Those who deal with cities and territorial management from different perspectives (i.e. urban planning, human geography, economics, architecture, design) need increasingly to deal with processes that involve local communities and reflect on questions of socio-spatial justice. Participatory or community-led processes are in fact increasingly widespread and present in very different forms: they may concern forms of co-production of spatial plans, the recovery and/or shared management of spaces and services at the local scale, or the response to unmet needs. For this reason, we believe it is essential to propose an intensive third-level course that will enable students to sharpen their understanding of these increasingly interconnected dynamics between institutional actors and civil society in urban and territorial governance. Through short lectures and seminar discussions on selected readings, the course taught by Professor Gavin Parker (University of Reading, UK) and Dr. Francesca Bragaglia as Chair, will enable students to acquire techniques, methods and critical thinking for approaching research that contemplates a participatory dimension. In particular drawing on analytical dimensions of justice, time and scale. The course will be based on Professor Parker's multi-decade research in the field of participatory governance and community-led planning, as well as the current funded project ‘Just Neighbourhoods?’ (see: Just Neighbourhoods) which focusses on participation and hyper-local planning outputs of disadvantaged communities across the UK.

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Guest Lecture: Professor Gavin Parker is a senior academic based in the UK at the University of Reading. Gavin is a fellow of the Royal Town Planning institute and of the Academy of Social Sciences and was made a full Chair in 2009. Gavin is known for his expertise in urban planning and geography and has taught planning theory for over 20 years. His research often focuses on sustainable development, land use, and community engagement in planning processes. Parker actively publishes scholarly articles and books, contributing to both academia and public policy discussions. He has written seven books, including Slow planning? Timescapes, power and democracy (2024, Policy Press) and he is currently developing an edited text entitled Time, Place, Planning and Politics. His work is characterised by a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating perspectives from social sciences, environmental studies, and economics. Through teaching and public engagement, he aims to inspire future generations of planners and policymakers to create inclusive and sustainable communities. Recent work has focussed on time in and for planning. The course will be set at an advanced level suitable for PhD candidates across the spatial sciences. The theme proposed in the course is highly topical and responds to leading edge thinking in relation to participation in urban governance and planning, covering key themes centring on Prof Parker’s research, particularly the funded project ‘Just Neighbourhoods?, see: Just Neighbourhoods which focusses on participation and hyper-local planning outputs of disadvantaged communities across the UK, also Gavin’s work on time in planning. The topics covered in the course in relation to participation in urban governance and planning will be: •Time and temporalities – discussing time as a political resource and shaped by power. This element will expound on how planning systems are bound -up with inequitable distributions of time or chronoscapes. This theme is an emerging topic in planning scholarship. The key reading underpinning the lecture and tutorial for PhD candidates will be the Slow Planning text (Dobson and Parker, 2024). •Justice, spatial and social – as lived, situated based on the work of Lake (2016) and Sen (2009) which argue for a situated understanding of justice in place. The session will focus on representational justice and how plans and policies actually reflect the lived experience of communities. Key readings will be Loh and Kim (2021) and Brinkley and Wagner (2022). •Scale and policy – in reflecting on the preceding sessions this will centre on the hyper-local or neighbourhood scale and will be based on the Just Neighbourhoods project findings, including the chapter by Parker and Wargent on spatial justice and the hyper-local (in Handbook of Social Justice and Planning (2025, edited by Robert Silverman). The format will centre on the three key lectures on the above themes, followed by three seminar tutorial and reading sessions linked to the themes (4 hours each). The course will be set at an advanced level suitable for PhD candidates across the spatial sciences and involve 15 hours contact and this will include 3 hours for students' final presentations.

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