AAG Annual Meeting, 8 - 12 February 2027, New York, USA
[https://www.aag.org/events/aag2027/ ]
Virtual Session
Local and Urban Governance: Social-Spatial Inequity,
Climate Change, Digital Transformation
Session Organizer & Chair: Carlos Nunes Silva (Geographer, Lisbon, Portugal)
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
The primary challenges for local and urban governance centre, among others, on social-spatial inequity, acute infrastructure and housing deficits, climate crises, and rapid digital transformation. As global urbanization accelerates, municipal governments are forced to navigate complex socio-spatial inequalities, while operating within severe fiscal strain, with highly constrained rules and budgets.
The Session aims to review and discuss these global trends and challenges with which local and urban governance is confronted worldwide.
Shifts in the demography and higher living costs have widened the gap between wealthy and marginalized urban residents. So, socio-spatial inequity and housing affordability are among the key challenges of local government in most cities. This means there is a need to overcome deficits in low-income housing and to combat real estate inflation; to upgrade informal settlements through the integration of slums and peri-urban fringes in the formal city; to adapt local public services to support an aging population, alongside the integration of sudden influxes of migrants and refugees.
Municipalities are also confronted with increasing environmental degradation. This requires rapid and expensive retrofits to protect vulnerable populations, and the adoption of measures for the mitigation of extreme weather effects. Municipalities have also to finance high-capital, low carbon public transit networks and sustainable waste management systems, among other actions, aligning its local spatial plans with strict international zero emissions targets.
The pressure to digitize urban services is another challenge with which local government is confronted due to the existent structural vulnerabilities and equity divides. Besides the cybersecurity issues, and the need to protect urban infrastructure from cyberattacks, as is the case of smart grids, traffic, and water networks, municipalities need to ensure that smart public utilities do not alienate elderly or lower-income residents. In addition to all these issues, it is imperative to implement transparent artificial intelligence frameworks to manage municipal infrastructures and services.
Finally, local government is also confronted in many countries with growing centralization trends, and the correlate political friction between central state and local government, which is frequently accompanied by shrinking municipal budgets.
We welcome theoretical and empirical studies on, but not limited to, the following themes:
o Local government policies on socio-spatial inequity
o Local government policies to overcome the severe deficits in low-income housing and the real estate inflation
o Local government policies for informal settlements, and the integration of slums and peri-urban fringes in the formal city
o Local government policies to adapt local public services to support an aging population, alongside the integration of sudden influxes of migrants and refugees
o Local government policies to promote climate resilience and green transition
o Local government measures for the mitigation of extreme weather effects
o Local government spatial plans and the international zero emissions targets
o Local government policies to ensure that smart public utilities do not alienate elderly or lower-income residents
o Local government policies and the implementation of transparent artificial intelligence frameworks to manage municipal infrastructures and services
o Local government social media usage
o Local government policies to promote cybersecurity,
o Local government reforms: structure, roles, funding
o Local government transformation under illiberal rule and populism
o Unlocking the potentials of citizen participation in local government
o Co-creation processes in local and urban governance
Studies of municipalities, cities, or countries, including individual or comparative research, are encouraged. This includes academic research or firsthand presentations from academics, planners, or policymakers working on innovative local and urban governance.
The Session is organised as part of the 'Local Government and Local Governance Research Network (LGLG-RN)'.
The session is endorsed by the AAG Specialty Group on Political Geography and by the AAG Specialty Group on Legal Geography.
Selected papers are expected to be published in a special issue of a peer reviewed international journal.
Abstracts are welcome from LGLG-RN members and from other colleagues with relevant work. This Session offers a chance to share research and experiences on local government and on local and urban governance.
Kindly submit a 200-word abstract to Carlos Nunes Silva (cnsulisboa@gmail.com) by October 10. The AAG abstract submission deadline is October 15, 2026.
Inquiries should be sent, by e-mail, to:
Carlos Nunes Silva
Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: cnsulisboa@gmail.com
Web: https://sites.google.com/view/cns-ulisboa/home
Local Government and Local Governance - Research Network (LGLG-RN) >