The Spatial Impacts of the EU

The seminar Spatial planning is part of the module “European cities”. It is specifically designed for students of the master program European Urban Studies. The aims of the seminar are to develop an understanding and a wider reflexion of the diversity of planning cultures in Europe through the analysis of models, theories, key concepts and case studies. This seminar proposes to explore and question more thoroughly the challenges spatial planning faces and the answers given. We will raise and discuss some of the following questions: what are the main principles of spatial planning in European countries? What are the main, and somehow contradictory, challenges spatial planning must face (e.g. metropolisation vs. shrinking processes)? To what extent is spatial planning able to maintain social and territorial cohesions and to integrate the sustainability imperatives? What are the political and planning responses and what kind of instruments are developed?

Methods

The seminar methods are mainly based on:

- Discussions over key concepts of spatial planning in Europe through articles and case studies;

- Short presentations;

- Working groups;

- Identification and definition of key concepts related to spatial planning and the capacity to maintain a collective glossary.