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,...
Research article
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Beginning with UN Agenda 2030, the European Commission has recently adopted many strategic policies, such as Farm to Fork, Biodiversity Strategy, and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). These documents set up important objectives to cope with environmental and climate challenges. The study uses a quantitative and qualitative research methodology to provide an empirical analysis of the land-use changes and landscape modifications in an important area of apple production in Italy, such as Val di Non in the Trentino Region. The aim is to reflect upon the gap between...
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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...
Essay
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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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As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of plaNext – Next Generation Planning, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the journal's significant contributions to the field of planning and its intersection with pressing humanitarian issues. For plaNext, this anniversary is more than a chronological checkpoint—it represents a decade of fostering critical discourse, inclusivity, and emerging voices in planning field. Founded in 2015 under the auspices of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP), plaNext has provided a vital platform for...
