In Year Two, the AESOP thematic group PLANNING THEORIES (PLURAL) continueS with a two-day online conference called
Beg, Steal, or Borrow
In 1972, The New Seekers landed second place in the Eurovision Song Contest with this title (https://hitparade.ch/song/The-New-Seekers/Beg,-Steal-Or-Borrow-231). They crooned about love, but we shall examine begging, stealing, and borrowing in the context of planning theories. Andreas Faludi already noticed that many planning theorists have an inclination for »comparisons and the transfer of experiences« (Planning Theory, 1973, pp. 9–10). Indeed, many planning theories beg, steal, or borrow from geography, sociology, economics, legal theory, political philosophy, gender studies, cultural theory, psychology, ethics, social policy, computer science, art theory, and other fields. We do not consider this transfer of knowledge from a moral perspective. Planning theorists add so much value to ideas from other fields that hardly a suspicion of plagiarism arises. We want to examine the transfer of knowledge to learn
- Which ideas from other fields inspire planning theories?
- Under what circumstances is the transfer successful or futile?
- What do planning theorists add to ideas from other fields that turns those ideas into valuable contents of planning theories?
Our online conference will be on 16th and 17st March, 2023.
Please let us know if you want to present a successful or futile transfer of ideas into planning theories at our online conference. Each presentation of a particular example of begging, stealing, or borrowing for planning theories will last 30 minutes maximum with 30 minutes discussion. If you want to present, please send your abstract with title (300 words) not later than 31st December, 2022, to
Please write to
We are looking forward to beg, steal, and borrow with you!
