Department / Institute: Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann
Between Activism and Academia: Research Justice in Unequal Cities
Platforms and Urbanism: Challenges for Urban Governance
Digital platforms are increasingly present in everyday urban life. This has meant an increasing infrastructuralisation of digital platforms, creating opportunities, but also challenges for cities and governments. During COVID-19, delivery platforms and delivery workers became a staple of urban landscapes, but what has this meant for urban governance?
Accepting and Resisting Densification: The Importance of Project-related Factors and the Contextualizing Role of Neighbourhoods
From conformance to performance? A comparative analysis of the European Union territorial policy trends in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As several Western Balkans countries aspire to become members of the European Union (EU) in the (near) future, it is interesting to explore to what extent EU territorial trends are adopted in both the official national regulations and spatial planning practice. To do so, we: 1) screen EU More
Agency in a Contemporary World: Towards an Actor-centred Planning?
The interrelationship between structure and agency has long been in the centre of the planning debate: the structuralist perspective focused on a regulatory structure as an arena for the manoeuvre of rational actors, while network-oriented post-structuralism exceeds such a rigid duality. However, as both approaches fail to fully More
NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Frühjahrssemester 2022
Gründung upZ (urban publics Zürich)
upZ (urban publics Zürich) fördert den Dialog zwischen Stadtforschung, Stadtgesellschaft und Stadtpolitik. Sie verfolgen zwei Ziele: Erstens wollen sie international ausgerichtete urbane Forschung und Praktiken in Zürich verankern und weiterentwickeln. Zweitens wollen sie Verbindungen zwischen städtischen Akteuren in Forschung, Politik, Aktivismus, Hochschulen und Zivilgesellschaft stärken, um den öffentlichen More
NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Herbstsemester 2021
«Densifying Switzerland»: Acceptance and public support for densification projects in Swiss cities
The SNF-funded research project «Densifying Switzerland» examines factors that affect the acceptance and local democratic support for densification projects in all 162 Swiss cities. Densification is the central paradigm of the current revisions of the Swiss Spatial Planning Act. There is a broad public and scholarly consensus that More
NSL Forum: Pandemie? Mitten im Klimawandel. Was bedeutet das für die räumliche Entwicklung der Schweiz? Ein Dialog.
Video jetzt online! In einem Dialog für Praxis und Hochschulen nahm das Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft (NSL) der ETH Zürich am 11. November im Volkshaus Zürich eine Standortbestimmung für die räumliche Entwicklung in der Schweiz vor. Ausgangspunkt bildeten Erkenntnisse aus der Pandemiesituation, Hintergrund der Klimawandel. Die Tagung war More
Neues Video über das Institut für Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung
Neben dem Lehrstuhl für Planung von Landschaft und Urbanen Systemen (Prof. Adrienne Grêt-Regamey) sind in den letzten Jahren zwei neue Forschungsgruppen im Institut für Raum- und Landschaftsentwicklung entstanden: Raumentwicklung und Stadtpolitik (Prof. David Kaufmann) und Spatial Transformation Laboratories (PD. Dr. Joris Van Wezemael). Ein neues Video stellt die More
NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Frühjahrssemester 2021
Urban Policy Analysis: Theoretical and Empirical Developments
Densification: Acceptance and Socio-Economic Effects of Urban Development
Urban Policy Analysis: Theoretical and Empirical Developments: Call for Papers
Call for Papers by 29 January 2021. This is a call for papers for the panel Urban policy analysis: Theoretical and empirical developments that David Kaufmann (ETH Zürich) and Mara Sidney (Rutgers University) organize at the 5th International Conference on Public Policy in Barcelona from 6-8 July 2021.
Urbane Transformationen
NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Herbstsemester 2020
Participatory Urban Governance in South Africa
Citizen participation in planning and politics was a central promise of the first democratic government in South Africa. However, despite efforts for engaging civil society in local governance, planning remains state-driven and problems of implementation prevail. We explore participatory practices in South Africa from the perspective of the More
18th Swiss Geoscience Meeting: Urban planning and policy-making with/without/against national states
NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Frühjahrssemester 2020
Democracy, Populism, and the Just City (Followed by a panel discussion)
Toward an Urban Policy Analysis
A new Symposium called «Toward an Urban Policy Analysis» is out in PS: Political Science & Politics edited by David Kaufmann and Mara Sidney (Rutgers University). The Symposium aims to develop theoretical foundations for an urban policy analysis built from urban empirical work.
Zurich, a Sanctuary City?
28 October 2019, 18:00 – 19:30 | ETH Zurich, Leonhardstrasse 21, LEE E 101. This event is part of the series of events «Sanctuary Cities in Switzerland?», which takes place in Zurich, Berne and Geneva. The speakers in these events outline the developments in urban migration policies in support of More
Urban Policy Analysis
Societal, environmental, and technological transformations accentuate themselves in dense settings, pushing cities and metropolitan regions to the forefront of tackling complex policy problems. Whether responding to climate change, migration, poverty, or limited land availability, or aiming to generate sustainable development and inclusive technological transformations, cities tend to be More
Participatory Urban Governance
The realization of large urban infrastructure projects is necessary to achieve long-term planning goals such as sustainable cities, just cities or smart cities. Yet, these large urban infrastructure projects are more and more contested by city residents (for example Amazon HQ2 in New York, Toronto Sidewalk Labs, or More
Policy Analysis of Spatial Planning
Densification policies are at the core of the current revisions of the Federal Act on Spatial Planning. This research project analyzes the effects of densification policies on the housing market and the socio-economic composition of the population by making use of quasi-experimental research designs. We compare areas that More
Prof. Dr. David Kaufmann | Spatial Development and Urban Policy
Sanctuary Cities in der Schweiz?
28. Oktober 2019, 18.00 – ca. 19.30 | ETH Zürich, LEE E 101, Leonhardstrasse 21, Zürich. Dieser Anlass ist Teil der Veranstaltungsreihe «Sanctuary Cities in der Schweiz?», die in Zürich, Bern und Genf stattfindet. Dabei werden städtepolitischen Entwicklungen zugunsten von irregulären Migrantinnen und Migranten in amerikanischen, europäischen und Schweizer More
Spatial Planning Policy Analysis
Densification policies are at the core of the current revisions of the Swiss Spatial Planning Act. This new research project at the group of Spatial Development and Urban Policy (SPUR) analyzes the effects of densification policies on the housing market and the socio-economic population composition by making use More
Densifying Switzerland: Debates and Research Avenues for an Analysis of Spatial Planning Policy
Densification is the central paradigm of the current revisions of the Swiss Spatial Planning Act. Densification can be motivated by concerns as to ecology or affordability. The newly established research group «Spatial Development and Urban Policy» (SPUR) at ETH Zürich will examine effects of densification policies in Switzerland. More
Dr. David Kaufmann is Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Spatial Development and Urban Policy
On the recommendation of ETH President Joël Mesot, the ETH Board appointed several new ETH professors during its meeting on 10 and 11 July 2019. Amongst them Dr. David Kaufmann (*1985), currently a post-doctoral student at the University of Bern, as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Spatial Development More
NSL Veranstaltungsplakat Frühjahrssemester 2019
Future Cities Lab Global
Sustainable cities and settlement systems through science, by design, in place, over time Future Cities Lab Global (FCL Global) addresses the globally significant challenges of rapid regional transformation, and aims to create a better understanding of the relationships between cities, rural communities and their surrounding regions, so as to More

Tradition for over 50 years
disP – The Planning Review is a Network City and Landscape (NSL) publication which was set up in 1965 and became a subscription journal in 2010. The Taylor & Francis Group took over the publishing and subscription aspects of the journal in 2012. Further information can be found on their website.
disP – The Planning Review is an interdisciplinary scientific journal addressing topics in the areas of urban development, city and town planning, landscape and environmental planning, landscape architecture, regional and environmental economics as well as transportation planning. The journal is published quarterly and, on average, two issues a year are dedicated to a specific theme (special issue). Articles are evaluated and selected via an anonymous peer-review process (double-blind referee process) and the editorial staff are supported by an international editorial advisory board.
International orientation
The journal welcomes submissions from authors from all over the world who wish to contribute to the European planning forum. Articles are published in German, English, French, and Italian. An English summary (abstract) is provided at the beginning of each article no matter the language of the article.
For Scientific Research and Practice
disP – The Planning Review is meant for professionals in research and practice who are interested in European planning issues. The Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) is an official partner of the journal.