Special issue celebrating 10 Years of Planning for the Next Generation

Over the past decade, plaNext – Planning for the Next Generation has grown into a platform for innovative, interdisciplinary, and future-oriented research in spatial planning and regional development. This special issue is both a celebration and a reflection, capturing the transitions that have shaped the field — and the journal — from 2015 to 2025.

The special issue will feature:

• Critical perspectives on the evolution of spatial planning
• Fresh insights into regional transformation and cooperation
• Voices from emerging and established scholars shaping the next decade
• Provocative and innovative ideas about the academic publishing world for young academics in planning

Why stay tuned?
This issue is not just about looking back — it's about setting the agenda for the next generation of planners, thinkers, and change-makers.

Coming soon on plaNext!
You can already enjoy reading some of the papers tailored for these special issues, which have been published as 'Online First' on our journal's website. Many other publications are coming soon! Follow us for updates and join us in celebrating a decade of planning for the next generation. Stay tuned!

Reflections on plaNext and academic publishing

• Looking back and Looking ahead: The future of plaNext within AESOP’s evolving expectation and goals.
• The journey of plaNext over its first decade, inspired by an ethics of publishing as resistance and a politics of knowledge. See the online first paper about it: “Ethical publishing as resistance: Reflections from plaNext and the politics of knowledge and space” by Feras Hammami
• Visions for the future of an early-career journal, its importance for the young academic community, and the responsibility of opening spaces for new ideas in planning
• The role of young academic publishing in creating inclusive spaces and supporting the young academic community.
• Open peer review and collective knowledge-building as key features of plaNext.
• Survey-based reflections on plaNext’s impact and future challenges for young academics.
• Young researcher-led journals as spaces for learning, empowerment, innovating, and networking.

Theoretical and Global Perspectives on the Next Generation Planning

• Revisiting planning theory: Bridging past and future debates. See the online first paper “For a dialectic of planning pasts and futures: Theoretical courses and recourses in conversation with Patsy Healey”, by Simone Tulumello
• Integrating planning perspectives from humanitarian and Southern-East lens into broader academic discourse.
• Toward a socio-ecological just planning

Practice and case studies

• Risks and characteristics of the urban processes. See the online first paper: “Financialization and deterritorialization in the Milanese major urban development projects” by Alberto Bortolotti
• Artificial intelligence and its role in the future of urban planning.
• Teaching urban design: Framing values in planning education.