The 23rd N-AERUS Conference invites researchers, scholars, and practitioners to critically examine how collaborations shape global urban agendas amidst shifting institutional landscapes and deep-seated power asymmetries. Hosted in a unique hybrid, multi-locational format across both the Global North and Global South, this event provides a vital platform for inclusive, trans-disciplinary knowledge exchange.
- Date
- Tuesday 27 Oct 2026, 09:00 - Thursday 29 Oct 2026, 17:00
- Type
- Conference
- Spoken Language
- English
Thematic focus & background
Founded in 1996, N-AERUS (Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South) is a trans-disciplinary network dedicated to urban development in the Global South. Today, as global cities face compounding challenges like climate change, socio-economic inequality, and migration, partnerships between universities, governments, civil society, and communities have become central to how urban knowledge is produced. However, these partnerships are not neutral; they are inherently shaped by unequal power relations, funding regimes, and competing institutional hierarchies.
To interrogate these dynamics, the 2026 conference is structured around four institutional tracks and one cross-cutting theme. For more information, please read the full Call for Papers.
Anchored by Outros at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU) of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, this theme explores urban development partnerships from Global South perspectives. It invites analyses on grassroots collaborations, municipal partnerships, and alternative geographies of knowledge that challenge Eurocentric development models.
Coordinated through IHS, Erasmus University Rotterdam, this track focuses on how partnerships between governments, private actors, and communities converge around affordable housing, neighborhood upgrading, and service provision, critically examining whose knowledge informs interventions in climate-vulnerable contexts.
This track, developed by the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), targets the political negotiations embedded within partnerships. It invites critical engagement on how formal and informal governance structures reshape the role of the state, influence global development agendas, and protect vulnerable or displaced populations.
Hosted by the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente, this theme investigates how technological collaborations, remote sensing, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mediate how cities are analyzed and governed, raising crucial questions about data ownership, epistemic inequality, and ethical digital stewardship.
A shared focus across all hosting institutions, this theme invites reflexive contributions on joint academic programmes, research training networks, and alternative pedagogies that aim to disrupt traditional institutional hierarchies and promote mutual learning.
Reflecting its core theme, the conference will take place simultaneously across multiple physical and virtual hubs. Sessions in the Global South will be anchored by the University of São Paulo (Brazil), while Global North tracks will be hosted by universities in the Rotterdam-The Hague area (Netherlands), offering participants the flexibility to engage either online or in person.
Publication opportunity
Selected papers will be considered for a special issue/volume in collaboration with Trialog – Journal for Planning and Building in the Global South.
Programme
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentationmode |
|---|---|---|
| Reynaldo Hinojosa-Contreras | When Are Cities Comparable? | Online |
| Ran Ai | Borrowed but Filtered: Park(ing) Day Shanghai and Its Politics of Partnerships | Online |
| Daphne Gondhalekar | Operationalising the WEFE Nexus | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Novita Rohmana Putri | Seeing the Unseen: Community Knowledge in Peri-Urban Water Governance in Sleman | Online |
| Helene Francis | The Rate of Adoption of Low Impact Development Concepts in SSA Cities | Online |
| Franziska Laue | Tackling Urban Loss and Damage: Cooperation for Knowledge Production, Visibility and Advocacy | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Mahak Agrawal | Mapping Power: Data Centres, Climate Intelligence, and the Politics of Spatial Knowledge | Online |
| Jota Samper | The Permanence Observatory: Co-producing Spatial Evidence for Housing Rights | In-person |
| Monika Kuffer | IDEAtlas: An Open and User-Centric AI Toolkit | In-person |
| Abhishek Kumar Srivastava | Governing Urban Heat Data through Spatial Knowledge Partnerships in Noida | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Wolfgang Scholz | Challenges and Benefits of Collaborations Between Universities and City Planning Departments | In-person |
| Shuaib Lwasa | Nurturing Voluntary, Meaningful and Enduring Urban Reform Coalitions | In-person |
| Fikre Kura Gizaw | The Role of Partnerships in Urban Greening | In-person |
| Jamelia Harris | Foreign Aid and Skills in Developing Countries: Towards a Holistic Framework of National Skills Development | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Ana Polgár | Seeing Through Satellites, Streets and Stories | In-person |
| Urvi S. Shanbhag | Multisensory Spatial Memory in Madurai | Online |
| Ana Mafalda Madureira | From Project-Based Cooperation to Institutional Partnerships | Online |
| Berfin Eren | Reconfigured Heritage: Spatial Legibility and Fragmentation in Diyarbakır Suriçi | Online |
| Nurul Dwi Purwanti | Constructive Skepticism as Everyday Urban Democracy: Circulating Knowledge through Bottom-up Indonesia's Digital Democratic Innovations | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Laura Colini | From Camps to Cities: Refugees' Right to Adequate Housing in Ethiopia | In-person |
| Madhvi Mehta | Building ICESCR Article 11 Reporting Capacity | Online |
| Juliet Chika Chinemelu | Partnerships for Housing Security and Urban Resilience | In-person |
| Geeta Nair | Impact of Urbanisation on Housing in India | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Anthony Boanada-Fuchs | Can Affordable Housing Be Delivered Without Large Subsidies? | In-person |
| Manav Khaire | De-commodifying Housing and Institutionalizing Community Agency through PPCP in India | Online |
| Ehsan Moayedi | Institutional Partnership Structures in Iran's Large-Scale Housing Programs | Online |
| Thais Cshunderlick | Land Value Capture and Housing Policy in São Paulo | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Alexander Jachnow | Unlearning Colonial Planning in African Cities | In-person |
| Ngonidzashe Walter Karasambudzi | Beyond the Workshop Table: Reimagining Urban Partnerships through Community Knowledge | Online |
| Satya Maia Patchineelam | Learning In Situ: Decolonizing Graduate Education Through Territorial Partnerships | In-person |
| Eric Njeru | Beyond Collaboration: Urban Partnership Intelligence as a New Paradigm | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Giselle Aguirre | Stakeholder Relations and the Crisis of Approach in Buenos Aires | Online |
| Amey M. Ghosalkar | Politics of Space: Whose Land, Whose City? | Online |
| Vipul Kumar | When Imagined Partnerships Produce Speculation: Trust, Power and the Politics of Land Pooling in Delhi | In-person |
| Furio Viotti | Shifting Co-production: Basic Service Provision in Buenos Aires Informal Settlements | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Juan Du | Building Housing Resilience through On-Site Upgrading | Online |
| Surabhi Mehrotra | Participatory Mapping and Assessment of Extreme Climate Impacts | In-person |
| Samrddhi Mittal | From Beneficiaries to Knowledge Producers: Community-Enabled Climate Adaptation | Online |
| Andrea Rignon | Climate Risk, Informal Housing and Partnerships for Just Adaptation | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Ying Liu | Governing Waiting Lands | In-person |
| Bruna de Souza Santos | Resilient Cities, Vulnerable Territories | Online |
| Blake Robinson | North-South Partnerships for Re-imagining the Future of African Cities | In-person |
| Parsa Arbab | Inclusive Urban Development via Partnership: A Systematic Literature Review | Online |
| Yu Zhou | Exploring the Role of Street Network Configuration in Economic Agglomeration | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Colleen Chiu-Shee | Inclusion as Innovation in Privatized China | Online |
| Anna Mazzolini | Generic Futures: Home-Making, Reconstruction and the Politics of Surplus Populations | In-person |
| Rincy Simon | Proximity Without Production: Caste and the Absence of Social Infrastructure | Online |
| Mariano Scheinsohn | Landscape Artifices in the Reconfiguration of Persistent Socio-Spatial Inequality | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Mathewos W. Gebreyesus | The Urban Redevelopment Continuum Challenges in Securing Tenure Rights in Ethiopia | In-person |
| Biniam Tekle Biru | Formal Rigidity, Informal Vulnerability | In-person |
| Biniam Tekle Biru | Beyond Payment Affordability: Decency-Sensitive Housing Diagnostics | In-person |
| Nayeem Shahriar | Do Climate-Induced Disasters Widen Urban Housing Inequality in Bangladesh? | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Bravin Vulimwa | 1st Place in the Rethinking Roofs Global Competition for his project titled: “Clip-on Cool Layers – A Community-driven retrofit for affordable urban cooling.” | Online |
| Yusra Gul | Borrowed Sky: Collective Roofscapes as Thermal Commons in Informal Settlements | In-person |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Chigozie Azunna | Afrophobia, Xenophobia and Humanitarianism in South Africa | In-person |
| Samuel Bekele Jote | From Cluster Coordination to Area-Based Humanitarian Response: Addressing Urban Displacement in Post-War Tigray, Ethiopia | Online |
| Samuel Bekele Jote | Humanitarian Space and Humanitarian Politics in Shelter and Settlement Responses in Tigray, Ethiopia | Online |
| Jannatul Ferdous | From Humanitarian Assistance to Partnership-Based Urban Governance: Rethinking Knowledge, Power, and Refugee Inclusion in the Rohingya Response of Bangladesh | Online |
| Nma Dhahir | Whose Water Counts? Partnership Governance of Water and Nutrition in Protracted Urban Displacement, Kurdistan Region of Iraq | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Manuela Gutierrez Garcia | Bridging the Gap Between Science, Policy, and Practice for Climate Adaptation and Environmental Health | In-person |
| Alkothar Almodhi | Urban Development and Heritage Conservation in Historic Jeddah | In-person |
| Urmi Sengupta | Heritage and Community Resilience: Negotiating Post-Earthquake Recovery in Kathmandu | Online |
| Presenter | Presentation | Presentation mode |
|---|---|---|
| Mohan Kumar Bera | Exploring Civic Engagement in Waste Management: A Case Study of a Village Panchayat in Goa | Online |
| Shivangi Tripathi | Planning for Inclusive Urban Streets | Online |
| Pooja Chichkar | Beyond the Politics of Optics | Online |
| Geoffrey Payne | Reflecting on the Past to Build a Better Future | Online |
| Noor Mohammad Hashmat | Negotiating the State: Citizens, Tax Bureaucracy, and Development Partnerships | In-person |
Speakers:
- Joyeeta Gupta - Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam
- Marleen Dekker - Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa at Leiden University
- Anton Van Rompaey - professor Geography KU Leuven
- Taibat Lawanson - Leverhulme Professor of Planning and Heritage in the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool
Practical information
| Key information | Date / details |
|---|---|
| Registration for attendees | Register via this form |
| Conference fees | Free - No registration fees will be charged. |
| Format & venues (hybrid) |
|
| Contact | naerus.2026@gmail.com |
| Official website | N-AERUS |
