THEMATIC GROUPS
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning and Complexity
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.
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning Theories
"Planning and Space", introduced by Scott D. Campbell (University of Michigan) and moderated by Meike Levin-Keitel (TU Dortmund University).
December 7, 2021, 4 p.m. CET, on Zoom.
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- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Planning and Complexity
Online and interactive book presentation of the Handbook on Cities & Complexity
The event will be held on 9th of December 2021: 14:00-16:00 Central European Time / 15:00-17:00 Israelian time
The program includes:
- An introduction on the book by Editor Juval Portugali
- 2x 5min-talks on Uncertainty & Evolution by Stefano Moroni and Fernando Santos
- 2x 5min-talks on Dynamic flows & patterns by Efrat Blumenfeld and Koen Bandsma
And…plenty of room for questions & interaction
The outline of the event is as follows:
1. Introduction to the book - 30 min
Overall ambition and its main messages - Juval Portugali
Response by Ward Rauws, followed by Q&A
2. Uncertainty & Evolution - 30 min
Complexity and uncertainty: implications for urban planning - Stefano Moroni
Evolutionary games in cities and urban planning - Fernando Santos
Each giving a 5 min talk on their chapter, followed by a by joined Q&A on both talks
Break
3. Dynamic flows & patterns - 30 min
- Studying the dynamics of urban traffic flows using percolation: a new
methodology for real-time urban and transportation planning - Efrat Blumenfeld
- Tailoring nudges to self-organising behavioural patterns in public space - Koen Bandsma
Each giving a 5 min talk on their chapter, followed by a by joined Q&A on both talks
4. Plenary discussion on future research questions and challenges
5. Upcoming activities AESOP TG on Complexity and Planning
Ward Rauws
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Ethics, Values and Planning
Operationalizing the Just City
Annual conference of the Aesop Thematic Group on Ethics, Values and Planning
You are invited to join the hybrid (Dortmund and online) two-day conference on 24 and 25 February 2022 of the Aesop Thematic Group on Ethics, Values and Planning, by submitting an abstract of max. 300 words before 12 November 2021.
Impacts of the ‘urban triumph’ have become increasingly discussed in the literature. Negative effects include inequality, polarisation, segregation, gentrification and unaffordable urban housing. In response, pledges for the advancement of more inclusive, accessible, liveable, or socially sustainable cities have been put forward, commonly discussed under the umbrella of ‘the Just City’. What that entails, what this concept practically implies, often remains vague and poorly articulated.
At a superficial level, everyone wants a ‘just city’, but once we make explicit what that means, the differences that exist and the difficult ethical choices that need to be made might become apparent and sometimes even permeated by deeply contrasting views. The question of what a just city is cannot be evaded, as its answer has great implications for the implementation of urban policies and planning interventions. Therefore, we need ‘to get our hands dirty’ and try to genuinely operationalise the concept.
With this call, contributions applying the concept of (or related to) the Just City in empirical research and contributions providing reflections on the following issues are welcomed:
- How to apply the just city?
- Which theory/idea of justice is legitimate to apply in a specific situation and why?
- Which goods, capabilities, functionings, distributive rules and so on, to apply and in which circumstances?
- How are different dimensions of the just city (e.g., distribution, democracy, recognition) related?
- What indicators and measures to use for the valuation of justice and its different dimensions?
- How does a just city relate to other values (e.g., kindness, dignity, equality, freedom)?
More specifically, we are searching for contributions that put into practice this abstract concept by emphasising its concrete social, spatial and political implications and aspects. We expect to collects contributions that will provide empirical explanations and, at the same time, relevant general reflections.
Date: 24-25 February 2022
Location: Dortmund and online (limited capacity)
Abstract deadline: 12 November 2021
Submissions via: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-wxlIu4sxJ92jcnfrSfds_7GhGu5jYwuf-ISykEvwkessMg/viewform
- Details
- Parent Category: THEMATIC GROUPS
- Category: Ethics, Values and Planning
The AESOP TG on Ethics, Values and Planning continues the conversation and debate on Tuesday 23 November 2021, from 4 to 5 pm (CET) with Ben Davy on Human Dignity in Planning.
We aim for a condensed and vibrant discussion starting from the article Human Dignity: Is there a place for it in planning? by Ben Davy in Transactions. Besides clarifying the reasons why the concept of human dignity should be included in the planning discourse, in his paper Davy raises two main fundamental points: 1) in order to align their plans with human dignity, planners should immerse themselves in the local communities affected by their plans; 2) planners must recognize the tension that exists between social justice and human dignity: a plan that is socially just can still be humiliating. Are these the proper recipes? Is the concept of human dignity absolute or subjective? What values and planning approaches does imply the recognition of human dignity?
You are very welcome to participate. Please consider the following:
- Prepare yourself by reading the texts in advance (the papers will be provided to participants);
- 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 Friday 19 November 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.
Stefano Cozzolino & Arend Jonkman
- BETWEEN THE HOME AND THE SQUARE. bridging the boundaries of public space
- Workshop: Spatial Strategies at the Land-Sea Interface: Rethinking Maritime Spatial Planning
- Planning, Law and Property Rights (PLPR) Conference: 7-11 February 2022 – Call for Papers!
- AESOP TG ETHICS, VALUES & PLANNING - Colloquium 5: Overcoming the false dichotomy between procedural and distributive justice, October 13th from 5 to 6pm (CET), with Ali Madanipour, Sabine Weck and Peter Schmitt