Self-Organization in Spatial Systems, 3. Temporalities, Resilience, and Negotiation in Transitional Contexts, 4. Analytical Frameworks and Meta-Governance for Complex Futures, 5. Distributed Planning and Adaptive Governance in Transitional Contexts, and 6. Digital and Participatory Approaches to Spatial Complexity.
Four strong developments surfaced for the thematic group and beyond:
- First, the dedication for revisiting key concepts and positioning spatial planning proactively within complexity scholarship. Complexity theories, complex adaptive systems, non-linearity, emergence, and many more terms have moved into the vocabulary of planning theory and also attract and attach to planning practice. However, the open group makes traces loose and difficult to follow. Thus, we seized especially the knowledge of Ulysses Sengupta (Manchester School of Architecture) and Ward Rauws (University of Groningen) to summarise and revisit the history of key concepts and the group. It is now the time to also look further to what spatial planning with its distinct theoretical perspectives and practical challenges can bring back to further enrich complexity theory debates more widely.
- close links to local-regional planning practices. We witness a continuous interest and engagement by practitioners to engage within the thematic group and our discussions. It may get unnoticed in regular rewards and recognition schemes, but such open discussions across (perceived) theory-practice boundaries provide one of the most fertile grounds for mutual learning and future ideas.
- Third, the group has a long tradition of talking about and with complexity theories of cities, also connected to names like Juval Portugali and Michael Batty. More than previously, this meeting unveiled the need to complement the scope also with urban-rural linkages, peri-urban areas, and (seemingly) rural and peripheral areas at different scales. Transformations happen across scales and clear-cut categories, thus opening further avenues for using complexity theories.
- Fourth, international (comparative) research with perspectives from other continents and the Global South. Case studies, and to some degree also theories, have become more international. Context matters for spatial planning, and we witness how complexity starts bridging into multiple more diverse contexts like South Africa, India, Iran, or China.
The meeting also marks the 20th anniversary of the thematic group. Dating back to a first meeting in Vienna in 2005, we can even look at multiple generations of planning scholars engaging in one of the oldest thematic groups within AESOP. The group was founded, among others, by Nikos Karadimitriou (University College London) and Gert de Roo (University of Groningen), and has since then expanded. Examples are a complexity track at the annual AESOP Congress in 2009 and following.
Regular activities of the thematic group include workshops and conferences, online seminars, meetings, sessions, or tracks, during the annual AESOP Congress, and stretches to exchange visits and developing joint project ideas. Two special issues in the Journal of Architecture and in the Transactions of AESOP are upcoming in 2026 based on conferences in 2023 and 2024. Extended abstracts of the conference in Gothenburg will be published within the Chalmers reports series in the coming year and enable deeper insights into the versatility of active contributions.
Most importantly, the thematic group depends on the commitment and dedication of many members to support, share, and engage actively in their own fields, interests, locations, and capacities. The thematic group coordinators, Jenni Partanen and Christian Lamker, are open for discussion at any time. Further information about the thematic group is available online at https://aesop-planning.eu/tg-news/planning-and-complexity/the-dynamics-of-panarchy and via a dedicated LinkedIn Group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12735445.
Thanks to the local organising team at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), the research area Local-Regional Transformations, Nils Björling, Joanna Gregorowicz-Kipszak, Jorge Gil, Julia Fredriksson, Flavia Lopes, Roos Teeuwen, Marco Adelfio, everyone else who supported on site, and every visitor. The event was co-organised with the thematic group coordinators Jenni Partanen (Aalto University) & Christian Lamker (University of Groningen) and supported by the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP).
Stay connected and tuned for updates - and surprise others and yourself with your own engagement.
Photos
All photos by: Christian Lamker
Workshop Discussions
Reflections about 20 years Planning and Complexity
Excursion to the Harbour Area (Stenpieren)
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning and Complexity
THE DYNAMICS OF PANARCHY – Sensing, Planning and Designing grounded local-regional transformations
27-28 November 2025 - Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Welcome to the Dynamics of Panarchy Conference in Gothenburg 27-28 November 2025. The conference is the 23rd meeting within the AESOP, Association of European Planning Schools and in the 20th anniversary year of the AESOP Thematic Group Planning and Complexity.
PROGRAMME & BOOK OF ABSTRACTS
Download short programme:
Conference Programme (PDF)
Conference website with programme & full book of abstracts:
https://www.chalmers.se/en/current/calendar/ace-aesop-the-dynamics-of-panarchy-conference/
All registered participants: please watch your mailbox for more information regarding practicalities, organisation of sessions, conference dinner, and site visit in Gothenburg.
Keynote speakers
- Jon Norberg: Professor at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University
- Sara Brorström: Professor Department of Business Administration, Gothenburg University
Planning and design often remain a hierarchical and linear process of planning, implementation and maintenance that meet with increasing political ambitions for inclusion, diversity and the critique of a technocratic agenda to spatial transformations. Initiatives in both practice and research constantly seek to combine both top-down and bottom-up approaches. For example, the recent missions of the European Union to strengthen innovation and development through a combination of overall political leadership and local implementation.
The connection between complexity science and spatial planning has, for at least the last 20 years, put the “the perspective of a world in flow, which feeds dissipative systems, through which these adapt and self-organize more or less continuously” (de Roo, 2018, p.28). However, few researchers and practitioners truly engage with the panarchic dynamic of complex adaptive systems and the theoretical and methodological implications – Non-hierarchical and mutual interaction, self-organization between actors, as well as structures and scales of transformation that follow (Gunderson & Holling, 2002). Furthermore, the transfer of a panarchic and adaptive model, developed for describing ecosystems, to describing social system poses critical questions. Beside adaptation, how do we deal with sustaining a diversity of subsystems? and how do we counteract negative effects such as socio-spatial inequalities and an uneven geographic development?
We invite scholars and scholarly practitioners to contribute with research and initiatives that engage with the dynamics of local-regional spatial transformation and the relations between actors, sectors, levels and scales through the lens of complexity theory, and especially working with panarchy, self-organisation, and the non-hierarchical interaction and dynamics of multi-level planning. How can transformations be more effectively conceptualised theoretically, while being grounded in local-regional realities?
Three avenues are of interest
Designing is in itself an iterative practice between phases of speculation, assessment, and proposing. We are interested in initiatives and studies that engage with design thinking and design practices to move beyond predefined, and often stereotyped visions of sustainable and attractive urban and rural development.
Planning tends to often be seen as a hierarchic and linear process of top-down decisions, regulations and governance. However, it is also a broad repertoire of practices that can create gaps and spaces. We are interested in research that critically engage in how planning can address uneven power relations and seeks radical inclusion and re-configurations that foster diversity and pluralism.
Sensing faces challenges to embark in analyses and interpretation beyond predefined categories and spatial units, e.g. reproducing power relations and spatial configurations. We are interested in approaches that can re-frame our sensing of interdependencies between scales, and that critically analyse the local-regional dynamics of circular systems.
Organisation and Contact
The event is organised by Nils Björling and the research area Local-Regional Transformations at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden (local organising team 2025: Nils Björling, Joanna Gregorowicz-Kipszak, Jorge Gil, Julia Fredriksson, Flavia Lopes, Roos Teeuwen, and Marco Adelfio) together with Christian Lamker and Jenni Partanen (thematic group coordinators).
E-mail contact:
Visit the local organisers at:
https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/ace/research/local-regional-transformations/
References
- de Roo, G. (2018). Ordering Principles in a Dynamic World of Change – On social complexity, transformation and the conditions for balancing purposeful interventions and spontaneous change. Progress in Planning, 125, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progress.2017.04.002
- Gunderson, L. H., & Holling, C. S. (eds.) (2002). Panarchy: Understanding transformations in human and natural systems. Island Press.
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning Education
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way knowledge is produced, shared and applied, and is challenging long-held practices in higher education. For spatial planning in particular, this change is profound: AI is reshaping analytical reasoning, design thinking and ethical judgement, all of which are central to the discipline. The question is no longer whether AI has a place in the classroom, but rather how it is altering the ways in which planning knowledge is taught, learnt, and assessed. This international workshop will bring together universities and practitioners to explore these changes through keynote speeches and collaborative sessions. Themes will include: rethinking assessment when AI tools are part of the learning process, addressing ethics and bias through critical AI literacy, and reimagining curricula to foster new forms of teaching and reflection. The event aims to clarify how education can adapt to ensure that graduates use AI effectively and think critically alongside it, thereby helping to redefine the foundations of spatial planning education.
Workshop programme:
9:30am – 5pm (CET)
Speakers:
- Rico Herzog, City Science Lab, HafenCity University Hamburg
AI in practice: From algorithmic support to hyperreal planning?
- Juliana Martins, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
Embracing, tolerating, or resisting AI? Reflections on the future of planning education
Parallel working sessions:
- Proving knowledge in the AI era
- Ethics and bias in AI for planning education
- Innovating curricula through thinking with AI
Registration by December 15:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIEcS2Uv-ylUTCfOElIpOb7whDoIe3CyvsXZJ_V1ohSlYWKQ/viewform?usp=dialog
Contact: Fabio Bayro Kaiser (bayrokaiser@
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
Politics of Hope for the Enjoyment of the Sea
Napoli | 6-7 November 2025
Event of the AESOP Thematic Group ‘Public Spaces and Urban Cultures’
As a “collectively mobilized resource” hope holds together utopian aspiration and practical negotiation, seeking alternatives to technocratic control in shaping urban life. The Politics of Hope (Appadurai, 2007) points toward real processes of social transformation through what the Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures describes as “collective endeavours influencing the material, imagined, and sensed dynamics that shape urban realities”. A deeper awareness of rights, a broader access to knowledge and a proactive involvement in decision making are some of the ingredients to allow people to practice their imaginations for urban future and realize their agency in the social-urban transformation (Schatzki et al., 2001). These elements also underpin the protagonism of the Neapolitan Committee Mare Libero Pulito e Gratuito [Free Sea] and the Neapolitan Urban Commons Network within the city’s multiple contested urban scenarios.
The event is jointly organized by the Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development (Cnr Iriss) and the AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures, within the Erasmus+ project PS-U-GO Education in Living Labs: Participatory Skills for sustainable Urban Governance (www.psugo.eu/).
6 November 15:00
Maschio Angioino - Castel Nuovo, Event Room
V. Vittorio Emanuele III
Introduction
Stefania Ragozino | Cnr Iriss
Collectively Mapping the enjoyability of Neapolitan Coast*
Stefano Cuntò | University of Naples
PS-U-GO ULL Naples: a short documentary
Lorenzo Lodato | Lido Pola Urban Commons
KEYNOTE LECTURE
Why does water matter to the everyday cultures and practices of city dwellers?
Sophie Watson | Open University London
ROUNDTABLE
Co-Producing Hope through the Enjoyment of Waters
Gabriella Esposito De Vita | Cnr Iriss
Paolo Landri | Cnr Iriss
Lorenzo Lodato | Lido Pola Urban Commons
Valentina Rossi | Cnr Iriss
Maura Striano | Naples City Council
Anna Terracciano | University of Naples
Raffaele Vaccaro | Nisida Environment
Sophie Watson | Open University London, UK
Moderation Tihomir Viderman | BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg - AESOP TG PSUC
7 November 10:00-12:00
Mergellina Metro Station
Neapolitan Coast Mobile Workshop
Committee Mare Libero Napoli
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- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Urban Futures
For the Workshop: How do we say future? in Istanbul 2026 the Deadline for applications has been extended to 16 November 2025.
The Workshop will be a co-production of the AESOP TG Urban Futures and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul. With "How do we say future?" we want to explore the ways we envision and narrate futures and how this is shaped not only by who is involved, but also by which types of tools and approaches we use, from which disciplines they originate, and for what purposes we use them? Scholars and practitioners with an interest in futuring and futuring approaches from diverse disciplines such as urban planning, architecture, visual arts, sociology, literature, communication, and technology are warmly invited to participate. The workshop will run from 2-4 February 2026 in Istanbul, Turkey, the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. The workshop will accommodate a maximum of 30 participants. To ensure diversity in groups and facilitate a fair selection process, candidates are expected to submit online a brief professional account, a short motivation (300 words) of why they plan to participate, and finally an extended abstract (1500 words, references not included). All materials can be submitted via this link. Participation is free of charge. Participants will have to cover their individual expenses for travel, accommodation and sustenance. Further information can be obtained from
- AESOP TG ETHICS, VALUES & PLANNING COLLOQUIUM 11: "ROBOTS TAKING OVER THE CITY?! CHALLENGES FOR ETHICS AND SPACE", OCTOBER 24 2025
- Call open: How do we say future? Workshop Istanbul 2-4 February 2026
- Safe the day: How do we say future? Workshop Istanbul 2-4 February 2026
- Pre-Conference Seminar 'Adaptive governance: systems perspectives' (01 Oct 2025)
