ABSTRACT. The issue of gender in planning and urban scholarship has been considered as part of discussions on more just cities since the 1970s. Discussions of gender in urban studies and planning, as with wider debates on justice in planning, have spanned both the theoretical and practical. It is interesting to ask if recent debates on postfeminism, neoliberal feminism and popular feminism have impacted on planning scholarship? Likewise it is timely explore if inters! ectional analyses in urban scholarship are ensuring a more nuanced understanding of discrimination in urban settings. These issues will be discussed by reviewing the extent to which they have been debated in the pages of both Urban Research and Practice and the Journal of Urban Affairs

ABSTRACT. The new urban theory has consistently contributed to questioning the idea of the city. By exploring the urban as a process, looking at the urban without an outside, it has stressed significantly the understanding of the contemporary urbanization processes. Within such a perspective, it has shown the potential to reshape the debate on the just city, especially going beyond the traditional ideas of peripherality and marginality. However, it remains quite far from inspiring a new relational and transcalar attitude of public policies, as well as analytical approaches to the just city. This commentary will reflect on this unachieved potential and what might allow it to be realized.

ABSTRACT. This presentation will consider the ways in which scholarship on urban affairs across the globe has been and should be focused on social justice, examining this focus over time and around particular concerns in the city. This commentary is divided into two parts: the first focuses on scholarly content in the top 20 urban journals since the 1970s. The second part focuses specifically on the Journal of Urban Affairs.

The Journal of Urban Affairs (JUA) has a long history of published scholarship on topics related to justice, with a goal too of seeking changes in policy to promote a just city. What are some key examples of the kinds of topics that JUA has published on social justice overtime? Given that the journal has become much more global in its focus over the past ten to fifteen years, how have the social justice topics changed as a result? What ways can the journal ensure that impactful social justice research from a variety of institutions and scholars across the globe is published and, as importantly, read and cited? What topics and concerns related to social justice in the global context might the journal be missing? This presentation will aim to answer these questions with the goal of ensuring global urban research remains focused on the goal of a just city no matter the global location.

ABSTRACT. Scholarship on urban (in)justice has historically focused on observing, measuring, and theorizing the lived condition of our cities, albeit mainly in the global north. Engaged and activist scholarship has been largely delegated to the periphery of intellectual discourse, providing this body of work with limited academic legitimacy. Engaged scholarship and its intellectual liminal space pose a challenge to mainstream justice seeking scholarship. Can we advance urban justice without engagement? Are we the voice of an intellectual community rich with urban questions or urban communities seeking justice in their everyday lives? This presentation will engage with these questions and highlight some of the groundbreaking recent engaged scholarship and how they inform the theory and practice of planning.

ABSTRACT. In the latest general elections held in Italy (October 2022) a large majority of seats of the national Parliament has gone to a coalition formed by the three main right-wing parties. Despite being predicted for months by various electoral surveys, the event has had a wide international resonance and cannot be deemed as a simple political turn-over. This for two main reasons. First, the leading party of the coalition (post-fascist ‘Brothers of Italy’) has won the election by embracing an explicit populist agenda, with the promise to easing the dependence from the European institutions and to push technocrats outside the corridors of power. Secondly, because it is the first time in the country’s republican era that the prime minister post is given to a far-right party, notably to the young Brothers of Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni. While it is still too early to evaluate the new cabinet on the basis of its actions (although an aggressive anti-immigration policy is already underway), much can be said by looking at the political cultures represented in this new government. They appear as a patchwork of very diverse conceptions of what the State is – or should be – in the solution of relevant societal challenges in contemporary times, including the environment protection, cultural diversity, local democracy, and many other. I will explore, particularly, the risks and implications these different views can have on local development and urban policy.

ABSTRACT. Cities are spaces of resistance and struggle, and art is an important protagonist in this struggle. In the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte rose to power on a wave of populist politics, garnering support from all corners of the country. His popularity persists despite violent human rights abuses, a failing economy, and his administration’s poor performance during the pandemic. In many ways, the Duterte presidency laid the groundwork for the return to power of the Marcos family.

The Duterte presidency re-activated a network of activists, from diverse socio-economic backgrounds who creatively engage with the public by transforming public space into a canvas for protest. It is through various forms of artistic expression from performance to effigies that activist voices make themselves heard in a silence effected through state sponsored violence. Interviews with artist-activists show how they envision the transformation of city space into a canvas where they can make their claims on government and Filipino society, at large. The presentation will reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of this form of political resistance and will draw out lessons for community-based campaigning in other parts of the world.

ABSTRACT. This paper is motivated by a desire to address two questions: 1) At a pragmatic level how can societies respond to the current economic crisis? and 2) At an ideological level how can societies address the so-called ‘illiberal turn’ in modern politics to the far-right? The paper examines contemporary recentralization processes in Europe, especially in Poland in the recent years. Since 2015, when a right-wing party Law and Justice came to power, we have been witnessing an incremental erosion of the powers of sub-statal units. Our analysis of the processes of centralisation distinguishes six types of such actions: 1) Hostile takeover (of local policy); 2) Undebated imposition (of a policy or reform to be performed by local authorities); 3) Financial draining of local governments (LGs); 4) Turning local authorities into clients (resulting in processes that favour those LGs which support the ruling party); 5) Bypassing local authorities in efforts to reach local communities (ignoring the subsidiarity rule); and 6) Blame games.

Yet, what is even more interesting are the ways in which LGs have reacted to these centralising actions. Our literature review shows, that while the patterns of re-centralist policies are subject to relatively few studies, the LGs’ responses to the centralist attacks appear to be almost totally neglected. In the paper we provide a typology of local responses to centralising pressures and reflect on the conditions that facilitate “rebellious” attitudes in localities. Empirically the paper is based on the phenomena observed in Polish cities. These units of local government are relatively large and, for various reasons, have the biggest rebellious potential. However, the framework developed in this research to analyze evolving central-local relations, is more general and can be used as well for other tiers and national contexts.

ABSTRACT. Cities across the world are developing imaginative, collaborative approaches to the pressing problems now facing modern societies. It can be claimed that city leaders are more in touch with the complexities of modern life than distant politicians in central governments. The evidence suggests that successful national governments value local democracy and take steps to engage local communities in effective place-based decision-making processes. Experience shows that granting elected local authorities serious problem-solving power can enhance the responsiveness of services as well as strengthen local democracy. Innovative cities in many countries are demonstrating that the co-creation of locally based, collaborative solutions to current societal challenges can work rather well. This paper will argue that, unless place-based power is valued and nurtured far-right philosophies will gain momentum and the power of autocratic, centralised states will be enhanced.

In outline the paper explains why societal progress depends on, not only understanding the nature of the far-right populist challenge, but also in understanding how place-based leaders and community activists can develop progressive solutions to pressing public policy challenges. It explains the nature of place-less power, meaning the power of decision-makers in multi-national companies and other distant decision makers to make decisions about localities without giving any consideration to the impact of these decisions on the local communities affected. A case study of the Bristol One City Approach, introduced by Marvin Rees when he was elected as Mayor of Bristol, UK, in 2016, provides an example of an approach to civic leadership that values place-based knowledge and action. The inclusive approach has led to the co-creation of many innovative solutions to local problems. The paper outlines the main lessons from the Bristol experience. Connections are made to findings emerging from other progressive cities in Europe, and possible ways forward for policy and practice are outlined.

ABSTRACT. The paper proposes a critical reflection on the significance of identity for local developments, arguing that a deeper understanding of this concept could open possible scenarios for territorial cohesion and social inclusion, rather than segregation and fragmentation. It provides a “place identity toolbox” for planners and practitioners. In the last 20 years, interest in this topic has grown within planning. However, a lack of clarity about the concept, its factors, and its possible uses has hindered its theoretical and practical development within planning. Based on the literature review of studies in planning, environmental psychology, and anthropology the paper traces a framework of aspects, vulnerability, and operability of place identity that could be useful in planning processes. Positive and negative sides of each aspect are shown, arguing that the same strengths could become weaknesses, if not addressed with criticism. The ultimate goal is to encourage further research to explore this promising but still undervalued topic. The paper will suggest that, if handled in the right way, place identity can provide insights to better understand how to design meaningful places for people in the complexity of modern, multi-cultural communities and cities.

ABSTRACT. The car-centric design of cities leads to a number of negative impacts on people and the environment. In response to these challenges, superblocks, described as urban residential blocks that comprise bundles of urban planning measures (less through traffic, more public space), are introduced. However, micro-level data, specifically relating to the behavior of citizens using a superblock, are still scarce. This research thus investigates the effects of superblock-measures in a between-subject experiment (n = 335). Specifically, we examine whether the provision of wider sidewalks, greenery, traffic calming, seating opportunities, and bike infrastructure (vs. standard wide sidewalks, no greenery, no seating opportunities, no explicit bike infrastructure, and lots of space for cars) increases citizens’ active mobility behavior, their perceived quality of stay, and their sense of social belongingness within their urban neighborhood (dependent variables). Responding citizens were randomly assigned to an image of an intersection where the superblock-measures are in place (experimental group), or the same image of the intersection without specific superblock-measures (control group). After empathizing intensively with the intersection-scenario that is located in their residential neighborhood, respondents reported on the dependent variables. In the end, all citizens were presented with the measures and subsequently reported their advocacy, preferences, and concerns. Findings point to significant superblock effects. Respondents, who saw the intersection with the superblock-measures, were more willing to use their bike, and walk, while were less inclined to use their private car. Moreover, respondents rated the quality of stay higher (e.g., perceived the intersection as more secure, more attractive, and were more willing to linger) when superblock measures were in place. Similarly, respondents reported a higher sense of belongingness and integration into the neighborhood due to the superblock measures (e.g., were more willing to meet, help, and collaborate with neighbors). Additional analysis reveals exciting directions for the evaluations of superblock-measures.

ABSTRACT. Cities' transformations have always been influenced by the technologies that humans develop in order to improve their lives. However, these inventions frequently have a significant impact on other living species and the consumption of nonrenewable resources. Moreover, the current global situation (GCC, wars, viruses) and its implications (food, energy, and health crises) involve every part of the world in different ways and risk jeopardizing life as we know it on our planet. Certainly, it appears crucial to favor processes that encourage the use of renewable sources and lead to decarbonisation in order to contribute to the improvement of the global crisis; on the other hand, a real challenge regarding the relationship between the body of the city and that of its inhabitants emerges.

Increasing the inclusive capacity of our cities and ensuring a good quality of urban life for all is a goal that can be supported in a variety of ways by new technologies. For instance, the purpose of this contribution is to highlight the potential role of soilless urban agriculture in the promotion of sustainable communities, specifically in public space management and care, while also exploring the sense of nourishment.

The dissertation investigates urban space and its relationship with cultivated space through an eco-systemic lens, imagining new food access possibilities in order to combine a different geographical configuration of production and consumption with the opportunities provided by multi-specific coexistence.

Since the interdependence of living and cultivating is at the heart of the major transformations of physical space, a transdisciplinary approach is taken. This includes architectural and urban planning subjects, as well as ecological and political sciences, with the goal of evaluating potential benefits of a co-evolutionary process for urban environment management in terms of community and territorial resilience.

ABSTRACT. Urban social sustainability traditionally refers to communities’ efforts towards delivering more spatially equal and fairer societies. A common vehicle for fulfilling this objective is tenure integration through mixed housing developments. Indeed, tenure integration in housing is claimed to encourage improved life chances, social mobility and mixed economy activities for the poorer residents. Notwithstanding this acknowledgement and the existence of literature reporting on the successes and (mostly) on the failures of mixed tenure housing developments, a fundamental topic that appears to be underrepresented is that of the varying notions and understandings of urban social sustainability underpinning tenure integration. The variety in notions and understanding stems from stakeholders’ often conflicting worldviews, strategic positions, interests and pragmatic orientations. Through reporting the results of a qualitative systematic review of the literature on mixed tenure housing, this paper presents, contrasts and discusses the various conceptual understandings of social sustainability encountered in the process of delivering mixed tenure communities, representing the perspectives of the various stakeholders involved (i.e. developers, residents, policy-makers, architects, planners). The objective of the review is not simply to contribute a polyphony of conceptual understandings but rather to produce a synthesis. The development of the synthesis will operate through placing the different definitions of social sustainability into the framework of urban design management, more specifically its lifecycle stages. The outcome is a more dynamic characterisation of the notion of urban social sustainability and of its plasticity as the development stages progress, requiring an iterative appraisal of stakeholders’ goals and commitments.

ABSTRACT. Resilient critical infrastructure is key to provide essential services in times of crisis as the floods in Central Europe in July 2021 as a clear consequence of the global development of climate change have impressively showed. The challenge to enhance critical infrastructure resilience addresses a multitude of actors out of the public and private space. However, we lack conceptual as well as empirical understanding on how these different actors are and must be coordinated in order to make social services available and accessible also in times of crisis.

This addresses the “response” phase of as well as the “preparedness” for a crisis. Joint planning and responses before and during crises are a prerequisite for ensuring the security of supply of electricity, water, and heat for citizens. Given the impact of climate change, coordination as a crucial aspect of local crisis governance is increasingly necessary for resilient cities of the future.

The paper will look at (1) the crisis response phase focusing on the coordination of administration and political responsible actors with the actors of civil protection. Based on participatory observation and interviews, we will show that the management of coordination was not functioning, and political actors have not fulfilled the role assigned to them. Necessary courageous decisions (such as evacuations) were not taken. (2) We will analyse the coordination within cities as preparedness for crisis management. Based on a survey in major German cities and we will analyse the type of coordination used by cities to enhance their resilience in times of crisis.

In both cases we will show that the establishment of coordination structures which are based on early planned and constantly practiced joint coordination with public and private actors is the key to meet future challenges and to manage urban settings.

ABSTRACT. Large regeneration schemes provide an opportunity to rethink transport systems and reorganise the public realm so that more sustainable forms of mobility can be achieved. Whilst many schemes across Europe have succeeded in providing built environments that facilitate walking, cycling and other modes of sustainable travel ‘internally’ (within the scheme itself), the connection of these schemes to existing transport systems has proven more difficult; the challenge of integrating new mobility infrastructure with the existing urban fabric and systems remain. Our study explores the edge-interface of ‘Wirral Waters’, one of the largest regeneration projects in the UK, comprising 300 acres of brownfield waterfront land. Wirral Waters is located in the Wirral Peninsula, facing Liverpool from across the river Mersey. Part of the site has been designated a ‘freeport’ by the UK Government, which reduces taxes in the hope of intensifying economic activity. The entire site is located in an area with a strong industrial and maritime history. Our research in Wirral Waters explores how active modes of transport, such as cycling and walking, can be advanced through interventions aimed at improving the connectivity and permeability of the site and its surrounding environment. It starts with the application of a set of indicators to the area to assess the quality of the built environment; it then develops options for Wirral Waters, in collaboration with students and key stakeholders, and finally formulates general principles for the improvement of first and last-mile connectivity and enhancement of permeability in urban regeneration projects. In this presentation, we reflect on the research undertaken to date and on emergent findings.

ABSTRACT. When we imagine sustainable urban transport, cars are often portrayed as an intractable evil. This is especially true in the U.S., where distances and residential patterns have created longstanding commuter cultures that are difficult to shift. In East Asia, "car culture" has exploded over the last twenty years, and despite relatively efficient and widely available public transportation systems, individual vehicles have become ubiquitous. This is especially true in South Korea, where high rates of urbanization and the rise of a domestic automobile industry have led to ever-increasing levels of car ownership. But two major cities in South Korea and the U.S. have approached the "car problem" from completely different angles, with some degree of success: Incheon and Chicago both have approximately 3 million residents, share an industrial past, and have made concerted efforts to transition to post-industrial economies with a focus on redevelopment and lower emissions, achieved in different ways. Chicago has approached the problem by adding to its strengths: and existing grid of streets and a lakefront that lends itself to bicycles. Incheon has used its position on the water to build from the ground up and create new infrastructure from scratch. Both have been successful in creating urban environments where cars are not necessary (and in some cases, are banished). The different approaches are outlined through interviews with city officials and commuters who opt out of their cars on a regular basis. The results indicate an unusual crossing of conditions between the new and existing infrastructures and human behaviors.

ABSTRACT. The cities that we inhabit are changing. And, significantly, so is how we move around those cities. Predictions of the extent, direction and speed of that change vary (e.g., Nikitas et al, 2020; Ceder, 2021). An underrepresented view in the literature is that of the insurance sector. Almost all new mobility technologies and innovations will be insured, whether for third party liability, product liability or against other risks. Future mobility innovations, therefore, directly impact the practices of insurance companies. And, conversely, through the premiums, coverage, and terms and conditions they set, as well as their engagement with regulators, insurers influence the feasibility and adoption of new innovations (Ericson et al., 2003; Kester, 2022). To explore the mobility governance exercised by insurers, this study draws on 35 semi-structured interviews with a range of experts who work on motor insurance from across the actuarial, technology, legal, policy, consultancy and automotive sectors in the UK. The range of views expressed about the future of mobility is vast. For example, whilst some experts envision a future in which private ownership of vehicles is phased out within three to five years, others believe that a segment of society will never forego their privately-owned vehicles. Similarly, some expect fully autonomous vehicles to be the norm of the future, whilst others speculate that automated vehicles will always be two years away. To understand how mobility within cities might take shape, it is crucial to have an awareness of how those working on insurance (1) perceive the risk associated with new technology and innovation; (2) envision what future mobility will look like; (3) experience a sense of urgency around the change; (4) hold the capacity to invest; (5) exhibit a willingness to adapt their operations; and (6) play a role in seeing innovation be realised.

ABSTRACT. The main objective of the proposed paper is to present the results of the research on the system of sustainable mobility made in Stockholm. The Swedish capital has been the leader of developing sustainable policies aimed at transforming the city and its spaces. According to the rankings and indices of sustainable mobility (Arthur D. Little, The Future of Mobility 3.0; Oliver Wyman Forum, Urban Mobility Readiness Index 2021) Stockholm is the most advanced European city in terms of implementing the elements of sustainable urban mobility. The city delivers a set of best practices of how to create and use different instruments to realize this concept. The new ways of mobility are also an important element of the smart city idea.

The paper will present the main sectors of the city’s mobility system, such as public transport, cycling policy, parking policy, digitalization of urban mobility, and city planning, with the policies realised in these fields in order to make the mobility within the city more sustainable. The study is based on the analysis of city’s strategic and executive documents, interviews with persons responsible for the implementation of the mobility schemes and personal observations. It will present the key policies that led to the development of the mobility system in terms of infrastructure (parking, cycling, publics transport), digitalization (tickets, interactive parking information, live passenger information, intelligent transportation system) and soft policies (promoting the sustainable mobility means). It will follow the path from the conceptualisation to construction of the urban sustainable mobility model.

ABSTRACT. A resilient community is “one that takes intentional action to enhance the personal and collective capacity of its citizens and institutions to respond to, and influence the course of social and economic change” (Colussi, 2000, p. 5). As a result, a community is able to absorb a disturbance (e.g., a crisis or disaster) and maintain its development path, or radically restructuring system conditions in a way that set off from its historical development trajectory (Folke et al., 2010). This article explores the role of citizen science (CS) approaches in the development of community resilience, since CS is considered a promising approach for generating new knowledge through fostering the participation of citizens (non-professional scientists) in research activities (Hecker et al., 2018). A systematic review of existing literature was performed since the proposed research topic is still understudied and existing literature is spread through several research areas. To assure transparency, rigour and reproducibility, the approach suggested by Tranfield, Denyer, and Smar (2003) was followed. The results show that CS approaches are relevant to fill in critical knowledge gaps, generate new research problems and questions, validate models and prototypes that are the basis in the design of disaster prevention and/or mitigation systems. Moreover, CS projects contribute to build community resilience through empower community members by promoting the development of new skills and abilities to further shape innovative solutions in the face of new disturbances.

ABSTRACT. In view of the grand societal challenges and current and future crises the conception of innovation and what innovations are supposed to deliver expanded (Tödtling et al. 2022). Innovations are increasingly measured on the basis of their normative orientation (Mazzucato 2018, 2021) and in addition to technical innovations, social innovations are gaining importance, especially with regard to strengthening regional resilience (Westley et al. 2017). This understanding reflects amongst others in bottom-up innovation policy approaches such as the "small wins" strategy (Bours et al. 2022), which aims to enable a variety of resilience-building local and regional initiatives. These potentially innovative initiatives encourage the integration of (so far less involved) innovation actors, such as civil society, and their expertise in innovation processes (Tödtling et al. 2022; Warnke et al. 2016).

This contribution additionally assumes that experiences of resonance and self-efficacy (Rosa 2019) created at the local level are important drivers of social innovations, and thus resilience. Examples for those experiences at the local level can be found in the context of locally embedded Corporate Social Responsibility or social entrepreneurship (of both anchor companies and others). Both of them might unfold additional (social) innovation dynamics on the local level due to resonance and self-efficacy experiences of its actors and stakeholders. With this end in view, this contribution proposes a conceptual framework and a related measurement approach of the impact of resonance and self-efficacy on social innovation and resilience in the context of regional innovation systems.

The reflexions mainly refer to research on regional innovation systems, urban and regional resilience, the social concept of resonance as well as CSR and social entrepreneurship research. A better understanding of the linkages between these research fields seems a promising approach to drive the sustainable and resilient development of cities and regions, especially in modern day crises (Track5_Panel2).

ABSTRACT. Urban mobility systems-which are essential for the social, economic and cultural functioning of societies- have been in the spotlight of many recent crises (climate crisis, pandemic, war, energy and oil crisis, inflation, etc.) in the European context. On the one side, urban mobility systems are seen as the cause and context for these crises. On the other, urban mobility systems are framed as sites where management solutions to these crises can easily and effectively be implemented. In relation to the climate crisis, planetary urban mobility has been identified as one of the main sectors contributing to global and urban GHG emissions, global extraction of resources, polluting land uses and expropriations (REF). But sustainable mobility transitions promoting compact cities, a modal shift and the decarbonization of energy sources are also framed as an opportunity. During the Corona crisis, urban mobility systems have again been framed as places of increased risk of contagion, but also as main sites of political intervention to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Important limitations and radical shifts in mobility patterns, and urban land uses, were implemented during that period and continue up until today. Mobility-related regulations, policies and interventions are once again at the core of the policy repertoires implemented to ameliorate the affordability crisis of mobility in the face of increased oil and energy prices, war in Ukraine and inflation. In this paper we use urban mobility systems as an entry point to enquire about the potential long-term effects of accumulated crisis. We draw on urban political ecology, urban geography, planning and systemic change scholarship questioning the crisis as a state of exception and propose new questions, theoretical approaches, and research design approaches to examine the role of accumulated crisis on urban (mobility) systems.

ABSTRACT. Urban resilience has gained international recognition as a possible answer to climate change effects by highlighting the need to make cities more adaptable, even though what this means is still unclear. Regardless of the widespread interest in resilience, cities remain victims of recurrent natural and cultural hazards. Resilience has also been criticised as an excuse to accept the consequences of unsustainable practices without confronting their roots. These critiques are the starting points for the paper's research question: Does the concept of resilience have any value for the future of cities? Or has the concept of resilience been intentionally misused to support unreasonable promises?

Using a logical argumentation method, this paper exposes a deeper understanding of the concept of resilience and collapse and why they should be critical topics of analysis for professionals in the built environment. This paper is the product of an interdisciplinary research that uses anthropology, sustainability, ecology, economy and social sciences studies to discuss the possibility of using the resilience of cities to coexist within a collapsed environment. Based on the ideas, methods of measurement and examples developed by the author in “Unravelling Sustainability and Resilience” (Garcia and Vale, 2017) and “Collapsing Gracefully: making a built environment that is fit for the future” (Garcia et al., 2022) the paper focus on how resilience can be used in urban landscapes while looking at examples from the built environment that are not contributing to the development of its full potential.

The conclusion suggests that discussions about the resilience of cities can be more robust if framed within sustainable limits, developed methods of assessments and a deeper understanding of the boundary concept of collapse, its meaning and implications.

ABSTRACT. Social innovation is one of the primary issues that has been added to the agenda of the European Union over the last ten years in order to achieve the 2050 Sustainable Development Goals. Studies so far underline the significance of innovative ideas that bring together social targets without profit and contain the voluntary commitment of civil society actors as assemblers in the community. Cities offer an ideal milieu for innovation and creativity with different social groups, economic branches, well-organized policy foundations, NGOs, other establishments, and stakeholders. However, cities’ dynamic and complex structure makes it difficult to define the actors who contribute to the empowerment of social innovation. Actors need the Penta-helix mechanism to become more innovative and more intelligent. In this context, the aim of this study is to define the characters of social innovators through the Penta-Helix model in the case of İzmir and emphasize how they facilitate urban life in İzmir. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with 13 social innovators who have been living in Izmir. Depending on the result of the study, they should have seven features. These are to be activists, social entrepreneurs, intermediaries, wide networks (know-how), be able to perform target-oriented studies, be able to include all actors in the process, produce new solutions based on the social issue, and be able to keep up with change. They not only increase awareness of local citizens through their social events but also have a positive impact on changing city life through innovative solutions. If social innovation context would provide the Penta-Helix Model, it can facilitate innovative ideas for long-lasting social solutions.

ABSTRACT. Design is an operational concern, dealing with various layers of information to solve a particular problem. In urban design, problems need to be transmuted to society's demands. Accordingly, urban design is a complex problem-solving task that can be compromised by oversimplification or chaos, both at the design stage and in its analysis. As Kipnis put "heterogeneous space as a democratic space, is different from homogeneous universal space of modernism, and incongruous heterogeneity in postmodernism." As an urban showcase for "democratic space," this paper attempts to decode the spatial organization of a remarkably resilient urban structure in Iranian cities, Isfahan Bazaar. This urban site is an interwoven network of social, political, and cultural factors, representing remarkable adaptability to city transformation. Therefore, we suggest introducing a morphological approach supported by an analytical space syntax to study the historical development of Isfahan Bazaar. By analyzing both movement and occupation patterns, the underlying logic of self-organization can be decoded using knowledge management software. To study the patterns of self-organization and stable and unstable growth processes in urban structures, Isfahan Bazaar offers unique potential to explore its vivid appearance in city evolution in 3 major urban transformations. City generation in 772 AD; Urban transformation in 11-12th; Golden era in 16-17th As two main components of any urban typologies, the focus on analyzing the Isfahan bazaar is: 1. Movement-based patterns, study the topography of movement to find out about the suitability of dynamic systems in the context of nonlinearity of self-organization in the bazaar 2. Occupation-based patterns, study topologies layout in the bazaar to find out about the suitability of dynamic systems in cell formations A second focus is on testing these two components in the following scenarios: 1. major scale of city evolution 2. the minor scale of some significant segments of the bazaar

ABSTRACT. Urban areas are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, while simultaneously, also having a significant impact on it. Urban Climate Governance encompasses the ways in which public, private, and civil society actors collaborate to set climate objectives, exercise power, and regulate planning and implementation efforts. There are examples of cities launching projects on their own initiative to address a specific problem caused by climate change. Under the pressure of global climate change, urban areas have become an important testing ground for climate action. Governance is considered a key component of effective and integrated action on climate change. The undertaken work presents an overview of the development trajectory in relation to diverse governance instruments, dominant themes, and approaches in solving the problem of climate change. Research shows that through new theoretical foundations, new instruments appear, and that governance instruments are necessary in order to derive changes in urban systems. The work emphasizes that multilevel governance plays a crucial role in this process, by encouraging actor networks, and especially when adopting financial governance instruments primarily intended for developing countries. This enables the development of untraditional methods for urban governance related to climate change in Serbia. The paper explores the implementation processes of identified governance instruments in the conditions of the local context of Belgrade, a post-socialist city. It aims to understand the role of the actors involved and how the different instruments influence future planning activities concerning climate change. To accomplish that, this study adopts a qualitative approach that investigates externally funded projects related to climate change adaptation currently implemented in Belgrade. The paper relies on desk research on relevant literature, key strategy documents, and pilot projects. These results offer insight into the development of governance instruments for making modest, practical steps towards increasing the climate urban resilience of Belgrade.

ABSTRACT. The contribution sheds light on the current and the potential role of urban planning in addressing transformative change towards sustainability at an urban scale. Empirically we could observe that in the last ten years governance approaches and projects to transform urban systems (incl. experimentation, empowerment etc.) are driven by a variety of actors (Ehnert et al. 2017 & 2018), often designed as co-productive processes between science, civil society and public officials (Wanner et al. 2021), which is in accordance with transition studies that argue that transformations are multi-actors processes (Avelino & Wittmayer 2015).

However, empirically we also observe that urban planning actors and institutions take over different roles in that processes and projects, ranging from a leading over are participatory to a non-existing role. We ague, that urban planning on the one hand and with its sustainability orientations, cross cutting perspectives, participatory approaches and formal and informal instruments could play a distinctive role in enhancing urban transformative capacities and foster transformative change towards sustainability. On the other hand, planning seems to be locked in into its routines, self-understandings and legitimacy needs, beside the common sense in the transition community that transformations can´t be planned at all.

In a current transdisciplinary project (“Planning for Transformation – an oxymoron?”) together with urban planners we discuss the conformity, conflicts and ambivalences of planning in addressing urban transformative capacities (Wolfram 2015) and initiate, accelerate and stabilise transformative change. As intermediate results we see that there is a high potential for urban planners to play a more centred role in governing transformations, but also a risk to jeopardise planning standards which were hard-earned over the last decades.

ABSTRACT. In some way, every urban design exercise is an attempt to deal with uncertainty. Urbanism practices may try (1) to control uncertainty by assigning uses and functions to urban perimeters (culture of zoning); (2) to integrate uncertainty through more or less flexible processes with regard to future evolutions and needs (culture of project); or (3) to use uncertainty as a tool by resorting to experimentation, testing and prototyping without necessarily being part of the long-term development of cities (culture of tactical/temporary urbanism). All these practices may involve a variety of local actors (technical, democratic, economic) with a certain level of power and that often orientate the projects according to their own techniques, narratives and interests. However, in the Age of the Anthropocene and from the need of adaptable approaches to resilient and sustainable urban spaces, Transition Studies invite us to think about more inclusive, horizontal and transparent decision-making processes. This work aims to contribute to the collaborative urban design by developing decision making tools from the combination of qualitative and quantitative perspectives. The qualitative approach is used to outline the adaptation scenarios of design process, through the storylines of the actors involved. On the other hand, the quantitative approach focuses on statistical modeling to test the potential weaknesses of the scenarios and their internal narratives, as well as to identify the variables determining the adaptability of a given design process. The work, carried out in cooperation with local actors in Spain and France, revisits the tools for a culture of an "Urbanism of Uncertainty”, not only to reduce or deal with it but also to learn from the different scenarios it generates.

ABSTRACT. A discursive package loaded with fashionable and popular words stands amongst the most salient features of contemporary planning and policymaking. This comes with words being used as neutral, that is, deprived of any political content. As such, they empower the policy discourse, which, in turn, because apolitically built up, inspires a largely consensual ground that, in the end, brings legitimacy to decisions and is expected to endow territories with increased capacity for policy implementation, that is, the capacity to act. However, there is evidence indicating that this apolitical consensus is a fragile basis to support consequent action, or, in other words, the necessary translation of policy design into effectively transformative policy delivery. Accordingly, the search for territorial sustainability and resilience may imply a rupture with fragile consensuses based on words and concepts being used as empty signifiers. The argument is that words should gain meaning and become non-neutral, thus bringing the political back into the equation, and, most likely, nurturing a more conflictual, but productive, context. This paper, departing from the interrogations raised above, is an attempt to judge the validity of this argument. It draws largely on the observation of policy and planning exercises carried out in a number of European territorial contexts, which the author is or has been involved, either as an actor or as an observer. The burgeoning literature that delves into the so-called post-political society provides the paper theoretical frame of reference. For research purposes, the paper focuses on three specific words, - sustainability, resilience and participation-, ensuring, on the one hand, its match with the aims of this panel of Track 6, dedicated to ‘Urban transformations toward sustainable and resilient territories’, and, on the other hand, the attention required by the ubiquitous presence of those words in the current policy and planning discourse.

ABSTRACT. In recent decades, urban population has been rapidly growing, posing various challenges to the provision of ecosystem services and biodiversity protection in urban territories as well as generating unsustainable trajectories on the use of environmental resources. Cities can play a critical role in safeguarding the Earth’s Carrying Capacity and easing a stable Earth system. For that, cities do not only need to preserve and restore their natural capital and reduce negative impacts, but also to compensate for those impacts with nature positive measures outside their borders and mostly towards the rural territories that they depend on. Therefore, this study first intends to quantify the biological productivity of ecosystems in 18 Portuguese urban and rural municipalities through local-level Biocapacity accounting. For each territory, this assessment makes possible to identify the availability of ecological assets to then create innovative mechanisms to value, protect and promote natural capital. The study then look at an already existing environmental financing instrument at local level in Portugal to understand its capability to preserve the natural capital of rural and urban territories. Not surprisingly, our results indicate that rural municipalities with less population and high natural capital provide higher biocapacity per capita than more urbanized ones. Data from the implementation of the Municipal Fund for Environmental and Land Use Sustainability (FMSAU) in Portugal shows that, despite the fact that it has been legally foreseen since 2014 (law 31/2014, of May 30), it is still poorly implemented and mainly focusing on urban rehabilitation purposes. Besides, only municipal revenues from land-use management can be allocated and no other revenues are allowed. This paper argues that the implementation of local Biocapacity accounts offers a strategic opportunity to further elaborate on this Fund to guarantee a sustainable transition and territorial cohesion, and meet the challenge of ecosystem services and biodiversity protection.

ABSTRACT. Article 15, paragraph f) of the Portuguese Climate Law, legally innovates in climate diplomacy by setting the goal of recognizing the Stable Climate as a Common Heritage of Humankind in the United Nations. This goal opens a pathway for the process of an international discussion about the need to build an international legal framework that allows for the internalization of the benefits that ecosystems’ services provide to the functioning of the Earth System, as one single interconnected system, which would allow for the development of the necessary social structural conditions to reverse the increasing trend of destruction of our life support system and the disruption of a Stable Climate. Emissions GAPreport UNEP 2022 clearly stated that “Only an urgent system-wide transformation can avoid climate disaster”. This urgent transformation requires a paradigm shift in the concept of value, i.e. of what is now recognized as wealth creation in our societies. Only with this systemic change will it be possible to reverse the current trends of the need for extraction/destruction of natural resources to recognise wealth creation. This paradigm shift will foster a greater territorial balance and fairer relations between those who protect and provide ecosystem services, and those who consume them. Because the services that support a Stable Climate and life on Earth are dispersed on a global scale, only a global legal innovation can allow for internalizing the benefits that these services provide to human societies, making the true wealth creation that ecosystem services represent visible in economy. CLIMAGE.PT proposes to use the legal framework of Climate Heritage, to develop a system of accountancy where not only the cities’ negative impacts on the Stable Climate become visible in the Common Heritage, but also the activities that maintain/recover the ecosystems and restore the stability of climate, to build ecologically balanced territories.

ABSTRACT. Urban climate hazards caused by increased climate change effects have a wide range of direct and indirect impacts on cities, including more frequent heat and cold waves, shifting frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, and a rise in air pollution levels. These conditions threaten daily lives and urban lifestyles, such as transportation and energy infrastructure, resources availability, health and well-being, and economic activities. Trees and forests can provide key benefits and ecosystem services (ESS) (Nowak et al., 2008; Piao et al., 2009; Boyd et al., 2013; Costanza et al., 2014) by regulating temperatures, moderating stormwater, reducing energy demand, absorbing particulate matter, maintaining biodiversity, and sequestrating carbon. Green infrastructure approaches and nature-based solutions, specifically urban forestry (UF), have the potential to provide an extensive reservoir of techniques and strategies to optimize the metabolism of cities through enhanced resource cycling and emissions abatement. Studies have shown that urban metabolism studies can be effective as a benchmarking tool for measuring the environmental performance of cities. This research examines the linkages between urban forests, urban metabolism, and ESS in the context of growing climate change impacts, specifically focusing on urban climate hazards such as urban heat island, floods, and sea level rise in coastal cities. The research Urban Forests within Urban Flows aims to better understand how urban forests mediate the impacts of these hazards on urban ecosystems and the trade-offs and synergies between different ESS these forests provide. Furthermore, it's important to note that these solutions not only help to mitigate the effects of climate change towards more resilient cities but also bring multiple co-benefits, such as increased human well-being, biodiversity conservation, and social equity.

ABSTRACT. The global food system is increasingly acknowledged as among the largest drivers of global environmental change being responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions. From food production to consumption and waste, the food system cycle contributes to climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater use, interference with the global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and land-system change (Willett, et al., 2019). Therefore, understanding and then transforming the food system to mitigate climate change is becoming a high-level political priority for governance of cities and regions (Galli et al, 2020). Agriculture and food have long been recognised as important sectors for the European Union (EU) and more recently within smart specialisation framework – as smart specialisation domains.

Within this paper we want to ask how the European policy shift from smart specialisation strategies (S3) to smart specialisation strategies for sustainable and inclusive growth (S4+) (Moreno Pires et al., 2019) affect the role of the food system within Regional Innovation Systems priorities. Does the transition from S3 to S4 imply an explicit normative re-orientation of regional innovation strategies towards “more sustainable, more resilient and more secure food systems”? and whether it affects the way the food system is recognised and prioritised within innovation public policies in different regions and cities wthin those regions?

The research addresses those questions in a comparative study among policies in Portugal and Poland by investigating all available Regional Innovation Strategies S3 and S4 in both countries, encompassing two distinct time periods, namely, 2014–2020 and 2021–2027. A quantitative and qualitative analysis based on the text mining approach was performed to the regional strategies to assess the presence, frequency and the context of food system related key words (e.g., food, agriculture, sustainable), their categorization according to priority domains, typology of actors and type of actions.

ABSTRACT. This article employs a Comparative Historical Analysis approach to 1) identify historical patterns of amalgamation reforms in Europe and to 2) provide a macro-causal explanation to make sense of continuities and discontinuities in these reforms. I unpack four key elements of time required to investigate municipal amalgamations in a comparative manner: a) the historical time of adoption (enactment); b) the sequence of reforms across countries; c) the tempo of the reforms (radical vs. gradual); and d) the duration of the reform (fast vs. slow). In the search for a macro-causal explanation for amalgamation reforms, the paper highlights the different historical time of amalgamation reforms, with some taking place almost two centuries ago (Portugal, 1835), others early after WWII (e.g. Sweden, 1948-52), others much later (e.g., Greece, 1999; Georgia 2002-2006), more than once (e.g., Denmark, 1960s and 2004-05), or never (Spain). Next, I employ the elements of physical time – sequencing, tempo and duration – to uncover the complex causal processes and patterns that generated these territorial reforms.

ABSTRACT. The paper asks when mergers occur and compares the occurrences of municipal mergers in post-1990 Eastern, Central and Western Europe. The paper combines two theoretical approaches to explaining mergers. The agenda setting approach emphasizes how decision makers react to indications of problems with the jurisdictional structure, specifically problems related to fiscal stress, demographic change, and increased local policy scope. The institutional rules approach emphasizes that institutions pose varying restrictions! and opportunities for deciding to, for example, merge local government! s. The paper distinguishes between localized and nationalized national institutional rule systems for merger decisions. Empirically, the paper uses registry data and regression analysis.

ABSTRACT. This paper sheds light on the actions of political agents, although being legal, they harm public values and damage political trust. Framed under the literature on public-value failure, we analyze a political process known as amalgamation that led to the new territorial units' design. The key issue is to decide which should be merged and with whom. We study a case where our central hypothesis argues that mayors have designed the borders of the new SMU (sub-municipal units) in specific ways to gain political advantages regardless of other amalgamation criteria that could have been used to support the public interest. We study the Portuguese territorial reform of 2013. This case has been extensively analyzed in the aftermath of the amalgamation. We wish to give the spotlight to the moment prior to the territorial reform. Municipal amalgamation reforms have deserved the attention of many scholars. Tavares (2018) referred that the literature concerning the consequences of amalgamation can be summed up into three groups: economic efficiency, managerial implications, and democratic outcomes. Regular themes arising in the literature are size and economies of scale, territorial fragmentation, competition or effectiveness, fiscal decentralization, and electoral and political consequences. We build a matrix, capturing the political context of mayors at the time of the decision, which is framed by the political support of incumbents by the municipal assembly and the SMU. We draw four alternative strategies towards the amalgamation process. The alternatives swing between their level of importance to gain in terms of political support and the feasibility of their implementation. Building on the rational choice theory, we argue that given the opportunity, incumbents will favor a map that maximizes their political advantage and efficiency. Hence, incumbents will intentionally draw or reshape the line of the SMU to pack voters or endorse vote dilution to serve

ABSTRACT. Place naming reflects territorial identities and politics associated with reconstructing them, increasingly serving also as a marketing tool to enhance local economic development. Place (re)naming has been viewed as particularly fitting participatory democratic practices, such as popular referenda, aiming to enhance the sense of belonging while not directly implying on politically sensitive allocation of resources and powers. However, place naming may also prompt exclusion, sometimes through simplistic branding approaches, and the state may not be indifferent to self-determined place names, particularly in diverse contested spaces.

Israel is a politically centralized, diverse society, characterized by contested spaces, and by substantial local initiative to promote development. We examine whether a shift from top-down place naming led by nation-building considerations to decentralized participatory practices attuned to local preferences, such as those of Arab-Palestinian localities, has indeed occurred in recent decades. We assess whether local initiatives to change place names abandon the unique and historically-geographically distinguished in favor of generic branding, or reflect Jewish - Palestinian cleavages. We further discuss whether (limited) decentralization of place (re)naming decisions has led to more inclusionary or exclusionary practices and the outcomes of these decisions (were expectations fulfilled?).

Our study includes a systematic overview of (modest?) policy changes towards place naming in Israel since 1948, managed by the Government Names Committee. This is followed by in-depth examination of the eight renamings of cities and regional councils since 2000: motives, decision-making processes, participatory practices (particularly non-binding popular referenda) and outcomes. The study is based on a thorough examination of documents, including protocols of the Government Names Committee, and a set of interviews. The Israeli case reveals the limits of local participatory democracy in place renaming, the limits of political decentralization, but also the shortcomings of excessively centralized decision-making.

ABSTRACT. The problem of ‘horizontal neglect’ describes the disregard of spillovers on other jurisdictions at the same horizontal level of government. Horizontal problems are fundamental to decentralization. The individual municipality has no incentive to take benefits and costs to other municipalities of their own actions into account. Still, local authorities do not ignore these spillover effects. The paper aims to better understand under which circumstances local government authorities fail take other jurisdictions into account. We study how horizontal neglect can be reduced by social norms and by framing decisions so as to nudge local elected officials to show concern for other jurisdictions. The test bed is a clear case of negative spillover effects, namely that of overspending before municipal merges, using a survey experiment on Norwegian local councillors. We find that horizontal neglect is more likely among local councilors opposing a merger of their own municipality, and that priming local councilors with other issues reduces horizontal neglect, particularly among councilors who were opposed to merging. These results have both theoretical and practical implications.

ABSTRACT. The presentation was inspired by a rather old story – the history of the defense of the historic cinema theater “Romuva” in Kaunas. The building of the theater belongs to the architectural legacy of the Kaunas modernism. The origin of the conflict tensions coincided with the silent closure of the cinema in 2007. There were rumors that the entrepreneur who rented the theater wanted to convert historic building into pop cultural entertainment center including casinos and etc. It was not the economic reasons that led to the closure of Romuva (young group of people were screening non-commercial movies in Romuva and manage to pay rent). According to the civic activist who got engaged in the case, the enterprise was intentionally led towards bankruptcy with the aim to take the control over the building. When this became public big public fight started involving municipality, entrepreneur and civic activists. The case is well known in Lithuania. It was both the symbol of non-transparent privatization and crucial role of civil society, compensating municipality’s indecisiveness to pursue the public interest – to preserve the building making it available for the public. The paper discuses what activities, strategies and measures were used by civic groups, when they arose to reclaim historic building for public use and thus shaped communal forms and contributed to civil society activism. The groups used innovative mobilization strategies (wrapped in performative arts) which were embedded in concrete urban locations. After long, successful process, the theater was opened and is working, but civic activism faded away and what was once vivid civic accomplishments today is drowning in a new type of “professionalism” and “bureaucracy”. Could it be, that the Romuva case prompts as a reflection on the broader issue, i.e., changing civic participation forms and its meaning in contemporary Lithuania?

ABSTRACT. The Pame (Let’s go) Kaimakli- PK festival started the same year of the birth of the ‘Urban Gorillas’- UG by the members of this NGO. It takes place in the divided Kaimakli, part of the divided capital of the divided island country of Cyprus. One of the major aims of the UG- the appropriation of the cities by creative actions has been tested since 2013 in this traditional neighborhood along the dividing Buffer Zone and its no-man land. The neighborhood - an amalgamation of disparate groups of people, the elder residents, the immigrants that found a refuge here, the newcomers that were attracted by the charm of its contested and abandoned conditions served as the unique base of testing innovative urban approaches. In collaboration with the inhabitants of Kaimakli and in synergy with various local and foreign partners, notions of ephemeral and spontaneous urbanism were implemented to tackle with its various social and environmental issues. Diverse thematic and actions of each year PK festival introduced mechanisms of enhancing the sense of belonging and engaged Kaimakli’s people with democratic participatory processes. Among others, the ‘open houses’ invited the public life in the private properties while the ‘open windows’ presented cultures from the houses. The ‘adopt an artist’ brought the art and the artists in the neighborhood as part of the everyday life. The ‘open kitchens’ gave ‘voices’ to the usually unheard immigrants while the ‘Peacelab’ stitched the ‘green line’ by constructing and flying kites over it. These actions strengthened the sense of a community and provided insights for democratic processes, while the collaboration with the municipality opened new perspectives about urban approaches and possibilities of bottom up rather than top-down methods. The until recently neglected neighborhood serves as a testing base for social resilience of cities of thriving crises and divisions.

ABSTRACT. There is a broad academic as well as political consensus concerning desirability of citizens’ participation in designing public policies. Support for participative and civic inclusive practises goes across political levels as well as political spectrum which is reflected in application and study of wide scale of democratic innovations (DI). While the main focus is on the modes and types of citizen participation, we are interested in a less explored perspective of these processes, which is the question of the perception and evaluation of citizen participation by political decision-makers. Specifically, we focus on local decision-makers (the mayors) and the most widespread practice of democratic innovation characteristic for local level, which is participatory budgeting (PB). Based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 24 mayors of small and medium sized cities in three Central European countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland) we reflect on the attitudes of local political leaders towards civic participation within defined participatory processes (PB).

The main aim of our research is to bring cross-national empirical insights into the research of the attitudes of local political leaders towards citizens’ participation on the level of small and medium sized cities. We are interested especially in their motives (why they introduced or continue the participatory practise of PB), and how they understand and value the course, results and possibly benefits of citizens’ engagement and influence in the decisions about the distribution of scarce financial resources.

ABSTRACT. Communities in remote coastal towns, in Iceland and beyond the Arctic and sub-Arctic, depend on the resources of the sea to survive; yet human activities severely impact marine ecosystems. Coastal and marine spatial planning aims at ecosystem-based management of ocean resources, bringing different stakeholders and the public together to discuss their conflicts of interest and forge a sustainable path forward. Public participation is a crucial element to make this planning process democratically legitimate and sustainable in the long-term. Planning of the sea space is new to Iceland and two pilot projects were initiated in the Eastfjords and Westfjords regions in 2019 as well as one future planning process approved for the North of country in Eyjafjörður and Skjálfandi Bay.

To assess local community members’ perceptions on public participation in these ongoing planning processes, data was collected through semi-structured interviews, conversations, observations and analysis of documentation in three case studies in the Eastfjords, Westfjords and Skjálfandi Bay. As well as local communities’ perceptions on participation and their active engagement in the marine planning process, this study also explores and situates barriers to community participation in this unique context. The results indicate a need for more in-depth communication about the planning process and marine issues in the communities as well as an urgent need for inclusion of the public into coastal and marine planning.

ABSTRACT. This paper explores democracy practices in the context of urban gardening on two different levels. First, local level democracy among collaborative processes between the citizens (gardeners) and the city organization, and second, democratic practices and communality forming inside the gardening groups. In addition, the paper pays attention to the possible barriers hindering democracy practices on these two levels.

Data for the study is collected in Tampere, Finland, from several gardening case studies. This paper combines the interviews of city officers and gardeners and participatory observation in social media, e-mail lists, meetings and on gardening sites.

For urban gardeners, it often is crucial to get political or administrative support in the planning and design phases of gardening initiative, whereas more loose control and room for self-organization are needed later, among initiation and management phases (see Fox-Kämper at al. 2018). Urban gardening provides – in addition to tasty vegetables – social benefits as it offers meaningful activities among community and raises the sense of belonging to the city.

However, the sense of belonging and community forming are not self-evident processes. Participatory democracy practices require the city authorities to get into an open dialogue with gardeners, who are often seen as a marginal group using direct democracy and direct action. In addition, there may be factors that undermine democracy and communality inside the gardening community itself, such as unclear inner rules, differing working cultures or conflicting sets of values.