Track 1 - Institutional shifts in Local Governance - This track aims to examine and to discuss institutional shifts in local governance systems due to globalization, nationalization, decentralization, and digitalization, the challenges and innovations with which local governance is confronted, and to compare local government systems and practices in different regions of the world.

· Re-nationalization / re-centralization v. decentralization

· Shifts in multi-level governance

· Territorial-administrative reforms and outcomes

· Metropolitan Governance

· Governance challenges in rural areas

· Inter-municipal cooperation and urban-rural partnerships

· Sustainable, Resilient and a more Just Local Governance

· New forms of local democracy, Citizen participation and Co-Governance

· Changing lifestyles, remote work, and its effects on Local Governance

· Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Smart Urban Governance

· The role of knowledge and policy learning in Local Governance

Track 2 – Resilient Local Governance - This track seeks to explore and to discuss the responses of local governance to natural and human made disasters, crisis and emergencies, namely local government climate actions, local government post-pandemic policies, energy crisis and transition, and the role of local government in post-war recovery.

· Local Governance and the management of natural or human made disasters

· Local Government actions towards climate change and its effects

· Local Government adaptation and mitigation policies

· Urban Governance and the energy transition

· Local Governance and the post-war recovery

Track 3 - Governance of Spatial Planning Systems - This track examines and discusses the role of spatial planning in shaping multi-level territorial governance, including coastal and marine spatial planning.

· Planning visions and political agenda in local government

· Strategic planning, long-term foresight and future scenarios

· Territorial inequalities and planning

· New elements of EU cohesion policy

· Formal and informal spatial planning institutions and practices

· Governance and Planning of the Urban Nightlife

· Spatial Planning in Small Islands, Coastal and Marine Areas

· Spatial Planning for Climate Adaptation and Mitigation