Conveners
T_10 THEORIES: Theories and theorizing I
- Anna Loffing (University of Vienna)
- Meike Levin-Keitel
T_10 THEORIES: Theories and theorizing II
- Jesse Fox (Tel Aviv University)
- Binnur Oktem รnsal (Mimar Sinan Guzel Sanatlar Universitesi)
T_10 THEORIES: ulture, complexity and participation
- Franziska Sielker (TU Wien)
- Luke Juday (Technische Universitรคt Wien (Vienna University of Technology))
T_10 THEORIES: About planning
- Jesse Fox (Tel Aviv University)
- Binnur Oktem รnsal (Mimar Sinan Guzel Sanatlar Universitesi)
T_10 THEORIES: L8 - Planning and urbanism I
- Luke Juday (Technische Universitรคt Wien (Vienna University of Technology))
T_10 THEORIES: L9 - Planning and urbanism II
- Binnur Oktem รnsal (Mimar Sinan Guzel Sanatlar Universitesi)
T_10 THEORIES: In memorial to Ben Davy - Academic Debates - What makes them interesting and challenging
- Tanja Winkler (University of Cape Town)
- Stefano Moroni (Polytechnic University of Milan)
- Meike Levin-Keitel
- Thomas Hartmann (TU Dortmund University)
- Franziska Sielker (TU Wien)
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Prof. Tore Sager (Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU))08/07/2025, 14:00Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Tore Sager, Professor Emeritus
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
7491, Trondheim, Norway
tore.sager@ntnu.no
Phone +47 918 97 158Abstract: Prefigurative mobilizations, such as alternative micro-communities and urban social movements, organize their practice here and now in ways that are in line with and reveal...
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Lirrey Lin (The University of Hong Kong)08/07/2025, 14:10Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Collaborative planning based on Habermasian communicative theories is a holistic planning theory different from action-oriented planning theories (Levin-Keitel & Behrend, 2023). In empirical research, collaborative planning is often explained well in the literature review, but its application in examining local planning cases tends to be superficial. Much of the focus is on whether the case...
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Prof. Tanja Winkler (University of Cape Town)08/07/2025, 14:20Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Public trust in democratic governance structures (including planning structures) is at historic lows (OECD, 2022), while attacks on democratic institutions, coupled with increasing support for ethnonationalist political parties, warrant palpable concerns for a looming anti-democratic/anti-planning turn, globally (Freedom House, 2021). But attacks on democracy and public-sector planning stem...
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Luke Juday (Technische Universitรคt Wien (Vienna University of Technology))08/07/2025, 14:30Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Planning theory literature has changed signfiicantly since the emergence of planning theory as a subdiscipline. In recent decades, the literature has moved away from big conceptual turns and 'grand theories.' But what has it moved towards? This paper originates from the author team's interest in the question: what has planning theory research focused on in recent years? What are key streams of...
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Ms Niyusha Zarei (TU Dortmund)08/07/2025, 14:40Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Understanding Uncertainty in Planning;
Case study of demographic forecasts in urban plans in IranUncertainty is an intrinsic notion in planning that is mostly recognized as the obstacle in the process of planning and achieving its goals. So planning devoted practice and theory to reduce this unpopular notion and take control of reality. But all the tools introduced to tackle with...
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Dr Pavel Grabalov (Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU))08/07/2025, 16:00Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Planning is a collective action, and planners work in increasingly more diverse interdisciplinary teams which involve both experts and non-experts. Learning is an essential component of such interdisciplinary collaborations. In this study, we focus on professional learning as an integral part of everyday planning practice and consider planners as storytellers of this practice (Watson, 2002)....
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Dr John Abbott (University of Queensland, Australia)08/07/2025, 16:10Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Over the past few decades, the role of and need for plans, as written and agreed documents, has been questioned or denied by many planning practitioners and theorists (Neuman 1998; Moroni 2023). Nevertheless, plans continue to be produced by organisations and governments at all spatial levels and to be used in addressing a wide range of complex urban and social futures.
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All planning and plans... -
Mr Qingyuan Guo (London School of Economics)08/07/2025, 16:20Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In planning as a professional discipline, the term โplanningโ in Planning Theory carries a dual meaning โ planning as a field of study and planning as a professional activity. In terms of planning as a field of study, the project of planning theory has made substantial progress, having developed an extremely diverse range of theories that interpret and evaluate planning as a phenomenon....
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Dr Ruggero Signoroni (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano)08/07/2025, 16:30Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Although scientific and technological innovation has been playing a crucial role in the evolution of urban planning as a professional practice and academic discipline, an overall critical assessment of the domination of technoscientific-centrism in the field of planning theories seems missing. Whilst the literature acknowledges that both scientific inquiry and technological innovation are...
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Dr Esin รzdemir Ulutaล (ฤฐzmir Institute of Technology)08/07/2025, 16:40Track 10 | THEORIESOral
The post-foundational line of thought and the post-political critique that has come out of it provides the field of planning theory with a critical energy that it has long been in need of. In the framework of this critique, first the Habermasian communicative rationality is denounced for denigrating and rejecting of any manifestation of disagreement in the society in the name of democracy. The...
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Aksel Hagen (University of Inland Norway)09/07/2025, 11:00Track 10 | THEORIESOral
**The paper is more of a reflection than a conclusive answer to the question โShould planning and politics converge around the concept of โcommunities of disagreementโ?
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The field of planning, both in theory and practice, often has consensus building as a guiding inspiration for its normative theoretical and practical development. Politics, on the other hand, is an activity characterized by... -
Dr Martin Sondermann09/07/2025, 11:10Track 10 | THEORIESOral
This paper examines spatial planning as a cultural practice, conceptualizing it as an interplay between attitudes, actions, and artifacts. Spatial planning is not merely a technical, political, or communicative activity, but rather a complex cultural practice influenced by shared societal norms, values, and practices that evolve over time. This study adopts a meaning-oriented and praxeological...
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Johannes Suitner (TU Wien, Institute of Spatial Planning, Research Unit Urban and Regional Research)09/07/2025, 11:20Track 10 | THEORIESOral
The need for social-ecological transformation is beyond question. The relevance of spatial planning in shaping this transformation is equally undisputed (cf. Hofmeister & Warner, 2021 among others). However, we still know little about whether planning for transformations also involves a substantial transformation of planning itself (cf. Schreiber et al., 2023, for one of the few exceptions)....
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Prof. Markus Leibenath (University of Kassel)09/07/2025, 11:30Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Germany is currently experiencing a wave of large-scale urban expansion projects (Hesse 2021), driven by a growing demand for housing and an ongoing shortage of developable land within city centres. These new suburban developments are being promoted as models of sustainability and participatory, inclusive planning. However, in terms of participatory justice (cf. Blue et al. 2019), it is not...
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Dr Manfred Kรผhn09/07/2025, 11:40Track 10 | THEORIESOral
The urgency of the climate crisis and ambitious political aims towards climate neutrality are increasing the pressure to accelerate projects for the post-fossil transformation. In Germany, this particularly affects energy transition projects, such as wind power and photovoltaic systems, whose acceleration is justified by an โoverwhelming public interestโ in planning. In contrast, environmental...
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Dr Gerard Hutter (Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), Dresden, Germany), Prof. Thorsten Wiechmann (TU Dortmund)09/07/2025, 11:50Track 10 | THEORIESOral
To critically reflect and theorize on politics, strategy, power, and conflict in spatial planning, more attention towards time and temporality is needed (Hutter, Wiechmann et al. 2024). Various research streams have taken up issues of temporality, for instance, research on path dependence (Sorensen 2023) based on โHistorical Institutionalism (HI)โ (Mahoney et al. 2016). Our contribution aims...
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Dr Barbara Tempels (Wageningen University)10/07/2025, 09:00Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Cities face the wicked problem of dealing with the conflicting policy objectives of urban densification and climate adaptation. This problem is also known as the sustainable city paradox. Addressing and finding a solution to this problem is crucial regarding the present-day challenges of the pressing housing shortage and the perceivable consequences of climate change on the urban landscape,...
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Prof. Jรธrgen Primdahl (University of Copenhagen, Dept of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management)10/07/2025, 09:10Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Rural landscapes are in transition worldwide driven by intersecting processes including climate change, structural changes in agriculture (concentration, specialization, intensification/extensification), urbanization in various forms, and decline in biodiversity (Pinto-Correia et al. 2018). Also, public policies and planning are changing at all levels and sectors (including both market...
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Ms Theodora Istoriou (Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)10/07/2025, 09:20Track 10 | THEORIESOral
An interesting recent debate made an impression on placemaking practitioners and planners alike. De Graafโs confession that โI have no idea what placemaking isโ (2023), still being relevant; one has only to browse the comments section, was followed by another confession by way of response, that of Marradesโs โI donโt care what placemaking exactly isโ (2023). This round seemingly ended with the...
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Ms Liudmila Slivinskaya (TU Dortmund University, Department of Spatial Planning, Spatial Modelling Lab)10/07/2025, 09:30Track 10 | THEORIESOral
The proposed contribution argues for stronger integration of the theoretical notion of place in planning against multiple current challenges. It revisits established and novel conceptual readings of place and outlines its implications for planning, arguing for the theoretically informed use of the place notion as instrumental in planning better cities for people.
Cities have undergone...
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Mr Ziwen Huang (Zhejiang Univesity,China)10/07/2025, 09:40Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In the age of planetary crisis, factors influencing urban development have become increasingly intricate. A deep understanding of complexity is crucial for accurately assessing these factors. The influence of complexity theory on urban and planning studies has long been recognized. Complexity theory, which took shape in the 1940s, has provided a foundation for complex theories of cities (CTC)...
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Dr Lucas Barning (University of Vienna)10/07/2025, 09:50Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In the context of the pressing environmental and climate challenges, the topic of energy increasingly finds its way into spatial planning through emerging concepts such as Spatial Energy Planning or Integrated Energy Planning (e.g. De Pascali & Bagaini 2018; Stoeglehner & Abart-Heriszt 2022; Stoeglehner et al. 2016). These approaches include specific tools for analysing energy data,...
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Stefano Moroni11/07/2025, 09:00Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Digital twins are enjoying widespread and growing success in both theoretical and practical applications. A recent development that is gaining increasing traction is the application of digital twins to cities. The aim of this paper is to discuss the potential and limitations of city-scale digital twins. The scientific literature on digital twins is dominated by โtechnicalโ approaches. Critical...
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Dr Luis Hilti (University of Liechtenstein), Dr Matilde Igual Capdevila (Institut for Linear Research)11/07/2025, 09:10Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In an era of intersecting environmental, social, and economic crises, the theory and practice of planning must evolve to address the complexities of contemporary urbanization processes. This paper introduces Linear Research as both a theoretical and methodological framework for conceptualizing and comparatively analyzing urbanization processes at a planetary scale. Building on Brennerโs (2014)...
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Katie McClymont (UWE Bristol)11/07/2025, 09:20Track 10 | THEORIESOral
โWe only see what we look atโ (Berger, 1972 p8)
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In his classic work, Ways of Seeing, John Berger (1972), drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin, questions how modern reproductions of art and images have changed their power and our relationships with meaning. He argues for the primacy of sight over language in the knowing of the world, but because the meanings of what we see are so regulated... -
Dr Stefano Cozzolino (ILS - Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development)11/07/2025, 09:30Track 10 | THEORIESOral
The spatial dimension, distribution, and organization of property significantly influence urban dynamics and the political capacity to implement regenerative programs as well as their types. Beyond abstract planning concepts and strategic intentions, property owners of buildings and land ultimately hold direct power and control over the built environment. From this perspective, ownership...
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Ms Zhejun Wang (University College London)11/07/2025, 09:40Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Over recent decades, urban design has been consistently critiqued for its growing disparity between its theoretical aspirations and practical outcomes, with the process often failing to deliver the high-quality results it promises (Elrahman and Asaad, 2021). This persistent disconnect raises a pivotal question: can theories transcend their prescriptive frameworks to act as transformative...
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Mr Xiao Zhang (Tongji University)11/07/2025, 09:50Track 10 | THEORIESOral
Barcelona's innovation district 22@Barcelona, shaped by the discourses of 'public-private partnership', 'public participation', and 'planning flexibility', has been promoted as an ideal template for neo-liberal practices in global cities around the world. Over the past 25 years, numerous literature critically examined 22@Barcelona(Pirรณ, E. E. , 2016; Lรณpez, J. A. M. , 2018; Martรญn-Gรณmez, A., &...
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Mr Georgios Chatziefthymiou (PhD candidate)11/07/2025, 11:00Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In the last decades, a spatial dimension of the transformation of the new production model has been observed as a function of technological development. The latter, as early as the 80s, created a new network of global city-poles (mainly in the Global North) allowing the instant transfer of economic and social capital flows (mainly in the Global South). Thus, the geographical dispersion of...
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Prof. Takashi AOKI (Osaka University)11/07/2025, 11:10Track 10 | THEORIESOral
- Introduction
In a society with a declining population, significant changes are required in the large metropolitan areas that have been consistently expanding since the end of the Second World War. Optimizing the scale of conurbations is an urgent issue to ensure that our living environment is safe, secure, and sustainable (Dunham-Jones & Williamson, 2011). In this context, there is much...
- Introduction
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Prof. Esen Gรถkรงe รzdamar (Tekirdaฤ Namฤฑk Kemal University, Department of Architecture)11/07/2025, 11:20Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In contemporary settings characterized by rapid urbanization, environmental degradation, and limited access to natural resources and food, numerous countries face many challenges. A salient issue in Turkey is the sustainability of urban governance, which impedes resilience. The nascent implementation of participatory processes and democratic active participation and the discordance between...
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Mr Grรฉgoire Picard (Universitรฉ Cรดte dโAzur โ CNRS โ UAPV โ AMU, ESPACE, France)11/07/2025, 11:30Track 10 | THEORIESOral
In the context of global crises, 21st-century cities face numerous challenges. The impacts of climate change and economic tensions at all scales necessitate a more resource-conscious urban development while putting human needs at its centre. At the same time, the complexity of urban systems challenges planning, pointing to inevitable connections among geographic scales and action domains of...
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