Research Groups
Planning & Development Unit
The research unit Planning and Development is a long standing multidisciplinary research group in the Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning at KU Leuven. It carries out policy-oriented and fundamental research in the field of planning theory and methodology and local and regional development. The unit is specialised in the strategic and institutional aspects of planning, creativity in/and planning, social innovation in territorial development, issues of diversity, with a long track record of research into new methodologies and concepts for action and implementation oriented planning processes and wide experience in the participation in spatial policy development (notably the Flanders Spatial Structure Plan, Benelux Plan, the ROM project in Ghent and provincial and local spatial plans). The unit has broadened its research agenda to include user and stakeholder involvement in planning processes, as evident from the IWT-SBO programmes SP2SP (Spatial Planning to Strategic Projects) and SPINDUS. In 1992, the unit launched the journal European Planning Studies in conjunction with Cardiff University. This journal has grown to become a leading European planning journal.The unit has broadened its research agenda to include user and stakeholder involvement in planning processes, as evident from the IWT-SBO programmes SP2SP (Spatial Planning to Strategic Projects), SPINDUS and INDIGO.
Leuven Space and Society Research Centre (LSAS)