Coordinators
- Prof Menelaos Gkartzios, Department of City and Regional Planning, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
- Prof Mark Scott, School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin, Ireland
- Prof Nick Gallent, The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, UK
Contact: menelaos@metu.edu.tr
Contributors
Our group and events are open to all researchers, scholars, practitioners and students with an interest in rural planning. If you are interested in keeping up to date with our events, please join our LinkedIn group.
The list below reflects the original contributors who supported the creation of this group.
- Prof Emine Yetişkul Şenbil, Department of City and Regional Planning, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
- Prof Giancarlo Cotella, Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
- Dr Elisabetta Vitale-Brovarone, Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
- Prof Gavin Parker, Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK
- Prof Ian Mell, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, UK
- Prof John Sturzaker, Royal Town Planning Institute, UK
- Dr Karen Ray, Centre for Planning Research and Education, University College Cork, Ireland
- Prof Bettina Bock, Rural Sociology Group, Wageningen University, Netherlands
- Prof Koray Velibeyoğlu, Faculty of Architecture, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey
- Prof Þóroddur Bjarnason, School of Social Sciences, University of Iceland, Iceland
- Dr Graziella Benedetto, Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, Italy
- Dr Georgios Chatzichristos, School of Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
- Dr María Jesús Rivera Escribano, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Public University of Navarre, Spain
- Prof Li Zhang, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China
- Dr Shengxi Xin, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, China
- Dr Luke Dilley, Global Studies Program, Akita International University, Japan
Aims of Rural Planning Thematic Group
- To support knowledge exchange on rural planning issues
- To promote comparative research on rural planning topics across Europe (and beyond)
- To grow membership of TG from AESOP member schools
- To plan collaborative activities (e.g., edited books, scholarly articles, conference sessions, workshops, research funding proposals)
- To support academic networking and mobility (e.g., via Erasmus+)
Examples of topics we discuss
- Crisis, resilience and rural planning responses (climate change, wildfires, pandemics, floods, etc.)
- Nature restoration and landscape scale spatial planning
- Rural housing, affordability, and the impact of second/holiday homes
- Counterurbanisation, rural gentrification and mobilities
- Rural spatial justice, just transitions and ‘left behind places’
- Inclusive practices - the right to rural, Indigenous, feminist, queer perspectives
- Place-based development and rural sustainability
- Conflict and development in the global countryside (touristification, land grabbing, etc.)
- Managing rural heritage, cultural landscapes, artistic practice and rural planning
Events
Rural Planning Spring Webinar Series 2026
We just held our first webinar series! You can follow the three webinars at your own pace in the following links:
