Program  Track-Themes

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

REIMAGINING LOCAL GOVERNANCE: JUST, SUSTAINABLE AND DIVERSE

IGU Commission Geography of Governance

Annual Conference - 2024

Tracks & Themes

Track 1 - Territorial Reforms, Multi-level Governance, and Democracy

This track examines and discusses the local dimensions of institutional and policy shifts and innovations in  multi-level governance systems due to decentralization, devolution, globalization, nationalization, populist local leadership, digitalization, including the use of AI, and compares local government systems and practices in different regions of the world.

·    Territorial administrative reforms and outcomes

·    Changes in multi-level governance

·    Decentralization v. re-centralization

·    Local government finance: trends and challenges

·   Metropolitan governance

·    Inter-municipal cooperation

·   Cross-border municipal cooperation

·   Urban-rural governance partnerships

·   Municipal amalgamation reforms

·   New forms of local democracy, citizen participation and co-governance

·   Populist leadership in local government

·   Local government and the digital turn

·   Artificial intelligence and big data for a smart local governance

Track 2 – Sustainability, Resilience and Justice in Local Governance

This track explores and discusses 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 housing policy, in migration and refugee policies, and in post-war recovery. It also aims to address the local governance of the green transformation, the interventions promoting spatial justice, and the role of local government in the urban peripheries, in rural areas, and in informal territories.

·     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

· Local government post-pandemic policies

·     Local governance and the energy transition

·     Local government housing policy

·     Local governance and the post-war recovery

·     Local governance of the green transformation

·     Local governance and spatial justice

·     Local government in the urban peripheries and in informal territories

Track 3 - Spatial Planning Systems and Local Governance

This track examines and discusses the role of spatial planning in local and urban governance, as well as the evolution of planning systems in different countries, including the governance and planning of coastal and maritime areas.  It also aims to address the changes in spatial and strategic planning systems, as a result of digitalization processes, and the development of various forms of social participation and policy co-creation.

·     Spatial and strategic planning in local and urban governance

·       Evolution of planning systems

·     Citizen participation in spatial planning and local governance

·     Digitalization of spatial planning systems

·     Formal and informal spatial planning institutions and practices

·     Spatial planning for climate adaptation and mitigation

·     Spatial planning in coastal and maritime areas

·     Governance and planning of the urban nightlife