Cities, Regions & Spatial Planning
This inter-disciplinary theme brings together researchers from across the School investigating the processes and outcomes of economic production and consumption, politics and governance, technological innovation and cultural diversity in both urban and rural areas, and at a variety of scales. A holistic approach is taken to understanding cities and regions as both complex human and environmental phenomena. We aim to understand, clarify and critique the complex relationships between societal processes, planning and policy interventions and their impacts and outcomes.
Recent and ongoing projects include:
- the governance and politics of regeneration;
- housing issues; active citizenship and community participation;
- suburbanisation and rural-urban fringe management;
- rural diversification and social change;
- block structure in small towns;
- regional land-use change;
- the development of spatial data infrastructures (e.g., Urban Environment project);
- noise planning;
- creative industries and competitiveness (e.g., ACRE project);
- transferable development rights, development planning charges and planning law;
- the informal city;
- urban resilience (e.g. TURaS project);
- the development of cities in historical perspective;
- spatial indicators and territorial analysis (e.g. SIESTA project and European Social Survey).
Academic staff associated with this research theme include: Joe Brady, Peter Clinch, Veronica Crossa, Berna Grist, Gerald Mills, Niamh Moore, Enda Murphy, Zorica Nedovic-Budic, Derry O’Connell, Eoin O’Neill, Declan Redmond, Paula Russell, Mark Scott, and Brendan Williams among others.