As part of its Seminar Series, the AESOP Thematic Group on Ethics, Values, and Planning is organizing an online session entitled “Spatial Segregation as a Tactic: Voluntary and Involuntary Forms of Separation in Intentional Communities.”
The seminar will feature Tore Sager Professor Emeritus from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) as the invited speaker.
In this seminar, it is aimed to explore segregation as a deliberate and tactical act in the context of intentional communities, while also questioning whether such voluntary forms of separation can ever be fully detached from involuntary or structural dynamics. By focusing on intentional communities’ self-chosen spatial strategies and their ethical and political implications, the session seeks to open a broader discussion on autonomy, exclusion, and the ethics of spatial separation.
The seminar is inspired by Prof. Sager’s paper “Planning by Intentional Communities: An Understudied Form of Activist Planning,” as well as by his extensive scholarship on ethics, planning theory, and communicative approaches. His work provides an ideal foundation for examining how intentional communities can be understood as actors of activist planning and how their spatial practices raise critical ethical questions for planning theory and practice.
The session will consist of a 30-minute presentation by the invited speaker, followed by a 20-minute open discussion with the audience.
Date: March 20, 2026
Time: 15:00 CET
Format: Online via Teams (50 minutes)
