The plaNext was born in 2015 to create a dedicated platform for emerging scholars and new voices in spatial planning. Ten years later, this special issue, The 10th Anniversary: plaNext and Planning in Transition, reflects on the journal’s evolution and outlines its future trajectory. Over the past decade, plaNext has accompanied, and often anticipated, shifts in the discipline. These include the climate emergency transitioning to a present crisis, new movements for social justice and spatial equity, the transformative potential of digitalization and AI on urban futures, and an increasingly fractured global planning discourse. The journal’s name underlines its core mission to focus on “planning what is next,” both for the next generation of planners and the evolving nature of planning as a discipline. The collected contributions reinterpret old debates through the lens of today’s urgencies, speaking to transitions in pedagogy, politics and planetary boundaries. They critically examine what it means to plan in an era where intergenerational justice is an existential imperative. As it enters its second decade, plaNext reaffirms its commitment to fostering a community for early-career thinkers and promoting critical, inclusive, and experimental approaches to planning knowledge and practice.
Foreword
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In early 2025, plaNext – Next Generation Planning achieved a significant milestone: its indexing in the Scopus database. This event marks a pivotal moment for the journal and for the broader publication strategy of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). It is a recognition of the collective efforts made by successive editorial boards, contributors, reviewers, and above all, by the young scholars who believed in a journal that could serve both as a platform for emerging voices and as a vehicle for innovation in planning scholarship. More than a celebratory note,...
Editorial introduction
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When plaNext first emerged in 2015, it was born out of a decision that the field of spatial planning needed a dedicated platform for emerging scholars who would highlight new voices. Ten years later, the world we plan for has shifted significantly, and so has our journal.
The purpose of this special issue “plaNext in Transition 2015–2025” is to reflect on the journal’s evolution over the past decade and to envision its future trajectory for the next ten years. It marks a moment of reflection and reimagination. Over the past decade, plaNext has...
Essay
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This article reflects on the ten-year journey of plaNext – Next Generation Planning, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal initiated by the AESOP Young Academics Network (AESOP-YAN). First published in 2015, plaNext has served as a platform for early-career researchers to engage in planning debates, publish their work, and foster professional development. As the journal approaches its tenth anniversary, this reflection examines its history, legacy, and future directions, highlighting its role in promoting inclusive, critical, and innovative scholarship in the field of...
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What does it mean to publish ethically in a world where knowledge production is shaped by human rights violations, social inequalities, colonial legacies, and systemic exclusions? This reflection draws on ten years of experience with plaNext, an open access journal created by the Young Academics Network of the Association of European Schools of Planning to support early career scholars. It explores how ethical publishing can act as a form of resistance to dominant academic norms, the marginalization of alternative epistemologies, and the politicization of knowledge. Through...
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Planning theory has done much, during the last decade or so, to broaden and enrich its own geographies: thanks to the engagements with critical urban studies and post-colonial theory, planning theorists have problematised the disciplinary insistence on certain modernist ideas and universalist approaches. Much less has been done to problematise the relation of planning with time—its ontology of action. This short essay takes step from my personal experience of editing a special issue of plaNext with Patsy Healey to argue for a different—dialectic, open, experimental—engagement of...
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This reflective article marks the tenth anniversary of plaNext – Next Generation Planning, tracing its evolution as a critical platform for spatial planning discourse, particularly in humanitarian and Global South contexts. Drawing on personal editorial and field-based experience, the author explores how plaNext has shifted spatial planning discourse toward inclusion, ethics, and contextual sensitivity. Focusing on contributions from Volumes 9 to 11, the article highlights planning’s potential as a transformative tool in humanitarian settings, centering community...
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This dialogue between the old and new editorial board marks the 10th anniversary of plaNext – Next Generation Planning, reflecting on its evolution as an experimental and inclusive platform for early career scholars. Born out of the AESOP Young Academics Network, plaNext has advocated the principles of open peer review, aiming to foster constructive, transparent and mentorship-driven academic publishing. As a fully online and open-access journal, it has served as both a publishing outlet and a pedagogical space where academic writing is cultivated...
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This paper presents reflections and experience-based perspectives on the potential of young researcher-led journals, such as plaNext – Next Generation Planning, to generate a space for learning from and networking with peers and senior scholars, as well as empowering young researchers and creating new ideas. Its original dialogue-based format is drawn from a two-hour online conversation that took place on March 7, 2025, between founding and current editorial members of plaNext. The discussion was recorded, then transcribed and polished, while leaving the main core of...
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plaNext – Next Generation Planning journal is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal founded by the AESOP Young Academics network. Established as a platform to amplify the voices of emerging scholars, plaNext enables early career researchers to contribute to international planning debates and make their work accessible to a global audience. The journal welcomes a wide range of contributions, including empirical research, theoretical discussions, innovative methodologies, case studies, and book reviews, fostering both academic engagement and professional...
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The editors of this special issue invited me to reflect on the planning task and, given the 10th anniversary of plaNext, to provide an outlook for the next ten years or more regarding urban futures, all in connection with artificial intelligence (henceforth, AI). A fine call to develop a piece of speculative future, seasoned with armchair evidence from actual debates about cities, futures, and artificial intelligence. I will do so in nine movements, starting by briefly addressing what the urban is made of, a clarification which is essential for our view on the makings...
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This article explores the pedagogical value of urban design within planning education, framing it as a distinct mode of inquiry that strengthens spatial, analytical, ethical, and collaborative competencies. Drawing on a review of the literature and insights from teaching practice, it identifies six core contributions: (i) experiencing space through studio-based learning, (ii) enhancing spatial reasoning, (iii) fostering critical reflection, (iv) learning through co-production, (v) engaging with public needs and institutional structures, and (vi) developing sensitivity to both local...
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This essay contributes to the 10th Anniversary Special Issue of plaNext – Next Generation Planning by offering reflections and ideas for inspiring a renewed roadmap in planning theory and practice that more systematically incorporates tools and contents from emerging critical disciplines. It emphasizes the crucial contributions that young researchers and planners can make through their work, as well as the potential of a journal led by early-career scholars—such as plaNext—to shape the field.
The paper introduces the contemporary challenges facing...
Research article
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Major urban development projects are pivotal to connect financial and real estate markets through the ‘financialization’ of strategic lands and the ‘deterritorialization’ of actors, practices and instruments. Milan is currently facing several large-scale property operations delivered by global developers and investors. Among these, this article problematizes the Milano Innovation District (MIND) by reconstructing its spatial development, showing how property financialization generates a deterritorialization of this project from the city planning system. Milan’s case has been considered...
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Rapid and uncontrolled processes of urbanization expanded cities boundaries and generated a new type of space that can offer rare opportunities. These Terrain Vague spaces are abandoned and open spaces where urban, rural and wild dimensions mingle. They could play a significant role in addressing urgent urban socio-ecological challenges related to sustainable, resilient and inclusive development. These spaces have great value and potential as rare intersections of social and ecological interests. Despite their value, these spaces are constantly at risk of disappearing due to...
