THEMATIC GROUPS

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 13 February 2020

Guest editors:

Deniz Ay | Vrije Universiteit Brussel | Department of Geography Pleinlaan 2 BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Ceren Sezer  |  RWTH Aachen University |  Institute for Urban Design and European Urbanism | Wüllnerstraße 5b | D-52062 Aachen, Germany

Theme

The broad concept of spatial justice has emerged as a critical theme in urban studies with an active link to the promotion of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Spatial justice is a quest to challenge the deepening inequalities inherently attached to space (Fainstein 2014, Soja 2010, Young 1990). Spatial justice is not a new concept, yet it remains pressingly relevant due to global capitalism characterized by profit-oriented economic models shaping (re)development policies and practices. On the one hand, the city continues to serve as the playground for global competition and economic growth at different levels, often directed by the priorities of the capital at the cost of the wellbeing of the socially and economically disadvantaged urban populations. Some examples of these global trends include privatisation of public space (i.e., privately-owned public spaces, “POPs” in London ) (Niksic and Sezer, 2017), gentrification (Lees et al. 2016), and concentration of poverty especially in ethnic enclaves (Musterd 2016, Lichter et al. 2012). On the other hand, spatial justice is relevant beyond the city, given the rising inequalities concerning the use of environmental resources and access to a healthy environment. Therefore, the geography of spatial injustice surpasses conceptual divides between the urban and the rural. Spatial justice has widespread use and value both for the social theory and the political agenda (Williams 2018: 10-11).

Several national and international organizations have recognized the critical need to take action to improve spatial justice standards. UN-Habitat, in its New Urban Agenda, includes ‘just cities for all’ as a part of its ‘vision of cities for all (…) without discrimination of any kind (…) to foster prosperity and quality of life for all’ while reaffirming its commitment to sustainable urban development (2017: 4-5). More recently, the American Planning Association (APA) has published a ‘Planning for Equity Policy Guide’ to ‘reaffirm [its] commitment to promote equity and explicitly remove barriers in policies and regulations that perpetuate inequity in the United States’ (2019: 3). APA defines equity as ‘just and fair inclusion into a society’, and its policy guide outlines ‘recommended policy actions’ for planners’ toolboxes ‘to implement policies that result in fair, equitable communities’ (2019: 3,5).   

There are persistent calls from scholars across disciplines, including geography, political science, and sociology, to use the justice perspective to explore the growing inequalities across space to confront the conditions of spatial inequality. However, the pedagogical approaches in social sciences to disseminate the knowledge on key ideas and principles of spatial justice and its practical implementation remain underexplored (see Blaisdell 2019, Carrillo and Mendez 2019, Rubel et al. 2016a, Rubel et al. 2016b). To address this gap in the literature, this special issue aims to bring together an interdisciplinary and international group of contributors to discuss and explore the state-of-the-art approaches and strategies to advance the comprehension of spatial justice in academic, policy, and practical realms. Some of the questions the contributions may address include, but are not limited to: 

1.    What is the place of spatial justice in education for urban studies? Do we need ‘spatial justice pedagogy’?

2.    How, or to what extent, are urban designers and planners prepared through their formal education to stand on the side of spatial justice in their practice? 

3.    What are the opportunities beyond the conventional forms of teaching (i.e., digital humanities, digital ethnographies, multimedia) to promote spatial justice-oriented education in the context of the complex roles and futures of cities and regions? 

4.    What are the pedagogical pitfalls in planning curriculums, teaching methods, and materials used for advancing students’ understanding of spatial justice?

5.    What are the alternative educational platforms beyond the academia for advancing the collective knowledge on spatial justice to connect directly with communities and grassroots? 

In this special issue, we call for contributions from scholars from urban studies, planning and related fields in social sciences and humanities, activists, independent researchers, and advocacy groups with explicit interests in space, to address opportunities and challenges of advancing the practically applicable knowledge on spatial justice as a process and a quest to reimagining space. 

Interested contributors for this special issue are invited to submit a 500-word abstract to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The abstract should include: 

-    Title and keywords;
-    Author(s)’ name, current affiliation and e-mail address;
-    Research questions, methodology, and major findings of the research;
-    Five key references;
-    Short bio and a list of recent publications by the author(s); and
-    If applicable, two related images at a proper resolution (min. 200dpi).

The deadline for abstract submission is May 4, 2020. After preliminary review by the guest editors, the selected authors will be invited by June 8, 2020 to submit a full paper. The deadline for submitting full papers is October 12, 2020. The selected full papers will proceed for the review process with Planning Practice and Research. 

References

APA (2019).      Planning for Equity Policy Guide. https://planning-org-uploaded-media.s3.amazonaws.com/publication/download_pdf/Planning-for-Equity-Policy-Guide-rev.pdf

Blaisdell, B. (2019). Right to the classroom: seeking spatial justice in kindergarten. The Urban Review.

Carrillo, J. and Mendez, J. (2019). Inner work, public acts: making a case for public pedagogy and spatial justice within Latinx communities, The Urban Review, 51: 444-456.

Fainstein, S.  (2014). The just city, International Journal of Urban Sciences, 18:1, 1-18.

Lees, L., Shin, H. B., & López-Morales, E. (2016). Planetary gentrification. John Wiley & Sons.

Lichter, D.T., Parisi, D., Taquino, M.C. (2012). The geography of exclusion: race, segregation, and concentrated poverty, Social Problems, 59:3, 364-388. 

Musterd, S. (2005) Social and Ethnic Segregation in Europe: Levels, Causes, and Effects, Journal of Urban Affairs, 27:3, 331-348, DOI: 10.1111/j.0735-2166.2005.00239.x

Niksic, M. and Sezer, C. (ed) (2017) ‘Special issue: Public spaces and urban justice’, Built Environment, 43(2), 161-304. 

Rubel, L., Hall-Wieckert, M., Lim, V. (2016a). Teaching mathematics for spatial justice: Beyond a victory narrative. Harvard Educational Review: Winter 2016, 86:4. 556-579.

Rubel, L., Lim, V., Hall-Wieckert, M., Katz, S. (2016b). Cash across the city: Participatory mapping and teaching for spatial justice, Journal of Urban Learning, Teaching, and Research, 12, 4-14.

Soja, E. (2010). Seeking Spatial Justice, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

UN Habitat (2017) New Urban Agenda. http://habitat3.org/wp-content/uploads/NUA-English.pdf

Williams, J. (2018). Spatial justice as analytic framework. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan.

Young, I. M. (1990). Justice and the politics of difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

About guest editors: 

Deniz Ay is an urban scholar specialized in transnational planning, urban governance, and displacement. She joined the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies at the VUB as a research fellow in 2019. Deniz completed her doctoral studies in Urban Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she taught courses on international development and transnational planning at the University of Bern- Institute of Geography and The Ohio State University- City and Regional Planning Section. 

Ceren Sezer is a research fellow at RWTH Aachen University. Her research interests cover the issues of liveability and sustainability of public spaces, urban form and social life in the city, and urban regeneration and renewal processes. She is a joint editor of Marketplaces as an Urban Development Strategy (2013), Public Space and Urban Justice (2017), and The Politics of Visibility in Public Space (forthcoming). She is co-founder and coordinator of an international research group Public Spaces, and Urban Cultures established under the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). 

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Planning, Law and Property rights

Published: 31 January 2020

Prepared by Linda McElduff and Rachelle Altermann

Introduction

This report provides a brief overview of the activities of AESOP’s Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR) Thematic Group (TG) during the year 2019.

Overview of PLPR TG

The PLPR TG evolved from a congress track on planning and law organised by Rachelle Alterman (Technion, Israel), together with Willem Salet (University of Amsterdam), Ben Davy (TU Dortmund) at the 1999 AESOP congress in Bergen. The track soon grew and the PLPR Thematic Group was announced in 2003 at the AESOP congress in Leuven. During the 2006 World Congress of Planning Schools in Mexico City, a group of interested academics from many countries convened and decided to establish an International Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights. The Association was established during the inaugural symposium in Amsterdam, in 2007, with Rachelle Alterman as first PLPR President. The main objective of the Association is to foster international academic knowledge exchange on the themes of planning, law, and property rights. PLPR is a free-standing standing academic association with members from all around the world, its own statutes, a website: see http://plpr-association.org/ and an annual conference. 

PLPR maintains close links to AESOP. In 2012 Prof. Ben Davy, president of PLPR, and Prof. Kristina Nilsson, president of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) at the time signed a Memorandum of Understanding. This memorandum affirms and institutionlizes the mutual friendship between the two associations. The PLPR TG constitutes an important link between the two organisations and the law track continues to be one of the most well attended tracks at AESOP congresses. 

PLPR TG Coordination

Dr Linda McElduff (Ulster University) and Professor Rachelle Alterman (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology) coordinate the TG. Activities of the coordinators include establishing the group’s agenda; managing online communication (via homepage, mailing list, newsletter) among TG participants; preparing meeting minutes and annual reports; promoting knowledge sharing and publication affairs; as well as strengthening links with the wider AESOP community and Secretary General, and with practitioners and industry.

TG Activities in 2019

AESOP Annual Congress 2019, Venice: ‘Planning for Transition’ (9th– 13thJuly)

The Track: “Planning, Law and Property Rights: facing urban transitions” (Track No.14) was held during the 2019 AESOP congress in Venice, Italy. This was one of the largest tracks at the conference with an average of six papers across ten sessions. Rachelle Alterman (Israel Institute of Technology, Israel), Thomas Hartmann (Wageningen University, Netherlands) and Kim Carlotta von Schönfeld (Wageningen University, Netherlands) chaired the track, assisted by a series of young academics. In advance of the formal conference, two PLPR members; Linda McElduff and Thomas Hartmann (Wageningen University), attended the AESOP PhD workshop in Ferrara as mentors.

A TG meeting was convened during the conference (11/07/19). During this meeting both old and new PLPR TG attendees gathered to share updates and ideas in relation to research, teaching and funding opportunities. Upcoming events and conferences were also outlined to the participants including AESOP lecture series and PLPR conference 2020.

Workshop: ‘Teaching Planning Law: sharing lessons from across Europe’, Wageningen (07/10/19)

PLPR TG was successful in its AESOP Thematic Group Funding Bid to hold a small workshop on ‘Teaching Planning Law: sharing lessons from across Europe’. The workshop was held on 07/10/19 in Wageningen to coincide with an AESOP lecture from Barrie Needham and Eveline Van Leeuwen (AESOP 14th Lecture Series). This event provided an important platform to share existing practices and ideas in how planning law is being, and should/could, be taught in universities across Europe (and beyond) with a targeted participant group. The aim was to identify good practices, differences, barriers, and suggestions in how planning law has been integrated within the curriculum of planning schools (ie. its ‘visibility’ within planning programmes); what is being (and should be) taught – and what is currently missing (ie. what knowledge is needed); the pedagogical approaches used to teach planning law (ie. how is it being taught – teaching styles, assessment, didactic V’s interactive, etc.); and how the quality of that learning and teaching can be maintained, or indeed enhanced (linked to student satisfaction, progression, etc.).

The TG aims to build on this initial discussion and carry out additional research and workshops in the coming months (funding dependent). Updates, including a ‘summary report’ of the initial workshop in October, will be made available on the TG area of the AESOP Website. We look forward to continuing the discussions with you all soon!

TG Activities in 2020

In 2020 the TG will continue to promote and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas relating to planning, law and property rights. The particular focus of the TG for 2020 will be on identifying and sharing good practice in teaching planning law.   

14th PLPR Annual Conference

TG coordinators and members will be participating at the 14th PLPR Annual Conference (17th-21st February 2020) at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Ústí nad Labem, Czechia.

33rd AESOP Congress

The forthcoming 2020 congress offers an opportunity to engage with existing and new TG members, and support young academics. A PLPR TG meeting will be held during the 33nd AESOP Congress at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK in July 2020. More detail will be provided in due course. As in previous years, there will be a dedicated Law Track.

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Urban Transformation in Europe and China

Published: 19 January 2020

Introduction 

The thematic group, China’s urban transformation, focuses the knowledge exchange between Chinese and European urban expertise on urban transformation processes, especially comparing urban regeneration practice in Europe and China. It was established in April 2019 with the initiative of Xin Yi (Associate Professor, Southeast University, China), Uwe Altrock (Professor, University of Kassel, Germany) and Klaus R. Kunzmann (Professor emeritus, TU Dortmund, Germany)

The aim of the thematic group is to learn from European and Chinese experience, both successes. It will confront European participants with the challenges of urban regeneration in Chinese cities, and it will give Chinese practitioners and academic planners an insight into regeneration practices in the different European countries, such as UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Austria, etc. Since the beginning of the 21st century China and Europe are getting closer and closer. European enterprises are making more and more business in China, and more and more Chinese enterprises are investing in Europe. Tourists from Europe and China like to explore the respective other region. The one-road-one belt Initiative, driven by the Chinese government is reducing geographic distance and transport time. 

Since the foundation in 2019, the Group started to organize different events in relations to urban transformation in Europe and China with cooperation of practitioners, academics, governmental and non-governmental professionals, and further interest groups into the TG’s activities. 

Internal organization of the group 

A collective made up of group members organizes the activities of the Thematic Group. Some of the tasks of the core group are: to establish the Group’s agenda (working topics, meetings); to prepare meetings and annual reports; to disseminate scientific results; to promote a strong involvement into research and publication affairs; as well as towards a broader audience and the AESOP Secretary General. 

The list of members who managed the Group’s activities in 2019 (in alphabetic order): 

Jin Duan (China), Yang Wang (China), Xin Yi (China), Uwe Altrock (Germany) and Klaus R. Kunzmann (Germany), Wenyue Li (China) ,Yige Li (China) , Xiaohong Tan (China), Zhiqing Zhao (China), Zhiming Li (China)

The list of members who (co-)organized meetings in 2019:

Yang Wang (China), Xin Yi (China), Klaus R. Kunzmann (Germany), Hanqing Zhang (China), Davide Ponzini (Italy), Liu Cao (China), Yiqing Zhao (China) – First meeting of Thematic group UTEC, Università Iuav di Venezia, 11th July, Venice, Italy.

Jin Duan (China), Xin Yi (China), Uwe Altrock (Germany), Carles Crosas Armengol (Spain), Cord Soehlke (Germany), Corinne Jaquand (France), Juliane Heinrich (Germany) – First International conference on people-oriented urban design. 29th - 30th October, Nanjing, China.

Xin Yi (China), Zhitao Sun (China), Wei Dong(China), Juanjuan Zhao (China) – Annual conference of digital technology research center for historical cities of Chinese Society for Urban Studies (CSUS). 16th - 17th Novermber, Nanjing, China.

Anrong Dang (China), Xin Yi (China), Wei Dong(China), Zhiqing Zhao (China) – 4th Annual meeting of remote sensing archeology. 20th December, Beijing, China.

Future Action Plan in 2020

Second International conference on people-oriented urban design. November 2020, Nanjing, China. 

Annual conference of digital technology research center for historical cities of Chinese Society for Urban Studies (CSUS). November 2020, Nanjing, China. 

Meeting of Thematic group UTEC, University of West England, Bristol, UK. 

International Exhibition of the Architect's Life Richard Paulick 1903-1979. November 2020, Nanjing, China.

Details

Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS

Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures

Published: 13 January 2020

Public Spaces: Knowledge transition between Research, Policy and Practice

Public space has received increasing attention in urban research, policy, and practice. This is evident in the growing academic literature on the themes related to public space, including accessibility, healthy living, inclusiveness, democracy, urban justice, self-organization, social movements among others. The 2016 UN Habitat Conference, Habitat III, adopted what is called The New Urban Agenda, which focused on public space as a promoter of ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities (UN Habitat, 2016). A New York-based NGO, Project for Public Space,developed aplacemaking approach to improve public spaces, which has been adopted in many cities. Neighbourhood organizations, local interest groups, cultural minorities, or politically oriented pressure groups manifested their needs and interests and reclaim public spaces specifically in the context of profit-oriented urban developments.

More importantly, the traditional understanding of public space as a place, which provides anonymity has also been shifted. The development of communication technologies and the spread in ownership and use of mobile phones have blurred the public and private quality of public spaces. This complexity requires transdisciplinary methods to analyse public spaces to be able to engage knowledge, concepts and theories of public spaces from various perspectives and inform and influence policy-making and practice in different contexts.

To this end, the call poses the question: which actors and transdisciplinary methods on public spaces can inform policy and practices to promote ‘inclusive, connected, safe and accessible’ cities?

Proposals should present how in a series of meetings/workshops/conferences/capacity building programs/urbanlabs or other formats, participants from academia (universities and research institutes), policy, practice and civic society among other, could engage towards contributions to the call’s theme, and arrive at tangible, synergetic output on the integration of public space knowledge within policy and practice. Discussions would revolve around both established and emerging theories and methods, and identify where new ‘transdisciplinary’ knowledge is needed to make a leap forward.

The AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures invites proposals that address but are not limited to 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.

 The interested institutions can send their proposals to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. until the 15th of February 2020.  The proposal should not exceed 1000 words and include: 

• Name of institution and department;
• Name and e-mails of contact person or persons;
• A provisional title and brief thematic description of the meeting in relation to the theme of the call;
• Proposed format of the meeting (e.g. workshop, conference, expert meeting);
• Proposed dates of the meeting (to be negotiated);
• If applicable, provisional names for the keynote speakers.
• Proposed draft budget

AESOP Thematic Group meetings are free of charge for its participants. Participants cover their costs for travelling and accommodation. 

The selected candidates will be announced on the 15th of March 2020.

For questions, please contact Ceren Sezer (RWTH Aachen University): This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.