PLANNING/CONFLICT

The AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group aims at bringing together different perspectives on conflicts around urban planned developments, with a focus on the role planning practices may play both in defining/framing and in possibly solving/reframing conflicts. The purpose of the Planning/Conflict thematic group is to offer a durable framework for scholarly exchange, focussing on the empirical analysis of planning conflicts and promoting their critical/interpretive inquiry, in order to highlight what planning conflicts can teach us:

- about changing features of urban development policies and trends and their impact on local societies and communities;
- about changing conditions under which urban planning practices take place;
- about the effectiveness and legitimacy of established planning practices in dealing with conflicts;
- about the transformative potential that might be brought to light by facing planning conflicts;
- about the potential productive and innovative contribution of agonistic practices in view of a democratization of planning.

Activities

The initiative of establishing the AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group follows up on an international conference held in Berlin on October 27-28, 2011, titled: Planning/Conflict – Critical Perspectives on Contentious Urban Developments (concept/organization: Enrico Gualini and the Chair of Planning Theory of TU Berlin). link to conference website ; link to conference poster

The AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group was officially launched at the AESOP Congress in Ankara in July 2012. After its founding in 2013, the thematic group has held two international academic events: the conference ‘Planning/Conflict: Cities and Citizenships in Times of Crisis’ held in Lisbon on October 9-11, and the conference ‘Conflicts in the City: Reflections on Urban Unrest’ held in Valencia on April 2-4, 2014. A further international conference focusing on conflict and urban governance is planned for Spring/Summer 2016. The conferences of the thematic group have resulted so far in three international publications (Gualini 2015; Gualini, Morais Mourato and Allegra 2015; Romero Renau 2015). link to conference website ; link to Ankara presentation