THEMATIC GROUPS
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
The AESOP TG Public Spaces and Urban Cultures and Ozyegin University held a very productive meeting in Istanbul (Nov 20-23, 2013) under the working theme, Becoming Local.
PSUC Coordination team would like to thank to all of the local committee members, particularly to the Dean of Faculty of Architecture, Orhan Hacihasanoglu and hard-working coordinator Burcu Yigit Turan for this impressive and successful event. Additionally, we also thank to Murat Sahin, Ayse Koksal who host 40 attendees through fieldwork and exciting presentations; Ozlem Ozkal for event graphic design and website; Naz Beykan for the event blog.
Finally, we also express our attitudes to the keynote speakers Ipek Yada Akpinar, Sophie Watson, Cristina Cerulli and all the meeting attendees whose work highlighted the passion for working on public spaces all around the world in so many different disciplines.
For more information about the meeting, please visit the following link: http://www.becominglocalistanbul.org
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
UN HABITAT invited the AESOP thematic group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures to organize a networking event at The World Urban Forum 7 in April 2014, Medellin, Colombia. To foster dialogue between global tendencies and local needs, this networking session will be organized as open as possible to the local public, inviting children and elderly people, the users of Medellin’s public spaces, to participate. To facilitate this, a cooperation with colleagues at Medellins’ University of Antioquia or other Colombian universities will be initiated. This cooperation is to be arranged along transdisciplinary principles, understanding the Colombian university as agent of local change and participatory inclusion.
Event Date: 9th April 2014 between 4:30 and 6:30 pm (Yellow Pavillon, Room 12).
Anyone of you interested to join us there, please contact Sabine Knierbein (
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Sustainable Food Planning
Theme: Innovations in Urban Food Systems
conference website: http://www1.montpellier.inra.fr/aesop5/
AESOP's thematic group Sustainable Food Planning has organized 5 successful European conferences so far. In 2009 the first annual conference was held in Almere (NL), the second one in 2010 in Brighton (UK), the third one in 2011 in Cardiff (UK) and the fourth one 2012 in Berlin (G). The Montpellier conference attracted in October 2013 170 participants recruited from 20 countries.
The bulk of the organizing work was done by Coline Perrin (INRA, UMR Innovation Montpellier, France) and Christophe Soulard (INRA, UMR Innovation Montpellier, France). The conference focused on innovations in the urban food system. Subthemes were: 1. flows and the reframing of urban foodsheds, 2. land and farming for and in the city, 3. governance or the quest for food justice. It brought together researchers from both the Global North and the Global South. As usual the thematic group welcomed scholars, students and practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines; planning is one of them. This meeting was build on interdisciplinary foundations uniting urban and rural planners, architects, with agronomists, economists, sociologists, geographers, political scientists, historians, landscape-ecologists, soil-scientists and others. The exchange of thoughts between theorists and practicing professionals is perceived as an asset.
The book of abstracts is downloadable from the conference website. Only abstracts approved by the review committee are inserted.Here are some highlights. The conference was opened by Catherine Cherbut, Scientific Director food and nutrition of INRA. The first key-note was Nik Heynen, professor of geography at the University of Georgia (USA) about 'Abolition Ecology and Urban Hunger in the City' - an emergent chapter from US urban history with important consequences for contemporary foodscapes. Two more key-notes were delivered by Marielle Dubbeling, director of RUAF-Foundation - an international network of resource centres on urban agriculture and food security - and Mary Njenga, research scientist in urban agroecosystems at the World Agroforstry Centre (ICRAF) and University of Nairobi (Kenya). Njenga's presented a wide array of low tech innovations which are developed in close cooperation between stakeholders in the field and scientists. One innovation being a briquette pressed from cheap leftovers of regular charcoal production and other flammable organic materials makes a difference in the budget of the urban poor in Nairobi, leaving more room for food provision.
On the second day, there were two more key-notes: Paule Moustier, senior researcher at CIRAD, France, who highlighted the specific features of short food chains supplying cities in developing countries, in relation with characteristics of transportation, farmers' strategies and consumer preferences. Robert Gottlieb, professor at Occidental College, Los Angeles (USA) closed the Conference with a presenting an action research agenda on food justice, focusing on equity and disparities and the ways that social movements can bring the food system to change.
In the margins of the conference organizational issues have been settled and a new board has been elected. Professor Kevin Morgan told the attendants that he wanted to give up the position of chair and AESOP-contact, which he took up in 2009. A committee of loyal core-members nominated UK based architect and academic Andre Viljoen as the new chair. Andre was elected by acclamation. He expressed the wish to be supported by a board and a group of advisors. The other members of the board are Arnold van der Valk (NL), who will act as contact with AESOP and secretary, and Coline Perrin (Fr), who will take up the role of coordinator of early career researchers. The group of advisors to the board includes Kevin Morgan, Katrin Bohn and Craig Verzone. Professor Kevin Morgan was thanked for the significant contribution that he made to establish the conference as a dynamic and active forum for international debate and one that welcomes all players in the design and planning of sustainable food systems.
The 2014 annual conference will be in the Netherlands. The newly elected board accepted an offer by Rob Roggema and Gaston Remmers, professors in Van-Hall Larenstein University of Applies Sciences and CAH-Vilentum Almere University of Applied Sciences. We will keep you informed about the upcoming conference, so stay in contact.
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning/Conflict
International Conference
Conflicts in the City: Reflections on Urban Unrest
Valencia (Spain), 2-4 April 2014
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Public Spaces and Urban Cultures
Dear Colleagues,
Please join us in the forthcoming first event of the Association of European Schools of Planning's Thematic Group on Public Spaces and Urban Cultures within the "Becoming Local Series" 2013 to 2015:
The Faculty of Architecture and Design at Özyeğin University Istanbul will host a four-day annual meeting of the AESOP thematic group of Public Spaces and Urban Cultures in Istanbul between 20-23 November 2013. The aim of the meeting is to share international and interdisciplinary perspectives in studies of public spaces and urban cultures under the theme of ‘Becoming Local’.The meeting will be dedicated to the presentations and discussions of high quality work of scholars and practitioners who will reflect on the theme from different perspectives.
In addition, the meeting will include a field-trip and a workshop in Istanbul.
For more information about the event please see the link www.becominglocalistanbul.org
Date of the event: Nov 20-23, 2013
Deadline to send an abstract: Oct 21, 2013
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Sophie Watson, Open University
Cristina Cerulli, Sheffield University
İpek Akpınar, Istanbul Technical University
Participation fee: Free of charge
Contact: Burcu Yigit Turan (
We will update our blog abut the following thematic group meetings in Paris, Bucharest, Glasgow, Vienna, Delft/Amsterdam, Oporto and Ankara in 2014 and 2015.
