Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-09-28DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2026.101043
Ali Soltani, Abbas Ziafati Bafarasat, Simon Elias Bibri, Laleh Ramezani, Mohsen RoohaniQadikolaei
{"title":"Between algorithm and agora: Ethical challenges in AI-assisted city planning – A systematic review and conceptual framework","authors":"Ali Soltani, Abbas Ziafati Bafarasat, Simon Elias Bibri, Laleh Ramezani, Mohsen RoohaniQadikolaei","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101043","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101043","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in urban planning through predictive analytics, digital platforms, and algorithmic decision-support. While these tools can enhance analytical capacity, they also introduce ethical risks that are often only addressed implicitly by existing frameworks. This study conducts a systematic literature review of 85 studies on AI-assisted planning scholarship to synthesize five interrelated ethical challenges: algorithmic redlining, digital exclusion, data sovereignty, algorithmic opacity (addressed through AI governance and algorithmic transparency), and professional ethical responsibility. The synthesis reveals that algorithmic redlining and digital exclusion are the most extensively theorised challenges in the existing literature, whereas data sovereignty and professional ethical responsibility remain comparatively underdeveloped; indicating a significant gap between the governance demands of AI-assisted planning and the profession-specific frameworks available to address them. The synthesis shows that these risks are mutually reinforcing, as participation inequalities and biased training data interact to produce unfair outcomes, while opaque vendor systems can weaken accountability and public trust. Building on these findings, the paper proposes a profession-facing ethical framework grounded in the shared professional conduct principles of planning bodies across Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. It argues that planners must act as ethically informed stewards of algorithmic governance by strengthening algorithmic literacy, documenting data provenance, demanding explainability, and maintaining inclusive engagement pathways. The framework is designed to be transferable across comparable Western planning systems. The findings have important implications for urban planners and planning professionals, as well as for researchers, by highlighting the need to strengthen ethical competencies, develop context-specific governance approaches, and further advance interdisciplinary research on AI-assisted urban planning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 2","pages":"Article 101043"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149156585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-09-11DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2026.101041
Gazmend Uka, Angelika Psenner
{"title":"Cities without cities: A Zwischenstadt interpretation of unplanned urban growth in post-war Kosovo","authors":"Gazmend Uka, Angelika Psenner","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101041","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101041","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The aftermath of the 1999 war triggered accelerated urban expansion in Kosovo's cities, a development characterised by inadequate governance and unregulated urban expansion. Despite the presence of planning legislation, the coexistence of outdated municipal plans and widespread illegal construction has resulted in fragmented urban forms, raising critical questions about the effectiveness of urban planning in post-conflict contexts. This paper examines whether the Zwischenstadt framework provides an appropriate analytical lens for interpreting unplanned urban growth in post-socialist and post-conflict contexts. Using comparative case studies of Mitrovica South, Vushtrri, and Prishtina, the study combines planning legislation, planning documents, and multi-temporal geospatial analysis to evaluate five analytical dimensions: urban-ness, centrality, density, mixed-use, and ecology. The findings demonstrate that, although all three municipalities operate under the same national planning legislation, differences in planning implementation and governance have produced distinct yet comparable manifestations of hybrid urban form. Widespread illegal construction, fragmented planning practices, and reliance on case-by-case development have reinforced dispersed growth, blurred urban–rural boundaries, fragmented centrality, and uneven densities. While these spatial characteristics resemble those associated with the <em>Zwischenstadt</em>, they emerge through post-war reconstruction, institutional discontinuity, governance fragmentation, and weak planning implementation rather than through the processes that originally shaped the concept. The study demonstrates the analytical value of reinterpreting the <em>Zwischenstadt</em> framework for post-socialist and post-conflict cities and contributes to broader debates on dispersed urban development, planning implementation, and urban governance in rapidly transforming regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 2","pages":"Article 101041"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148961284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-09-14DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2026.101042
Sina Shahab, Andreas Hengstermann
{"title":"Property rights in planning theory: A critical review","authors":"Sina Shahab, Andreas Hengstermann","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101042","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101042","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The relationship between planning and property rights is foundational to how land is governed, accessed and contested, but its treatment across major planning theories remains uneven and fragmented. This paper critically reviews how property rights are conceptualised across ten influential planning paradigms, highlighting the assumptions and inconsistencies that shape this engagement. Drawing on insights from legal theory, institutional economics and critical geography, it approaches property as a socially embedded and institutionally mediated arrangement of entitlements, obligations and exclusions. Five analytical lenses structure the comparison: the conceptualisation of property; ownership and the public–private boundary; the roles of key actors; power and spatial justice; and planning’s transformation of property rights through regulatory and institutional intervention. The analysis shows that engagement with property varies according to the explanatory, prescriptive and critical purposes of different theories. Marxist, Coasian and neoliberal planning foreground property as a structuring institution, whereas rational, incremental and collaborative approaches often address it through technical, procedural or governance concerns without consistently examining its distribution or legitimacy. These orientations shape how planning is understood as a mode of governance, particularly in relation to land commodification, state authority and socio-spatial inequality. The paper concludes that more explicit integration of property’s institutional and distributive dimensions would strengthen planning theory’s capacity to address ownership, justice and institutional transformation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 2","pages":"Article 101042"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149006169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2025.101033
Shafi’u Adamu , Huang Yong , Danjuma Abdu Yusuf , Ashiru Bello , Hisham Sharif Bala , Sunday K. Habila , Ali Musa Muhammad
{"title":"Is green truly public? Unpacking green space dynamics, mechanisms of change, and recreational consequences amid Abuja’s urban growth","authors":"Shafi’u Adamu , Huang Yong , Danjuma Abdu Yusuf , Ashiru Bello , Hisham Sharif Bala , Sunday K. Habila , Ali Musa Muhammad","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101033","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite mounting environmental and social pressures in African cities, urban green infrastructure remains under-researched and poorly integrated into planning frameworks, with most theoretical and empirical knowledge derived from Global North contexts. This disparity in evidence persists even as African cities face intensifying challenges related to rapid urbanization, socio-political complexity, and environmental degradation. This study, responds to this existential gap by critically investigating the evolving green spaces dynamics in Abuja, Nigeria—a rapidly expanding capital city. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with key urban development stakeholders, the research identifies six interconnected mechanisms shaping green space transformation: governance and political influence, urbanization and land use pressures, economic incentives and developer influence, institutional and operational challenges, societal and behavioral drivers, and legal and illegal conversions. These forces interact to weaken green space protection, intensify land commodification, and exacerbate spatial and environmental injustices. Quantitative analyses reveal a steep decline in green space availability—from 42.43 % in 1990–17.9 % in 2023—alongside a fall in per capita availability from 73 m² to 22.68 m², with significant intra-urban disparities. The loss of accessible green areas has constrained recreational opportunities, particularly for high density communities, undermining health and social equity. Comparisons with global urban regions show Abuja's challenges resonate with patterns across Africa and Asia, contrasting with the more regulated approaches seen in Europe. The study advocates for integrated governance reforms, zoning reform, participatory green planning, enforcement mechanisms, and community led-stewardship to reposition green spaces as vital assets for urban sustainability and spatial justice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 1","pages":"Article 101033"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147604921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-23DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2026.101034
Gethin Davison , Emma Rowden
{"title":"Unjust by design? Problematising ‘good’ design and evaluating the justice impacts of urban design governance","authors":"Gethin Davison , Emma Rowden","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101034","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2026.101034","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Urban Design is often promoted as a means of creating more inclusive built environments, but efforts by public authorities to raise design standards in new developments can produce outcomes that are exclusionary and unjust. Tools such as design controls and review panels have been found to discriminate against minority groups, to raise development costs, catalyse gentrification, and cause displacements and evictions. A key challenge for public authorities is thus to reconcile the pursuit of high-quality urban design with justice considerations. Addressing this challenge, this paper makes three contributions. First, it problematises the way that ‘good’ design is currently pursued through planning systems, exposing its exclusionary potential. Second, it introduces a tool for assessing public authority design interventions from a justice perspective. Third, it uses this tool as part of a critical analysis of design guides and codes in England in 2024. Through this analysis, the authors highlight numerous ways in which existing design guides and codes are failing to support <em>urban design justice</em>. These include promoting characteristics that can have exclusionary effects, failing to acknowledge the drawbacks of ‘good’ design, ignoring existing forms of injustice, enabling tokenistic public participation, and failing to recognise user needs and preferences. Our analysis shows, overall, that support for urban design justice in England is largely rhetorical, and that unjust outcomes are likely where new developments meet policy requirements. The paper finishes by calling for public authorities to recognise the justice implications of their design interventions, including through what we term ‘just good enough’ approaches.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 1","pages":"Article 101034"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147605000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2025.101031
Robert Richardson , James T. White , Gareth James
{"title":"Placemaking in post-devolution Scotland: The gap between aspiration and implementation","authors":"Robert Richardson , James T. White , Gareth James","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101031","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101031","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the framing and implementation of a distinct placemaking agenda that emerged in Scotland after devolution. Developed over a period of some twenty-five years, Scotland’s placemaking agenda is often upheld for its ambitious commitment to ‘design value’ and pursuit of social and environmental policy goals. Despite this, there has yet to be a comprehensive study of the agenda and its implementation. This paper’s originality lies in its comprehensive response to this gap, which it addresses in two ways using a rigorous methodology combining primary interview and survey data, archival research, and direct observations of the built environment. First, we trace the evolution of Scotland’s post-devolution planning and urban design policies and highlight their relative divergence from those in the other nations of the UK. Second, we examine the implementation of the placemaking agenda on-the-ground in a series of housing development case studies. From this analysis, we demonstrate that a distinct and progressive commitment to placemaking has emerged in Scotland post-devolution but reveal that implementation has struggled to keep up. We argue that a series of stubborn barriers to implementation have prevented the full realisation of Scotland’s placemaking agenda. Through a fine-grained focus on the cultures of design governance practice that facilitate delivery, we contend that these deeply engrained barriers cannot be addressed by policy change alone, and require a more substantial rethink of Scotland’s placemaking practice. The conclusions are of theoretical and practical significance for understanding the context-dependent cultures of implementation within which design governance and placemaking occur.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 1","pages":"Article 101031"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147605004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2026-04-01Epub Date: 2026-01-08DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2025.101030
Nariman Jahanzad
{"title":"On the nature and foundations of planning theory","authors":"Nariman Jahanzad","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101030","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101030","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper clarifies the nature and scope of planning theory and proposes a way to bring order to a fragmented field by developing an integrated framework for understanding both planning theory and planning theories. It begins with a critical genealogy of debates since the 1940s and identifies a persistent fault line: Planning construed either as an independent methodological discipline centered on decision-making processes, or as a substantive practice embedded within political–economic contexts— a distinction that can be translated into a tension between procedural universality and contextual particularity. This division has led to confusions in the literature. The findings show that many past disputes conflate the subject, principles, and questions or problematic areas at stake. To address this, the study adopts an Avicennian schema, introducing a new order to the field and—without siding with any pole or rejecting them—situating each aspect of planning theory in its proper place. It then advances a four-level typology of planning theories organized by nature, function, central questions, and fundamental problems. In a further step, it proposes a framework that makes explicit the foundational philosophical presuppositions underlying planning theories. The typology positions deontic, evaluative, descriptive, explanatory, critical, and justificatory theories within a single map, while the philosophical framework exposes the value-laden assumptions that shape theorizing. The paper’s contribution is threefold: (i) it identifies the place of each aspect of planning theory and the various types of planning theories; (ii) it offers criteria for comparing them; and (iii) it provides a usable scaffold for research, pedagogy, and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 1","pages":"Article 101030"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147605002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Healthy cities as catalysts for sustainable development: A systematic review of co-benefits, trade-offs, and solutions to the SDGs","authors":"Parsa Ahmadi Dehrashid , Hossein Mansourian , Ayyoob Sharifi","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In 2015, the United Nations (UN) introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a comprehensive global framework to address interconnected challenges related to public health, social inequalities, climate change, environmental sustainability, and urban governance. In parallel, for several decades, the Healthy Cities paradigm has evolved as a holistic and context-sensitive approach to enhancing urban health and quality of life (QOL) through integrated planning, participatory governance, and cross-sectoral action. This study conducts a PRISMA-guided systematic review of the co-benefits and trade-offs associated with the dimensions and solutions of healthy cities in relation to the SDGs. In this process, 91 peer-reviewed articles published between 2016 and 2025 were retrieved from major international databases and analysed using a structured qualitative content analysis to identify dominant patterns, co-benefits, and trade-offs. The findings indicate that existing research primarily focuses on SDGs 3 and 11, while also revealing meaningful linkages with SDGs 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, and 17. Healthy city interventions, including green and blue infrastructure, active mobility systems, inclusive governance mechanisms, and evidence-informed policymaking, demonstrate substantial potential to generate co-benefits across environmental, socio-spatial, and institutional dimensions. Nevertheless, the literature highlights persistent challenges and trade-offs, such as digital exclusion, institutional fragmentation, and spatial and social inequalities in access to health-enabling environments, which continue to hinder progress toward these goals. The results show that the identified co-benefits and trade-offs are strongly place-dependent. Local culture and social norms, urban morphology and density patterns, urban microclimate conditions, mobility and accessibility structures, and institutional and financial capacities play a decisive role in shaping how healthy city strategies interact with the SDGs across different regions and cities worldwide. Accordingly, the effective integration of the Healthy Cities paradigm within the SDG framework requires translating global objectives into locally implementable planning actions and designing neighbourhood-scale, context-sensitive monitoring indicators. To achieve sustainable and equitable outcomes, urban policies should prioritise reducing socio-spatial inequalities, strengthening inclusive civic participation, and mainstreaming health considerations across all dimensions of urban development. The study underscores the need to advance place-based empirical research, context-responsive innovations, and interdisciplinary collaboration to fully realise the potential of healthy cities in shaping sustainable, resilient, and health-oriented urban futures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"203 1","pages":"Article 101032"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147604999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2025-12-01Epub Date: 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2025.101021
Ekki Kreutzberger , Arjan van Binsbergen , Arkadiusz Drabicki , Fabian Reitemeyer , Fatemeh Torabi Kachousangi , Niels van Oort
{"title":"Climate-friendly mobility in cities. Planning for carbon reduction in the long term in four European cities","authors":"Ekki Kreutzberger , Arjan van Binsbergen , Arkadiusz Drabicki , Fabian Reitemeyer , Fatemeh Torabi Kachousangi , Niels van Oort","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101021","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101021","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many cities have ambitious climate targets, like becoming climate-neutral by 2050, 2040 or 2030, but are uncertain about how mobility and land use should change in order to reduce GHG emissions to levels consistent with the cities’ aims. Finding answers on this, and also on the question of how to strike an effective balance between desired fundamental transformation and realistic expectations, was at the heart of the Interreg Europe project 2050 CliMobCity (2050 Climate-friendly Mobility in Cities). The project partners were four medium-sized but otherwise quite different cities (Bydgoszcz, Plymouth, Thessaloniki and Leipzig), along with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and TU Delft. Each partner city conducted a so-called demonstration study, which required defining ambitious packages of measures (mobility, land use, electrification) and forecasting changes in mobility by macroscopic transport modelling. PIK then analysed GHG emissions using its carbon model. This paper extends the demonstration studies into a case-study approach. This is preceded by an exercise in consistently structuring types of GHG and mobility performances and corresponding measures. The case-study approach is supplemented by a review of the literature on shared and micromobility. A conclusion drawn from the case study is that none of the partner cities is in fact sufficiently reducing GHG emissions. Even if electricity production was completely green, the remaining gap between GHG reduction aims and analysed GHG delivery lies between 30–81 %, dependent on the scenario and city. Shared and micromobility seem not to lead to strongly deviating conclusions. We discuss policies to close the gap. One major option discussed is tackling GHG emissions from urban freight, in forms such as organising public-private cooperation designed to accelerate the electrification of freight vehicles.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"202 ","pages":"Article 101021"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Progress in PlanningPub Date : 2025-11-01Epub Date: 2025-10-13DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2025.101011
Rita Castel'Branco, António Ricardo da Costa
{"title":"The Wishful City: A strategic approach to narrow the gap between theory and practice of urban development","authors":"Rita Castel'Branco, António Ricardo da Costa","doi":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.progress.2025.101011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cities have the unique potential to either exacerbate or help resolve social and environmental challenges. However, a significant gap exists between theoretical knowledge of what makes a good city and the actual production of urban spaces. This research narrows that gap by offering a pathway to the 'Wishful City' - defined as one that contributes to the happiness of the majority of its inhabitants while supporting a thriving planet. To achieve this, the study combines strategic planning with scientific methods, following two parallel lines of investigation. The first delves into a broad literature review, to identify the human Core Values a city should deliver. The second synthesizes urban quality criteria suggested by experts over time to define the Urban Requisites for an exemplary city. The research then shows how each Urban Requisite contributes to the fulfilment of each Core Value and, therefore, of the Wishful City itself. Rather than proposing an urban utopia, this study considers the city as a continuous, collective creation, where individual contributions should support common needs and aspirations. To this end, it offers a well-founded framework for developing responsive urban norms tailored to local contexts. It provides a solid step towards more assertive urban policies, fostering cities with better outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47399,"journal":{"name":"Progress in Planning","volume":"201 ","pages":"Article 101011"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145278257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}