Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 25 March 2021

AESOP TG PSUC 2021 international meeting
Between THE HOME & THE SQUARE: bridging the boundaries of public space

October 22-23, 2021 | Aristotele University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
http://southeuropean-cities.arch.auth.gr/en/betweenthehomeandthesquare#callforpapers2021


The Research Unit for South European Cities of the School of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, will host the next meeting of the AESOP Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures (AESOP TG PSUC) in Thessaloniki, Greece.


Theme

The meeting is entitled “Between the home and the square: bridging the boundaries of public space”. It is structured around the concept of boundaries of public space and the relation between public space and more private spheres of urban life, like the home. By taking an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach, the meeting will discuss, challenge and rethink traditional boundaries between public and private, legal and illegal, planned and unplanned, formal and informal, natural and social, digital and material, familiar and uncanny. Moreover, the meeting will reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the making and unmaking of boundaries within the public space as well as between public space and home.


Format

The meeting is organised as a two-day event, which will be preceded by a seven-day workshop. The two-day event will combine keynote speeches, the contributions to the Call for Papers, fieldtrips and roundtables. The workshop will be an international, urban teaching, action research and design workshop that will investigate transformations of housing and public space in sites of major importance in Thessaloniki. It will provide the opportunity for participants to discuss, exchange views, and propose ideas around the topic of boundaries between public and private spaces in Thessaloniki and beyond.


Call for Papers

Cities around the world change rapidly in response to processes of financial crises, international migration, climate change, globalisation and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Public spaces are essential ingredients of the urban experience and play a crucial role in this transition (Madanipour et al., 2014). Seeking to understand the ways in which public space can operate as a key component for the creation of ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities (UN Habitat, 2016), the meeting is structured around the concept of boundaries of public space and the relation between public space and more private spheres of urban life, like the home.

Marxist understandings of relational space have already emphasized the need to deconstruct dichotomies between public and private (Lefebvre, 1991). Gender studies have early enough challenged the dichotomy of public and private space (Massey 1984), while more recently, feminist approaches to public space foreground affective care practices, everyday lived experiences and bodily encounters as crucial elements that transcend fixed boundaries in public space (Viderman & Knierbein, 2018). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light to interrelations of homes, neighbourhoods and public open space accessibility in pragmatic terms of real life, democracy, and its policing. Thus, a critical exploration of the ways in which the boundaries of public space are challenged, and new conceptualisations emerge is nowadays increasingly timely and salient.

The meeting articulates its theme in a way to encourage approaches that:

1. bridge the traditional analytical categories, such as home and public space, public and private, digital and material;
2. bridge the different disciplinary divisions that divide current research and practice and encourage cross-fertilisations and hybrid understandings;
3. bridge the boundaries between research, policy and practice focusing on the ways these three can inform and transform each other;
4. negotiate divisions in public space; age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic, religious and political dimensions as well as issues of social and environmental justice for improving inclusiveness, promoting social and environmental justice and meeting complexity in the public space changing terrain;
5. reflect on new typologies of emerging practices and agents of change that reconstitute lived homes and public spaces.

We invite contributions that address, but are not limited, to one or more of the following themes:

1. Inhabiting the square: exclusionary practices, repression, homelessness, refugees, dissent, participatory / performative appropriation.
2. Housing and public space: spaces of the everyday, neighbourhood spaces, inconspicuous parks, design considerations, everyday routines, psychoanalytic approaches to the public, divided spaces.
3. The limits of publicness: management, authorities, ownership, appropriation, affective, performative and artistic practices, digital contestations and cross-overs.
4. Νegotiating ownership: housing and public space production ‘from below’, housing coops, collective habitation, squats, gated communities, suburban houses, institutional change.


References

Lefebvre, H. (1991) The production of space. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Madanipour, A., Knierbein, S. & Degros, A. (2014) A Moment of Transformation. In: Madanipour, A., Knierbein, S. & Degros, A. (eds.) Public Space and the Challenges of Urban Transformation in Europe? New York: Routledge.

Massey, D. (1984) Space, Place and Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press

Viderman, T. & Knierbein, S. (2018) Reconnecting public space and housing research through affective practice. Journal of Urban Design, 1-16.

Contacts

For further information on AESOP TG PSUC Thessaloniki meeting please contact:
Evie Athanassiou (Local host Thessaloniki), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


Important dates

Abstract submission deadline: 30th May, 2021

Acceptance notification: 27th June, 2021

Author registration: 27th July, 2021


Organising Committee

Evie Athanassiou, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Local host)

Charis Christodoulou, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Athina Vitopoulou, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Matina Kapsali, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Maria Karagianni, School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki


TG Representatives

Sara Santos Cruz (Portugal) and Burcu Yigit Turan (Sweden)


Scientific Committee

Evie Athanassiou, Professor, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Nadia Charalambous. Associate Professor of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

Charis Christodoulou, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Αlex Deffner, Professor of Urban and Leisure Planning, Department of Planning and Regional Development, School of Engineering, University of Thessaly (UTH), Greece

Gabriella Esposito De Vita, Senior Researcher, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy

Jeff Hou, ASLA, Professor of Landscape Architecture, Adjunct Professor of Architecture and Urban Design & Planning, College of Built Environments, University of Washington, U.S.A.

Sandra Huning,  City and regional sociology,  Faculty of spatial planning, TU Dortmund, Germany

Ares Kalandides, Professor of Place Management, Berlin und Umgebung, Germany

Matina Kapsali, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece & Adjunct Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Ioannina, Greece

Maria Karagianni, Adjunct Lecturer, School of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Garyfallia Katsavounidou, Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning, School of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Sabine Knierbein, Professor for Urban Culture and Public Space, Faculty of Architecture and Planning/ Future Lab, Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien, Austria

Penny Koutrolikou, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Sasa Lada, Emeritus Professor, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Christine Mady, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Ramez Chagoury Faculty of Architecture, Art and Design, Notre Dame University, Louaize, Lebanon

Irini Micha, Associate Professor, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Stefania Ragozino, Researcher, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy

Sara Santos Cruz, Assistant Professor, Senior Researcher of CITTA, Spatial Planning and Environment Division, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal

Ceren Sezer, Research Associate, Faculty of Architecture, Chair of Urban Design,  Institute for Urban Design and European Urbanism RWTH, Aachen University, Germany

Dimitra Siatitsa, Adjunct Lecturer, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Socrates Stratis. Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

Burcu Yigit Turan, Senior Lecturer, Department of Urban and Rural Development, Division of Landscape Architecture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

Tihomir Viderman, Research Associate, Chair of Urban Management, Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg, Germany

Athina Vitopoulou, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Athena Yiannakou, Professor of Urban Planning and Development, School of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Ethics, Values and Planning

Published: 24 March 2021

Dear all,

after two lively and highly stimulating sessions on “neoliberalism” and “kindness in planning”, the AESOP TG on Ethics, Values and Planning **is glad to inform you that the third colloquium is scheduled on Wednesday, **April 21st, from 5 to 6 pm (CET).

The discussion/conversation will start from a recently published essay in Planning Theory titled “Revisiting the concept of the ‘just city’. Three crucial issues: Institutional justice and spatial justice, social justice and distributive justice, concept of justice and conceptions of justice” written by Stefano Moroni. As usual, this is not going to be a one-man show but an open vibrant discussion open to all participants.

You are very welcome to participate. Please consider the following:

• Prepare yourself by reading the text in advance

• Register to the event by sending an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (you will receive a zoom-link to participate)

• Participants are invited to send in a question, idea, or comment to be raised during the colloquium via e-mail by 19 April at the latest

To secure a colloquium in which there is sufficient space for active participation, we limit the number of participants. So please register in time.

Arend Jonkman & Stefano Cozzolino

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Planning, Law and Property rights

Published: 11 March 2021

During February 2021 over 300 academics from across the world exchanged ideas on planning, law, and property rights in eleven online sessions, and 12 doctoral researchers took part in a corresponding doctoral workshop. The online session series was organized by the International Academic Organization on Planning, Law, and Property Rights (PLPR).

PLPR emerged in 2008 from the Thematic Group of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) and has developed into an independent global association with the aim of promoting scientific discussion on planning, law and property rights. The PLPR usually organizes its annual meeting in February (see www.plpr-association.org). Instead, this year a series of online sessions on various key topics was held.

Sessions

The thematic sessions addressed eight relevant topics of planning, law, and property rights, such as the provision of affordable housing, climate change, land policy, informal spatial development, dealing with agricultural land, land value depreciation, national spatial planning, and blockchain technologies.

Although each session was planned for 90 minutes with 4-6 speakers and a subsequent discussion, often a large group of participants stayed in the online meeting for up to an hour afterto continue the discussions. During the session on the extraction of added value, the question of the legitimation of such a strategy was at the core of the discussion - stimulated by experiences from Europe and South America.

Almost all sessions attracted more than 50 academics from all continents. The session on informal planning, with more than 90 participants, attracted the most attention, with a division into informal planning in the global South and informal planning in developed countries fuelled an intensive discussion on the perception and handling of informality.

The sessions were organised in a way that enabled active participation from across the global community. Sessions took place not only at 2pm but also in the evening from 9pm or in the morning at 7am (CET). As a result, contributions from Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa, as well as South and North America could be brought together. In particular, it was possible to involve academics in a discourse who normally find it difficult to take part in international conferences due to budgetary restrictions. The very active integration of the chat function in the sessions also encouraged colleagues who were less confident in the English language to take part. This fuelled the debate and made the event very inclusive.

PhD Workshop

A highlight was the PhD workshop organized by Sofija Nikolić Popadić (University of Belgrade), the PhD coordinator of PLPR. Twelve PhD researchers discussed their research questions and design as well as their publication strategy with Linda McElduff (Ulster University) and Thomas Hartmann (Wageningen University), who acted as mentors. The doctoral students were grateful for the intensive exchange that they missed in the wake of the pandemic.

Ghent 2022

At the end of the event, the traditional flag ceremony took place, in which the PLPR flag was handed over to the next organizer of the conference - Hans Leinfelder from KU Leuven. The next PLPR conference will take place from 7th to 11th February 2022 in Ghent, Belgium (see www.plpr-association.org for more details in due course).

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 04 March 2021

Call for abstracts
What’s going on in public spaces and urban cultures? 
Updates on current research, policy and practice

AESOP Thematic Group Public Space and Urban Culture’s Special Session #44 at the Regions in Recovery. Building Sustainable Futures - Global E-Festival, 2-18 June 2021

Session Organisers

Christine Mady | Notre Dame University-Louaize, Lebanon, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Stefania Ragozino | National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development, Naples, Italy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tihomir Viderman | Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus - Senftenberg, Germany, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 
Description

Regions and cities appear to have been shaped through responses to a series of challenges and crises, including health or climate hazards, interruptions in economic growth, political upheavals or social transformations. Urban scholars and policy-makers frequently observe and engage with public spaces as arenas which embody both the challenges and responses. The challenges have been articulated in themes such as accessibility, healthy living, democracy, justice, social movements. Against a seemingly bleak outlook, public spaces and urban cultures also nurture optimistic responses. ‘The New Urban Agenda’, adopted by the UN-Habitat Conference, Habitat III, promotes public space as a key ingredient of ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities (UN Habitat, 2016).

This special session on “What’s going on in public spaces and urban cultures? Updates on current research, policy and practice” asks how public spaces can inform research, policy and practice towards creating ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities.

Contributions are invited, but are not limited to address one of the following topics:

• Changing typologies and roles of players and actors: multiplicity of publics and public space cultures, arenas for rebuilding participation
• Public spaces and changes: climate change, social movements, circular economy;
• Changing needs and roles: homelessness, refugees, immigrants and integration, age, gender, social, cultural, ethnic and religious considerations and urban justice;
• Questioning the global north-south divide and public space dynamics;
• Changing role of public spaces in political conflict zones;
• Changing environmental awareness: public space as a buffer zone, contribution to public health (mental and physical well-being);
• Changing intangible cultural heritage: adapting the genius loci to multiple and dynamic cultural identities;
• The impact of technological innovation on public space research and practice.

This session is organized by the AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures, which gathers an international and interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners, who contribute a plurality of perspectives. The group was established in 2010 under the umbrella of the Association of European Schools of Planning Education (AESOP). Since then, it promotes a dialogue between practitioners, academics, governmental and non-governmental professionals, and further interest groups through virtual and physical meetings, workshops, conferences and roundtables.

 
Deadline abstract submission 31 March 2021

Click here to submit https://members.regionalstudies.org/lounge/Meetings/Meeting?ID=307

*AESOP ExCo will cover the speaker fees (up to a maximum of 5 speakers)*

Links
Regions in Recovery Building Sustainable Futures - Global E-Festival
https://www.regionalstudies.org/events/rinr2021/

2021 Regions in Recovery Special Sessions
https://www.regionalstudies.org/news/202-ssrinr/


AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures