Urban Studies and Planning Futures
This research cluster examines the the changing nature of human settlement and active efforts at creating fairer and better places.
About our work
The Urban Studies and Planning Futures (USPF) cluster is located in the School of Geography and Planning at the University of Sheffield, consolidating work around planning and urban problems for over 60 years. The group operates as the School’s primary engine for critical inquiry into the changing nature of human settlement and active efforts at creating fairer and better places. The cluster functions as a dynamic forum for exchange and enquiry. It brings together specialists from a range of disciplines - geographers, planners, urban designers, sociologists, and data scientists - to interrogate how cities are designed, imagined, governed, contested, and lived in.
In an era defined by rapid urbanization, climate volatility, and socio-spatial inequality, the Urban Studies and Planning Futures research cluster provides an intellectual home for cognate scholars at all levels, but also works as a proactive incubator for empirical research and evidence-based solutions, and connections to community and policy partners. The group brings together academic colleagues who refuse to accept problematic features of urban life today (spatial inequity, poor governance, social exclusion and ineffective policy). It provides the intellectual scaffolding and peer support necessary to translate ambitious ideas into policy-relevant proposals, effective planning responses, and research-by-design solutions that will shape the creation of places that are just in ecological, social and economic term. The USPF is where the School’s diverse scholars meet to shape work that can inform and enhance the cities of tomorrow.
Our research areas and activities
- Urban and regional planning
- Urban design
- Inequality and spatial injustice
We seek to foster a high-intensity, policy engaged, collaborative, and socially relevant research culture for researchers in these areas.
In order to achieve this, the cluster:
- Organises a live series of seminars and other interventions, for academics, policymakers and public audiences
- Consolidates research ambition by sharing strategic thinking and direction for colleagues at all levels
- Offers interdisciplinary writing retreats and methods workshops
- Generates a team spirit of mutual support by allowing Early Career Researchers and academics at all levels to share knowledge, co-develop grant proposals, and enhance high quality publications and other outputs.
- Centres the consideration of emerging urban trends and futures by engaging speculative and forward-looking theoretical, methodological and empirical work in the fields of urban studies and planning.
Get involved with our work
The Urban Studies and Planning Futures cluster is led by Prof Rowland Atkinson (rowland.atkinson@sheffield.ac.uk). If you are a member of the School of Geography and Planning and wish to join the cluster, or you work in a related field and wish to collaborate, please get in touch.
