Each year, plaNext aims to publish two volumes; one of which presents a collection of original works following an open call, and the other presents a selection of articles from the AESOP Young Academics (YA) conference of the previous year. Representing the former, the call for papers was published in early 2023. We selected eight manuscripts based on the submitted abstracts and the six listed below ended up in this volume, being finalized between summer 2024 and spring 2025.
Editorial introduction
Research article
-
In the context of the ongoing global intertwined financial, environmental, socio-political crises, the intricate relationship between neoliberal urban planning and the challenges these crises present has become increasingly visible. Despite these challenges, neoliberal restructuring justifications remain central to urban agendas and planning culture, often exacerbating social inequality. Its principles and related political decisions frequently intensify social conflicts, sparking protests as their adverse effects on marginalized communities and areas become evident, especially after...
-
The process of neoliberalizing public spaces involves implementing policies aimed at increasing capital flow to offset reductions in local budgets. In Greece, although public spaces are decisive elements of the urban tissue, the tools, strategies, and mechanisms for their development are mainly based on public funding and the role of the private sector is still weak. The current paper analyzes the policies for public spaces since 1950 until today and the role of public and private sectors in their development. It focuses on specific periods as the Olympic Games, the economic crisis and...
-
Cities have gained increasing attention in the debate on how to tackle the global environmental crisis. However, urban strategies for sustainability have often been criticised for being insufficient in effectively mitigating environmental impacts due to externalisation and cost-shifting, and for producing social contradictions, such as ecological gentrification. Rather than considering these critiques as reasons to abandon ecological urban transformations, this article advocates for the right to the ecological city, for which the goals of ecological sustainability and...
-
Under the growing pressure of financial markets, the shrinking of public resources and services have been justified by discourses on inefficiency or redundancy in cities adhering to a dominant growth paradigm in urban development and planning, within the framework of austerity policies. Related rightsizing policies are then identifiable as forms of smart shrinkage and can be described as exclusionary projects in a context of increasing social polarisation. In response to these developments, groups of inhabitants have begun employing reclaiming strategies for the co-/self-management of...
-
This paper analyses economic and tenure insecurities and risk of eviction in informal settlements and shantytowns in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It shows how the bottom-up planning initiatives led by community leaders and activists are often motivated by the fact that engagement with or imitation of formal planning regulations and codes increase the perceived tenure security in these settlements. If and when security from eviction is achieved, however, or when households who occupy these lands do not aspire to stay there in the long-term, planning efforts might be ignored or even rejected....
-
The recent deterioration of living conditions in Venezuela has resulted in an unprecedented migratory crisis, infrastructure collapse, and institutional decline. In the middle of this complex situation, migrants’ left-behind properties are being transformed into new uses. These changes often contradict zoning regulations, prompting a series of legal, social, and spatial strategies to conceal them.
This article examines ongoing spatial and programmatic transformations of vacant homes in Caracas, the country’s capital, framing these changes within...
