THEMATIC GROUPS

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Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Planning Theories

Published: 24 January 2022

February 8, 2022, from 4.00 through 5.00 pm, the thematic group "Planning Theories" will meet to discuss "Planning and Power", inspired by the purple Infinity Stone. The infinity series is inspired by Marvel's infinity stones.

The discussion will be introduced by Tijana Dabovic (University of Belgrade) and chaired by Franziska Sielker (University of Cambridge). 

For further information please see the poster.

If you need a link for the Zoom meeting, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Planning Theories

Published: 28 December 2021

On January 11, 2022, 10:00 a.m. CET, "Planning and reality", the meeting inspired by Marvel's Inifinity Stones, will be introduced by Ernest Alexander. Please note that the meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. to allow participants from the Antipodean time zones to attend. Sorry, Americas!

For the Zoom meeting, please use the link from the program. If you are not a member yet, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (not later than January 9, please).

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Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 03 December 2021

The AESOP 2022 Congress  'Space for Species: Redefining Spatial Justice' will take place in Tartu, Estonia on July 25-29, 2022!

The AESOP Thematic Group Public Space and Urban Cultures was charged to co-chair the TRACK #2 CULTURE and we would be happy if you would consider submitting an abstract to that track.

*Deadline for abstract submission is February 1, 2022*

TRACK 2 CULTURE: Reinterpreting the spatial value of culture, heritage and tourism 
Stefania Ragozino (National Research Council of Italy IRISS, University of Naples, Italy)
Antonio Jose Salvador (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
Anastasia Sinitsyna (University of Tartu, Estonia)

It is argued that culture, heritage and tourism can play a relevant role in planning. This is demonstrated in a high number of policies, practices, European projects, theoretical and methodological approaches recognizing these elements as resources for sustainable development of territories.

While encouraging experiences demonstrate that culture can be a perfect driver for regeneration, sustainable development and economic prosperity, a marked plurality of failures, contradictions and knowledge gaps were reported. The latter are related to different and complex issues in which various themes overlap such as diversity, cultural and social inclusion, territorial imbalances, economic and environmental sustainability, governance, and education.

Along the transitional current moment that we are living in terms of ecology, technology, competitiveness and growth, the challenges and crises posed –health or climate hazards, interruptions in economic growth, political upheavals and social transformations–are emphasising the necessity of reinterpreting spatial values of culture, heritage and tourism, which are able to go beyond conventional visions. Also, revisiting the public realm in light of recent global events is necessary to support both urban residents as well as tourists through resilient approaches.

Track #2 CULTURE welcomes multidisciplinary contributions that will cross this slippery slope from theoretical, methodological, empirical (qualitative and/or quantitative) perspectives, to address one or more of the following topics:

• Actors and engagement tools to promote culture and (material and immaterial) heritage for planning 

• Heritage-led regeneration initiatives and Heritage communities

• Culture, public space and spatial justice

• Newly emerged cultural practices and business models as response to pandemic

• Transition towards online: traditional vs new locational patterns of arts and culture

• Revisiting tourism and its management in relation to planning

• Inclusive governance and management models for traditional, marginalized, and non-touristic heritage sites

• New digital tools, transferable, interdisciplinary and transversal competences to cope with culture, heritage and tourism challenges 

Keywords: culture, heritage, tourism, public space, spatial justice, cultural practices

Track #2 Co-Chairs announce that a call for papers on international journal will be launched after the congress.

TG PSUC Representatives: Stefania Ragozino (Italy), Tihomir Viderman (Germany)
contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Planning and Complexity

Published: 28 November 2021

21-22 July 2022, Tallinn, Estonia

Cities are in the midst of a revolution fueled by so-called smartification and digitalization of the urban. Myriads of ubiquitous, bundled digital systems impact profoundly the ways we use, adapt and transform the city. Processing these heterogenous and geographically distributed sources of data with help of advanced data analytics shows great potential for fine grain understandings of urban change. Meanwhile, more creative, art-based methods for tracing urban change, such as deep mapping, storytelling and spatial narratives, should not be put aside.

The workshop aims to explore and critically discuss various ways of Sensing the City and how it can enable planners, decision makings and others involved in shaping the city to better understand the dynamics of complex urban patterns.

Background conference theme

A diversity of widely available digital applications makes our life easier, for instance with regard to travelling, communication, networking and shopping. In addition to these dissipated smart phone applications, many of the digital tools purposefully aim at steering us for safety, efficiency and sustainability. Planned smart urban solutions allegedly have capacity for mitigating climate change via “green” tech and optimization. Moreover, digitalization is suggested to help in adapting sudden changes in society, e.g. Pandemic, climate change adaptation.

Despite, or maybe because of, their potential, smartification and digitalization of cities needs critical reflection. With moving bigger parts of our lives to the online world, the spatial principles of traditional retail shift, fake news and mis-information challenge democratic decision making, surveillance increases and dependency of the public sector on globally operating technology firms grows. There are also methodological concerns as some digital city models are presented tools to predict and control urban systems and thus ignoring the complexity and evolutionary resilience of cities. Moreover, using new technologies sometimes seems to become a goal in itself, reducing opportunities for other, equally valuable, methods of sensing the city. 

To advance urban governance for better future cities, it is necessary to explore these tools, methods and emerging human behavior patterns in smart cities, along with individual preferences, trends and ethical connotations. Crucial is to recognize and embrace the intrinsic uncertainty and complexity of technology mediated cities and societies.

Conference themes

• Practical and methodological approaches of sensing the city: analyses, planning, data management for grasping the dynamics of complex urban patterns at various scales
• Understanding the ‘smartification’ of cities: ontological/meta-level viewpoints and challenges and opportunities resulting from the complexity of urban life
• Societal and policy implications – ethical principles for using urban data, co-evolution of technology and urban governance, and the digital empowerment of civil society 

Program

The full program is available HERE. 

Date and location

The workshop is hosted by the Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies, at the Tallinn University of Technology. The workshop will take place on July 21-22rd, 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia. The workshop will be free of charge.

The venue for the workshop is the Palo Alto Club, Tallinn. 

Please note that the workshop can be easily combined with AESOP’s Annual conference 2022, which starts on 25th of July in Tartu, Estonia.