University hosts UK’s largest planning research conference
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This week the University’s Department of Geography and Planning is hosting the UK's largest academic planning conference with more than 120 delegates from across the world coming to Liverpool to discuss the latest developments in the field.
Bringing together international researchers and practitioners, the Planning Research Conference will consider key themes and the latest trends in planning.
Bruce Stiftel, Professor of City and Regional Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology, delivered the Abercrombie Lecture. Speakers also included Liverpool’s Metro Mayor, Steve Rotherham, who presented his vision for the future of the Liverpool City Region and will consider how to work with planning experts to deliver it.
As part of the conference programme, delegates have the opportunity to visit Liverpool, a city which has undergone a renaissance in the last 20 years. The conference also hosted the annual Royal Institute of Towning Planning Awards ceremony.
The University is home to the world’s oldest and arguably best known department for the study of town planning, set up as the Department of Civic Design in 1909. Now part of the Department of Geography & Planning, it remains at the forefront of teaching and research in the field of professional planning.
Dr John Sturzaker, lecturer in the University’s Department of Geography and Planning and Planning Research Conference Committee Chair, said: “This conference brings together perspectives on planning that are critical and reflective, but also hopeful and forward-looking.
"The conference also hopes to encourage people to challenge established ways of doing things, but also hopefully suggest how our discipline and profession can embrace change and work more effectively to address the challenges faced by people everywhere."