Transactions of the Association of European Schools of Planning
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The tragedy of the time horizon: Navigating short-termism for long-term sustainability
Get PDFFuture-orientated thinking needs to be strengthened in planning and policy making to respond to the challenges posed by ‘presentism’. Despite the inherent uncertainty of the future, effective planning and policy making require the ability to envision potential future developments and implications of today´s decisions. The ’tragedy of the time horizon’ emphasises the detrimental effects of short-term thinking on various domains, including the environment, economic stability, and social equity. It encompasses the multifaceted challenges posed by short-term thinking and the neglect of long-term consequences. To combat this, we must boost our future literacy, i.e. the capacity to imagine, read, and use the future, both at the individual and societal levels. Future literacy is vital for navigating uncertainty, making strategic decisions, embracing innovation, enhancing social resilience, and promoting sustainable development. This requires a collective effort to improve future literacy skills, foster imagination and creativity, and overcome the challenges of ‘the tyranny of now’. Envisioning positive futures is crucial for inspiring hope, collaboration, and informed decision-making,particularly in a rapidly changing world
“Don’t despise us!”: Addressing the irrelevance of the vulnerable in public space
Get PDFThis paper attempts to develop a novel insight into Hannah Arendt’s socio-political theories in order to examine and alleviate the socio-spatial exclusion of the vulnerable by greater society. It utilises Arendt’s classification of the terms ‘communal’ and ‘irrelevant’ as a pair of opposing concepts in which the state of ‘vulnerability’ is associated with being deemed to be ‘irrelevant’ within society. The study addresses the exclusionary qualities of public spaces by focusing on the complex relationships observed between these concepts in Turkey through a content analysis of 35 national satire magazines and 30 YouTube channels that reflect on various states and perceptions of vulnerability in Turkish society and culture. It concludes with a series of recommendations by which to close the gap within the communal-irrelevant duality that could enhance vulnerable individuals’ urban rights
Public Space and Play Theory: Reading Aachen through the Play Theory
No full textPublic spaces serve as the sensory system of urban life, and are crucial for interconnecting individuals, ideas, and cultures within the fabric of cities. This study provides a fresh interpretation of public spaces by examining people’s activities from a new perspective. By applying play theory to public space analysis, the study uncovers spontaneous and unplanned activities and the novel relationships which exist between users and their environments. In so doing it paves the way for a new approach to public space design.
With a focus on Aachen as a place of play, this study seeks to develop urban design tools that take into account users’ leisure time activities. By recognizing the unique relationships that play can create between individuals and their surroundings in terms of perceptions, intentions, actions, and uses of space, the research encourages a fresh perspective on urban design tools. Ultimately, the findings of this study offer a new design approach for creating public spaces that are more participating, inclusive, and user-centred
'Levelling Up' Post-Industrial City-Regions in England
Get PDFThe UK government’s ‘Levelling Up’ agenda represents the latest attempt to address long-standing inter-regional socio-economic disparities in England. This paper assesses how the Levelling Up The UK White Paper, published in early 2022, frames the problem of interregional inequality and the potential of the proposed solutions contained within the paper to address the problem. We argue that the Levelling Up agenda as currently framed is likely to be too spatially vague to achieve meaningful reductions in the level of interregional inequality in England, and suggest that any attempts to improve the economic performance of regions outside of London and the South East should focus on the fortunes of England’s ‘second-tier’ city-regions. Using Liverpool City Region as a case study area, we discuss three key themes included in the white paper and identify some areas where additional policy focus will be required to meet the UK government’s aspirations
Forgotten Italy: Spaces and identities of a changing geography
Get PDFThe forgotten Italian territories have almost always been understood as compact physical and conceptual spaces. While changing its terms, borders, and issues from time to time, the forgotten regions have been described through a homogeneous image: Mezzogiorno, peripheries and Inner Areas. Such a representation has effects both in conceptualization and efforts taken to recompose the gaps between the forgotten territories and the most active parts. Yet, in recent years, the numerous crises of the 21st century have shattered this compact representation and brought out new geography of forgotten Italy, the Italia di mezzo. The new geography is no longer linked only to the North-South dichotomy and does not concern only the metropolitan suburbs or inland areas. The new geography highlights how to be forgotten now is also a piece on the margins of public policies, underestimated by scientific research but at the center of the twentieth-century urbanization process and the recent crisis
Editorial: Left Behind Regions in Europe and Beyond
Get PDFThe causes and impacts of new and enduring regional inequalities have been much debated in many regions and countries around the globe over the past decade. This has been reflected in public and political discourse with references to and imaginaries of so-called ‘forgotten’ or ‘left behind’ regions and peripheral territories. Discourses and movements of political discontent have sparked off renewed debates on uneven development and the experience of left-behind places, which struggle with persistent social and economic challenges and might appear to be seen as ‘places that don’t matter’ (Rodríguez-Pose, 2018)
Forgotten territories in Europe : lessons from Italy, Spain, and Poland.
Get PDFThis paper presents the results of a comparative research on place-based policies towards “left-behind territories” in Europe. It shows the variety of trajectories of putting the territorial question on the agenda and of defining the 'forgotten' territories in Italy, Spain and Poland. This variety reveals specific processes linked to short- and long-term debates on the Nation. The tools used to help these territories tend to converge, under the influence of methods coming from the European Union. However, the functions of these territories are still unclear in national planning strategies, particularly because their possible contributions to ecological transition and the economic models of this transition are only imperfectly defined.  
Developing Companionship with the Left-Behinds: University Social Responsibility and a Collaborative Approach to Rural Regeneration in the Badlands Region of Taiwan
Get PDFThe subject of regional inequality has been garnering the attention of scholars over the past decade and has generated debates on territories forgotten by mainstream economic activities. Left-behind places are a global phenomenon yet with various situated conditions in different development contexts that required customized, place-based solutions. This paper discusses a possible approach to work with the left-behinds: using the university as an institutional resource to engage people and places in regional regeneration. Using the [anonymised] project as an example, we describe the learning journey of developing the ground solutions and companionship between a research university and left-behind communities in the rural badlands region. Adopting a hybrid of an asset-based approach to community development and collaborative planning for regional development, this case demonstrates a potential level-up strategy for sustainable development for the lagging region. 
A resilience-based approach to enhance the capacity of small villages to cope with intertwined threats: A Case-Study in the Basilicata Region
Get PDFAbout 70 percent of Italian municipalities that have fewer than 5,000 inhabitants are located in difficult to access mountain areas which are often prone to multiple hazards. As clearly demonstrated by the seismic events that hit Central Italy in 2016, the socio-economic decline of these municipalities is also increasing their vulnerability. Nowadays, small villages represent an important challenge for Italy, because they require significant resources and effective strategies to both break the cycle of decline and promote their economic and social development, while also reducing their vulnerability to natural and climate related hazards. This contribution provides an overview of the initiatives recently launched in Italy in favour of small villages and outlines a methodological path to assess and enhance the overall resilience of these areas, with a focus on a case study area located in the Basilicata Region of Southern Italy
How can challenges in left behind places be addressed? Learning from Greater Lille, Nantes, the Ruhr region, San Antonio and Estonia.
Get PDFAddressing issues of regional inequalities and supporting ‘left behind’ regions is a global issue, but analysis of international regions that have successfully levelled up is limited. Developing and implementing effective place-based policies is critical for recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic but remains an under-explored issue. This paper provides insight into different policies and tools used to support left-behind places. Comparing experiences of addressing socio-economic challenges in Greater Lille, Nantes, the Ruhr region, San Antonio and Estonia, it discusses what ingredients for successfully addressing inequalities are, what has worked well, and future challenges. It identifies seven “foundations” for levelling up and stresses the importance of levelling up “within” regions and not just levelling up “of” regions given how despite economic growth in the case study places, clear socio-economic disparities continue to exist. In particular, it debates opportunities to support levelling up through financial management and governance tools