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Publication Open Access 25 years after transformation: changes in spatial distribution of production activities in the case study of Wroclaw, Poland(AESOP, 2015) Barski, Jan; Barski, JacekIn the post-industrial, free-market economy, the ability of spatial planning to truly influence the location choices of business owners is limited, while the vast majority of means of production are in non-public hands. On top of that, coordinating spatial policies and decisions between administrative entities is a major challenge in numerous places in Europe. This paper offers a convenient case study of a medium-sized European city (Wroclaw, Poland) and an analysis of the spatial management complication which has observable consequences for the spatial structure and economic functioning of the city. The paper examines the situation through the lens of production and manufacturing activities (with a cautious approach to the term industry). The case is analysed in two inseparable ways: spatial and economic; parallel to that, the discussion is developed on the issue of the interconnection of policymaking in the metropolitan area (the city vs its surrounding rural communes). the changes in employment in subsequent sectors of the metropolitan area in the 25 years since the political transformation of Poland while keeping an eye on the physical, spatial changes of the aforementioned metropolitan area. The secondary output of the paper is outlining the suburbanisation processes of large Polish cities, however as seen not from the most frequently presented perspectives (such as housing or transportation), but from a more economy- and spatial responsibility-focused one.Publication Open Access A Spatial Study on Creative Community around Tongji University in Shanghai Based on the Data Analysis of Professional Social Network(AESOP, 2015) Wang, Sicheng; Le, Keke; Lin, JiayingCreative city is the current hotspot in urban planning against the background of urbanization and economic transition in China The urban zone around Tongji University in Shanghai is a typical creative community, which has undergone more than 20 years of development, from the spontaneous clustering of creative industries to organized planning and managing led by local authorities This study focuses on the history and future trend of this community People element of a creative city for that University and Company would function University is the institution for educating people, while Company provide for the working of People. Consequently, the links among People, University Company reflect the creativity performance of a community This study visualizes this relevance with methods of data analysis The famous international professional social network LinkedIn is taken as the information of personal identity, education and employment of individuals in creative industries within Tongji Rim are collected from users homepages Through analysis of the intrinsic link between the research objects by data quantification and statistical distribution observation, characteristics and internal factors of development of a university-oriented creative industries area has been observed.Publication Open Access A tale of two cities: comparative studies of urban-rural cohesion development policies between chengdu and Chongqing in China(AESOP, 2015) Gan, Xinyue; Chen, JianbinSeparate developments of Chinese urban and rural areas were caused by urban-rural dualistic system, which seriously impeded urbanization process in China. Chengdu and Chongqing were two pioneer cities of promoting urban-rural cohesion. They have adjacent location and similar background, while their policies were not exactly the same. This article had a review of the urban-rural cohesion policies and their consequences in this two cities and pointed out the main features of them. Comparative analysis of the reasons for the different polices in Chengdu and Chongqing is presented in the end. According to the analysis, Chengdu adopted integrated management which put rural elements like the land, capital and the labor force into market to promote urban-rural cohesion. Market played a more significant role than the government in Chengdu case. However there was an opposite situation in Chongqing where the government relied on the power to dragged rural elements into market circulation. Government dominated the whole process in Chongqing case. The urbanization rate change indicated that polices in Chengdu which rested on market are more efficient and more sustainable than those in Chongqing. The conclusion is that although it will take a longtime to establish the order of the market, it will have a steadier, more reasonable, efficient and sustainable processes and results than a strong governmentled transformation which can get instant results. If there is no orderly market, once the pressure of government has been taken away, the transformation will cease. Therefor market should lead the urbanrural cohesion with the support of government’s authority. Both of them are indispensable.Publication Open Access Addressing fuzzy responsibilities with informal, flexible instruments: landscape parks and regional planning (DRAFT – not to be cited)(AESOP, 2015) Frank, Andrea I.Green belts, smart growth or minimum residential densities have been some of the planning policies and instruments employed to reduce low-density, fragmented urbanisation that is generally deemed unsustainable. However, success of such tools in metropolitan, geopolitically fragmented areas involving many different municipalities is often hampered by a combination of lack of political will and diffuse (or fuzzy ) responsibilities in multi-actor settings. Indeed many traditional planning instruments are inadequate at regional scales. This paper reviews the emerging concept of regional landscape parks in various European countries as a mostly informal instrument that nevertheless can shape settlement patterns at regional scale in multi-actor governance settings. While drawing on several examples throughout Europe the Stuttgart Region s Landscape Park is used as m study. The development of the landscape park is not a legally required activity within the planning system, yet there is evidence that the voluntary leadership of the regional planning association in developing the Regional Landscape Park complements traditional landscape management and nature preservation instruments. The policy language actively broadens the discourse around landscape conservation and urban development to supersede the traditional distinctions of urban and natural areas. This allows for the inclusion of economic, social, environmental and cultural arguments in decision making regarding landscape, land use and nature protection. The analysis suggests that by drawing flexibly on ideas and concepts from different disciplines a wide range of actors and agencies can proclaim benefit and in turn assume responsibility to help build a productive, healthy, and ecologically valuable urban regional landscape.Publication Open Access Advantages of self-organisation in urban planning – local lessons of urban development in Helsinki metropolitan region(AESOP, 2015) Wallin, SirkkuThe objective of urban planning has been to plan and design well-functioning urban environments. However, many urban problems are complicating this task (Christaller, 1933; Bettencourt and al., 2007) and the expanding scope and scale of problems have turned the latter into ´wicked` ones. Wicked problems are intricate by nature comprising several environmental and societal issues at the same time (Skaburskis, 2008; Weber and Khademian, 2008). There has been two ways to respond to wicked problems in urban planning. The first one has focused on the substance of planning, aiming at a better physical appearance and performance of urban functions. The second one has laid emphasis on the procedure; processes, their actors and the stages of planning. Unfortunately, the analysis of the current urban development of the Helsinki Metropolitan Region reveals severe defects in the application of both approaches. I will reflect in the following on the development of a Helsinki neighbourhood called Herttoniemi. As one of the oldest suburbs of the capital city, with a central location and good accessibility, it has followed the urban transformation of the Metropolitan Region and faced the problems and promises of urbanization: shortage of housing, required urban densification, and belt-tightening of public expenses which have transformed the neighbourhood. The population has increased up to 53 000 inhabitants during the past ten years, and the change will continue (Statistical Districts, 2014; Helsinki City Plan Draft, 2015). Herttoniemi can be regarded as the mirror of urban development in the Helsinki region in which the internal and external push and pull factors take turns, enabling and constraining one another.Publication Open Access Ambiguous risks, fixed responsibilities : urban planning in Jerusalem(AESOP, 2015) Bar, RoniUrban resilience has been widely adopted by planning scholars and practitioners as a framework for managing complexity and contingency. However, the term is not only over-ambiguous, but is also frequently adopted a-critically into planning policies. Therefore, the paper uses the concept of risk (rather than resilience) in order to investigate the way planners, define, prioritize and respond to risks. This is explored as a normative decision (and action) with ethical implications, rather than a purely professional one. Acknowledging the need to investigate both the planning process and the physical environment, the paper focuses on the prioritization of risks, planners’ response concretization of risk perceptions in the urban environment through urban planning and design. These issues are investigated in Jerusalem’s city center, an area that has witnessed attacks and has been going through a process of densification and renewal. Findings reveal that planners assume a fixed responsibility and distinguish between two types of risk: (a) economic-demographic risks, which are seen as central, and (b) security risks, which are disregarded as irrelevant and were not considered in the plan. Despite this distinction, the analysis reveals correlations between economic and security interests, demonstrating the connection between security practices and neo-liberal urban regeneration. The last section of the paper acknowledges the importance to resist the fortification of urban spaces, yet warn that ignoring certain risks in a conflictual arena may reflect a dismissal of the conflict itself, as well as urban planning’s role in perpetuating unjust circumstancesPublication Open Access An open game for dissent: towards critical tools for collaborative processes of production of space(AESOP, 2015) Silva, Ana Paula de AssisThis paper presents the conception and application of a game designed for and p teenagers living in a slum area in Brazil that is currently under structural inter large spatial transformation project. The conception of this game is based on the segregation of the city. Players have been invited to deconstruct such a propo encouraged to imagine other forms of occupation and enjoyment of their environment RanciŁre’s account of dissent will be discussed as a counterpoint to the cons current participatory policies in an attempt to reveal their limitations regard potential. Flosser’s concept of open game will also be discussed as an alternative of critical tools for collaborative processes of production of space. The outcome presented in order to discuss the capacity of games to overcome social obstaclesPublication Open Access Analysis for the Policy of Reorganizing Rural residential patches in China and the Dilemma of Ecological Niche in China’s Urban and Rural Areas(AESOP, 2015) Yue, Yufeng; Li, Weiqiang Wang JianWith the rapid economic development and significant urbanization in China, dual-structure phenomenon, caused by the great gap of development level in urban and rural areas, has become increasingly prominent. Compared with the urban areas, the development in terms of social, economic and cultural aspects in rural areas has encountered underlying dilemma. To narrow the gap between urban and rural development, the Ministry of Land and Resources has proposed planning policy for reorganizing rural lands, trying to achieve integration of the population and land resources in agricultural areas and construction of modern intensive rural residential areas to promote the overall development in urban and rural areas, and realize the modernization goals for the benefit of rural areas, agriculture industry and peasants there. This paper is aimed to adopt the research perspective and method of ecological niche theory, establish the ecological niche expansion model and analyse the theory essence of the Reorganization of rural residential patches to summarize the internal change mechanisms of the ecological niche in urban and rural areas during the process of consolidation. Combined with author’s planning and research in Henan Province, Chinese agricultural populous province, the empirical analysis could be conducted to determine the niche development trend in urban and rural areas during the course of the consolidation, so as to propose a value judgment orientation for China rural governance and planning policy development, as well as the discussions on the niche dilemma and path direction of the rural development in China.Publication Open Access Approaching a Polycentric and Compact Mode of Sustainable Urban Development: the Case of Shanghai(AESOP, 2015) Chen, Jianbin; Gan, XinyueThis paper discusses issues relating to the urban structure of contemporary megalopolises in China. As the urbanization rate is over 50% in China, the New Mode of Urbanization Planning (2014-2020) specifies new ways for Chinese cities to optimize their urban structure. Many Chinese megalopolises propose to focus future urban development plans on the polycentric and compact urban structure that would address sustainable development concerns. Shanghai is one of the cities taking the lead in adopting this mode. This paper also reviews theories about both urban polycentric structure and compact city in order to identify new ways to integrate them. To understand how this integrated mode of urban development might work, an urban concept model is established to analyze the relationships between inner city, suburbs, new districts and new towns. Taking Shanghai as an example and making reviews of its previous planning, this research explores the reasons and motivations for adopting the integrated mode and examines the effect of the spatial expansion of population and industry, as well as the role of the intervention and organization of government. This research also shows how Shanghai’s urban structure has trans monocentric system towards a polycentric structure with compact form. The paper’s final section presents a quantitative and qualitative analysis of stage of approaching the polycentric and compact urban structure. Preliminary findings indicates that, for China’s megalopolises, this development mode is both sustainable and particularly well suited national conditions.Publication Open Access Area vasta 2.0 a new form of localism in Italy: challenges, risks and opportunities for spatial planning across local boundaries(AESOP, 2015) Valeria, LinguaThe papers aims to understand the forms and outcomes of cooperative spatial planning practices at a supra-local level in Italy. Assuming co-operation as one of the key challenges for planning strategically across local boundaries, the research will deal with the rescaling of formal planning activities carried out by joint local authorities, under a cooperative attitude that, in a Localism era, is supposed to replace sub-regional planning strategies. The research focuses on the changes occurring in the Italian planning system after the Laws n. 135/2012 and 56/2014 that, in the name of the spending review, obligate the 10 main regional cities to form joint metropolitan city governments by abolishing the provincial level, and municipalities with certain population requirements to come together into “Unions of competences”, including spatial planning. Of course, the need of co-operation on strategic issues is not new in Italy. Some institutions have an old history of working together to address planning issues of common concern. Nevertheless, the emergence of cooperation as a duty certainly poses some questions concerning the redefinition of planning spaces and responsibilities, the role of the planner, the access to the cooperative arena, the need for regional design practices. Through the analysis of some medium cities socio-economic and spatial planning contexts, the paper discusses the forms of governance in place, the different boundaries they assume and the responsibilities they encounter. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the way strategic spatial planning can works in Italy, in order to define the issues to tackle and further directions for research.Publication Open Access Assessing land take implications for environmental justice: a case study using the ecosystem services approach(AESOP, 2015) Assennato, Francesca; Congedo, Luca; Di Salvo, Giacomina; Strollo, AndreaLand take is consuming a non-renewable resource and an essential one to human wellbeing?, with relevant social impacts and different implications as far as several sectors of the economy are concerned (EC, 2012). Assuming that (a) right livelihood is based on ecological balance and social justice (Shiva, 2008) land take may be considered as an unjust practice, in terms of fair share, equal opportunities, recognition and participation of present and future generations. Within the frame of the Land System Science (Verburg et al., 2013; Turner et al., 2013), the relationships between land take and environmental justice is analysed through the lens of the ecosystem services (ES) approach (MEA, 2005). ES evaluation is a challenge to be undertaken by planners (De Groot et al. 2010) because it enables the assessment of the benefits that the natural environment provides to human well-being and can help to assess environmental justice claims. A case study has been carried out for one of Rom 15 wards, the X Municipality, where large amount of green land was built up in recent years and more is expected in the future causing relevant impacts such as increasing flood risk, overloading of existing drainage and sewage systems, loss of agricultural land, natural area fragmentation. A GISbased semi quantitative assessment of relevant ES has been conducted, and a number of experts (including scientists and local administrators) have been consulted to gather their views on values and responsibilities connected to land use change occurred in the area. The case study draws out lessons for an analytical framework that operationalizes the ecosystem services approach to assess environmental justice land take implications.Publication Open Access Assessment of public participation process by using urban coding methodology in urban design: case study Bostanci urban block(AESOP, 2015) Basak, MerveOne of the most important pillars of social dimension in urban design, participation, basically means the integration of users into the urban design processes. Participatory design processes seek a balance among variable thoughts that belong to users. Participation requires flexibility in the production of urban spaces since it theoretically needs to bring different thoughts together and let them change in the context of design goals.Item Open Access Beetham Beetham Beetham: Banal Luxury and ‘Quality Places’(AESOP, 2010) Jefferies, TomThe UK has seen the longest period of boom in the construction industry since WW2, with continuous growth between 1993 and 2007, a context that dramatically and radically changed following the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The boom was characterised by a revived focus on the city centre as a space where regeneration of post-industrial cities could be catalysed in an environment that saw overt competition between cities to be the best. The boom also coincided with the raising in public consciousness of design as a qualitative and desirable commodity through exposure in popular media and encapsulation of ‘quality’ in political and policy objectives. This in turn has led to the introduction of new areas of built environment focussed policy and guidance aiming to ensure design ‘quality’ that embodies the values of ‘place’ in both urban space and built form. Place intersects the uniqueness of location with culture. This raises the question ‘If each city is different why are new places all so similar?’Item Open Access Book of Abstracts : ACSP-AESOP 4th Joint Congress Chicago, Illinois, July 6-11, 2008(AESOP, 2008)The abstracts are first sorted by track, then by the last name of the presenting author. The final printed program distributed in Chicago and posted to the web following the Congress will also list the presenting author first. For roundtables, the moderators name is listed first. New abstract numbers have been assigned to the works and these numbers will also reference the abstracts in the final printed program. The author index follows this introduction. A keyword index is provided at the back of this publication. The Joint Congress Committee will publish a compact disk of conference abstracts. In addition, we are providing authors the opportunity to make their full papers available to Congress attendees included on the same disk. In considering whether to take advantage of this opportunity, you should be aware of a potential pitfall in providing the full paper via the conference compact disk. The issue is that some peer-reviewed journals (many in the U.S.) consider such reproduction to be prior publication and will not review for publication a paper disseminated in this way. It would be prudent to discuss this issue with the editor of a publication outlet you may be targeting prior to submitting your full conference paper for inclusion on the conference compact disk. If you are interested in having your paper available via the conference CD, please email your final PDF to ddodd@acsp.org no later than June 2, 2008. Final papers can not be edited by the Congress staff after we receive them. You may submit an edited completed paper in another PDF file. As indicated in the Call for Papers, the abstracts included in this book are UNEDITED and are included as they were submitted to the on-line abstract submission system. If you discover an error by Congress staff in the creation of this book, please let us know immediately by contacting ddodd@acsp.org, but there will be no editing of individual abstracts. Author additions, withdrawals and presentation title edits may be provided for the final printed program only. We will not incorporate substitution of one work for another by the same author, and only the peer-reviewed, accepted work can be presented at the Congress. As a reminder, the presentation schedule for the Joint Congress will be created in the second week of May, so it will be approximately the third week of May before email notifications are delivered with your presentation time. We cannot re-schedule presentations according to personal travel itineraries. If you must withdraw your presentation, please let us know as soon as possible by contacting ddodd@acsp.org.Publication Open Access Publication Open Access Item Open Access Publication Open Access Book of abstracts : Space is Luxury, 24th AESOP Annual Conference, Aalto University, FInland, July 7-10 2010(AESOP, 2010) Ilmonen, Mervi; Ache, PeterDear Participants! Tervetuloa - Välkommen – Welcome to space is luxury — the 24th AESOP Annual Conference In 2010, the world is clearly one that can be called 'urban'. In relative terms, more than half of the world's population dwells in urban settings — about one billion under 'slum conditions'. Having quality space available equals commanding a 'luxury'! Planning and urban design are key factors in shaping and managing space and generate the wished for quality spaces. The concept of space and concomitantly that of spatial quality includes different meanings and dimensions. Space is physical, including architecture and urban form. Space is also socially constructed through various forms of human interventions. Space is contested and a reason for serious conflicts. Space is presented and space represents. For planning, the management of the competing uses for space requires complex interventions. The making of better places that are valued and have identity is an enduring ambition of planning. And, returning to the start of this brief reflection, the major challenge of spatial planning is to find solutions for a more sustainable urban millennium. Space is expensive and exhaustive, a luxury we cannot afford any longer, if it means excessive use of space in terms of energy inefficiency and traffic pollution. The Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at Aalto University welcomes more than six hundred planning scholars and professionals from all over the world to Finland to discuss the manifold issues of space is luxury and to explore the multitude of related planning issues. As a participant, with this Book of Abstracts you hold one of the many elements in your hands which were produced for this conference with the help or input of a number of people. First of all, we need to mention here the Track Co-Chairs who so effectively worked together and helped us create an event that is stimulating and challenging in its scientific content. Following on to the Track Invitation Texts, the Call for Papers was issued in October 2009. Abstract submission was possible during January 2010. Track Co-Chairs provided an assessment of the abstracts until mid March 2010. LOC checked the outcome and also proposed some re-arrangements to balance out tracks in terms of paper presentations. From April onwards, notifications of acceptance were sent out to authors and we started scheduling tracks and sessions. All of this profited from the invaluable support of our international teams of Track Co-Chairs (see list on following pages).The 24th AESOP Annual Conference generated a huge interest. More than six hundred abstracts were submitted out of which more than five hundred papers were accepted — which finally translated into slightly more than four hundred and fifty abstracts presented in this book. All in all a very laborious process, for which we would like to thank especially Mikko Johansson who was the web master of the conference (and who also became a first time father during the process. Congratulations!). AESOP 2010 was also used to implement new policies towards a higher scientific quality of AESOP conferences. LOC provided for that purpose more detailed prescriptions regarding abstract submission. LOC also followed in part the proposal to introduce different paper categories, anchor papers (having more floor for presentation but also requiring a full draft paper) or distributed papers. This policy received a mixed echo from many sides — a good indication of the interest that the AESOP community has in such issues. Thanks for sharing your many views on the pros and cons of such a policy. It is certain, that AESOP needs to continue its discussion about quality standards in conferences. Last, we would of course like to thank all authors and presenters for their interest in the 24th AESOP Annual Conference. Without your intellectual contributions, without the research work which you do at your home institutions, without your willingness to share, present and discuss this knowledge, such a conference would have not been possible. This book of abstracts has been organized along the sixteen main tracks of the conference. In each section, at the beginning the reader will find the Track Invitation Text that was provided by Track Co-Chairs for the Call for Papers. This will be followed by an alphabetical listing of the abstracts of all those authors, who met the registration deadline of May 31st 2010. At the end of the Book of Abstracts, again an alphabetical list of all authors is provided, which the reader can use to find authors across all tracks. Finally, we would like to thank Marina Johansson, who brought together this Book of Abstracts in a very efficient way. Thank You! Sydämelliset ja Iämpimät kiitoksemme! Mervi Ilmonen & Peter Ache Local Organising CommitteeItem Open Access Book of abstracts : The Dream of a greater Europe, Vienna, Austria, July 13-17, 2005(AESOP, 2005) Voigt, Andreas; Kanonier, ArthurThis Book of Abstracts is intended to serve as a valuable guidance for the 2005 AESOP Congress, enabling the participants to organise their schedules for “The Dream of a GREATER Europe”. The book in hand can serve as a quick reference to the main aspects of the many different issues arising for the planning profession in Europe within the unification process. But in a deeper sense, it is also intended to represent a focal point, a key node in the network of communication among the many disciplines which have their part to play in the challenges of the enlargement process. Due to the variety of topics addressed as well as the large number of abstracts we received, the abstracts are structured by topic in the main tracks and by alphabetical order of the author’s surname within each topic. An alphabetical person index at the end of this book will assist you in finding articles. On the basis of the general theme “The Dream of a GREATER Europe” and 15 thematic tracks including detailed track statements, the conference received over 500 abstracts from 45 countries worldwide. The abstracts were blind-reviewed by an international jury consisting of 29 track chairs and additional anonymous readers who scored the papers and entered more than 700 reviews and comments, thus making an essential contribution to scientific quality assurance. The jury members were assigned in accordance with their fields of expertise and the papers’ keywords. The scores were used as the basis for selecting papers for the conference. Reviews and comments were delivered to the authors in order to improve the quality of the full papers. Authors could select between the following further procedures for submitting full papers: – Best AESOP Congress Paper Procedure: as part of a general effort to promote the submission and dissemination of high quality congress papers, AESOP in cooperation with the local organizing committee organized the first ”Best AESOP Congress Paper Competition” - full papers had to be sent in via the electronic submission interface; – AESOP Optional Standard Procedure: full papers had to be sent in via the electronic submission interface; – AESOP Standard Procedure: full paper is to be delivered at the conference. A total of 410 papers are now being presented; many of these contributions brought new knowledge and/or extended and improved on the previous status of information. While we have made every effort to achieve uniformity of style, the presented results and the final shape of the manuscript remain the sole responsibility of the presenting authors. Two Chairs were responsible for each Track (namely: Andreas Faludi, Karina Pallagst, Simin Davoudi, Walter Schönwandt, Stanley Stein, Marco van der Land, Jens S. Dangschat, Rachelle Alterman, Benjamin Davy, Marcel Bazin, Alex Fubini, Angela Hull, Luca Bertolini, Alan Reeve, Ivan Stanic, Klaus R. Kunzmann, Mervi Ilmonen, Jørgen Amdam, Garri Raagmaa, Alessandro Balducci, Louis Albrechts, Bohdan Tscherkes, Andreas Hofer, Bob Martens, Andrew Roberts, Gerlind Weber, Norio Okada, Wilfried Schönbäck), the task of each being to substantiate the thematic approach of the respective Track within his/her scope of discretion. We greatly appreciate the intensive cooperation and excellent support! We would also like to express our sincere thanks to the reviewing team for shepherding these abstracts to publication. The whole submission and reviewing procedure was supported by an electronic database. A simple version of the current AESOP2005 solution was made available in 2001 and went through a process of continuing improvements/adaptations. The solution was customized for the IAPS 2004 conference within the framework of the SciX project. The contributions to AESOP’05 Vienna (including full papers as far as available) are accessible via this system. The local organizing team would like to thank Tomo Cerovsek of the University of Ljubljana who developed and customized the system and Bob Martens of the Vienna University of Technology for their wonderful support.Publication Open Access Book of proceedings : Definite Space – Fuzzy Responsibility, 29th Annual AESOP 2015 Congress July 13–16, 2015 | Prague, Czech Republic(AESOP, 2015) Macoun, Milan; Maier, KarelDear members and friends of the AESOP community, Welcome in Prague for the 2015 annual AESOP Congress! In these challenging and troubled times, the unpredictable and contested nature of our shared spaces forces us to develop innovative planning research, in the light of intellectual freedom, democratic enhancement of differences, cooperation, ethics and justice. This requires a deep sense of responsibility, individually as well as collectively, considering our ethical sensitivity, civic engagement and research commitment as parts of a wider social practice. This issue – and the consequential dialectical tension – is at the core of the AESOP Prague Congress; in fact, the gap between sprawled powers and blurred sense of responsibility is the focus of the 2015 Congress debates. According to its intriguing title “Definite space – fuzzy responsibility”, the Prague Congress asks us: who should take responsibility for how cities and regions are being changed? Our community will face this difficult question, with hundreds of papers and presences in Prague. This is a great occasion in order to consider whether anything systematic can be said about how such ethical and political issues arise, hence how they might be understood, and addressed today. The AESOP Prague Congress also provides an opportunity for researchers in planning to think about the implications for their work of the changes in governance and planning which have been both a spur for, and object of, their academic work. In large measure, these derive from a perennial set of ethical issues surrounding research which seeks to inform public policy. There are ethical challenges which are distinctive of the kind of research which at least some planning researchers undertake, in contexts of social tension and/or conflict, sometimes associated with clear oppression and injustice. These circumstances are only more extreme versions of the challenge to any planning scholar, because the definition and use of space is bound up with social justice in the broadest sense, and the way power – and governmental responsibility – is exercised in society. Consequently, one of the purposes of the Congress is to explore ways of thinking about planning which considers the social context of ethical perception and public political behaviour. By doing this, we hope to shift the emphasis of discussion from individual and/or occasional probity to those circumstances that help planners and public officials develop and use sound ethical judgement: in public life, in society, in our cities as well as in our schools. Although the moral landscape within which planning is undertaken is not an easy one to read or traverse, the Conference debate and contributions will certainly identify significant planning issues which can constitute part of an agenda for discussion among researchers and policy-makers. Due to the excellent and terrific work of the Prague Local Organizing Committee, the AESOP Congress 2015 is providing the best environment for all this, and I wish a fruitful and intellectually attractive experience to all the participants! Francesco Lo Piccolo