Coordinators

• Prof Menelaos Gkartzios, Department of City and Regional Planning, Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey; and School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, UK
• 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.gkartzios@ncl.ac.uk

Contributions

• 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, Centre for Future Societies Research, University of Hertfordshire, 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, Department of City and Regional Planning, Izmir Institute of Technology, 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
• Dr 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 that we are keen to 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