plaNext–Next Generation Planning is an international peer-reviewed open access e-journal. The young academics network of AESOP founded plaNext to provide prospective authors with an opportunity to engage their ideas in international planning debates as well as to make their research available to the wider planning audience. plaNext invites authors to submit original work that includes: empirical research; theoretical discussions; innovative methodologies; case studies; and book reviews on selected books, textbooks, or specific topics dealing within planning.

View Vol. 13 (2023): Exploring Human Well-Being and Community Dynamics
Vol. 13 (2023)
Exploring Human Well-Being and Community Dynamics

This volume of PlaNext includes manuscripts presented at the 16th AESOP Young Academics Conference ‘In Search of Well-Being in Liminality: No Longer-Not Yet’ that took place in Istanbul between April 5-8, 2022, in addition to one research paper which was submitted to plaNext through its regular open calls. This paper raised important questions to the topic of this volume. All papers use different perspectives on notions of ’well-being’ and how they can be achieved, following a comprehensive and holistic perspective under the liminal and uncertain conditions that cities experience today. The topic is timely and inspiring. The call for conference papers attracted more than forty original papers. The editors of this volume invited ten manuscripts, following the nomination made by the chairs of sessions. But the process of publication remains challenging for many young academics. This is mirrored in the number of manuscripts that were eventually published in this volume. The contributions went through a rigorous peer-review process managed by an editorial board.

Published: 2024-10-03

Editorial introduction

  • Editorial
    Ayşegül Sarı, Enes Aydın, Milan Husár
    6-8

    Volume 13 titled ‘Exploring Human Well-Being and Community Dynamics’ of the peer-reviewed journal plaNext–Next Generation Planning is here. Partially derived from the 16th AESOP Young Academics Conference ‘In Search of Well-Being in Liminality: No Longer-Not Yet’ that took place in Istanbul between April 5-8, 2022, it includes one research paper previously published online. We are delighted to present this latest volume, which draws together a diverse collection of research papers delving into the complex dynamics of human interaction with the living environment, social participation and...

Research article

  • Ethnic Economy in Milano: the Case of the Turkish Immigrants in the Kebab Sector
    Şelale Balambar
    28-46

    The concept of ethnic minority entrepreneurs in the economy represents the employment patterns in the particular country. Immigrants often experience discrimination and exclusion in the labor market and the outcome of this process is the high rate of unemployment. On the contrary, the ethnic economy could be regarded as a promising alternative to unemployment among immigrants. With this decision, immigrant entrepreneurs create their own business and support other immigrants if the business is successful. Currently, immigrant entrepreneurs are comprising big part of urban economies....

  • From private to public: redeveloping private space as the way to reframe publicness of everyday life. Investigating build-by-people trials in Shanghai
    Xuewei Chen
    47-64

    The publicness discourse has been extensively explored from the perspectives of numerous disciplinary interests, multiple actors, especially the government and expert professions, and its normative ideal. This study examines how individual engagement in shaping private and semi-public space could be viewed as a means of reframing the publicness of everyday life and thereby contributing to the shaping of cities. Through examining the rationale of build-by-people trials in Shanghai, categorising in stewarding practise, DIY tactic, and informal trial, this study...

  • Residents’ sense of belonging in (gated) communities in urban China
    Meiling Jin
    65-88

    Communities or neighborhoods are specific places in the research field of place identity that links between environment and psychology to address the sense of belonging as one of crucial human needs. This article explores the community identity in Chinese urban communities to investigate differences between sense of communities, and community satisfaction. Since 1980s, gated communities (Xiaoqu) are the dominant form of residential development in urban China and sometimes have the same boundary as the community...

  • Citizen’s motivation in Neighbourhood Planning in North West England
    Xinxin Cao, John Sturzaker
    8-27

    Although some researchers have addressed the question of what motivates citizens to become involved in lower tier planning in the UK, the phenomenon is not yet fully understood. A lack of hard data, combined with some mutually contradictory arguments in the field, makes for imperfect analysis, and this can potentially undermine the effectiveness of individual engagement in Neighbourhood Plans (NPs). This paper focuses on what motivates citizens to participate in the process of creating NPs in North West England, and explores past theories on...

Announcements

Call for abstracts: Special issue "Circular Cities and Regions – Planning for Sustainable Social and Inclusive Communities"

2025-03-24

In March 2025, the AESOP Young Academics Network organised a conference on circular principles in spatial planning and development. Following the conference, we open a call for abstracts for a special issue targeting both the participants and the larger community.

Read more about Call for abstracts: Special issue "Circular Cities and Regions – Planning for Sustainable Social and Inclusive Communities"