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The aim of this article is to examine the main changes in spatial planning systems in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries after the end of communism in 1989, and to relate these changes to the main challenges facing spatial planning in these countries. The authors used the following countries as case studies: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. They analysed the framework conditions, such as the main spatial planning instruments and the main planning legislation. They then looked at the rationale behind each country’s planning legislation and examined the legal status before implementation. This allowed them to identify the main directions of significant legal changes in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to identify and compare the key institutional features of urban climate change adaptation plans in three geographically, systemically, and climatically distinct European countries (Greece, Spain, and Poland). The paper concentrates on the tool indicated and confirms the circumstances and potential outcomes of its usage in the selected countries. A case study of a particular city was chosen in each country and the applicability of the climate change adaptation plan there was confirmed. Analysis was also performed on the plans' legal aspect, connection to national-level strategic planning, and spatial planning. The research questions formulated and addressed are as follows: how do urban climate change adaptation plans in the selected countries define key climate challenges? Is the content of the municipal climate change adaptation plans consistent with the content of the diagnosis of climate challenges at the supra-local level and in the scientific discussion? How are climate change adaptation plans translated into the implementation sphere? Τhe example of Spain and Greece confirms that plans can combine general climate change adaptation objectives with specific (evasive) guidelines for urban policies, while the example of Poland shows that the content of climate change adaptation plans can often be too vague and difficult to further integrate into urban policies. The research results obtained are relevant from the perspective of comparing institutional responses to climate challenges. The research proposes possible methods for making such comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is a summary of investigations carried out in response to the complaints against the article "On urban safety in the occident: Some relevant observations", published by T. Kauko in Urbanism Architecture Constructions 12(1): 67-72. The results indicate that the article was peer reviewed in compliance with the standard policies of our journal, and the requests for retracting it, phrased in two of the three complaints, are not justified, as none of the conditions recommended by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) as possible reasons for retracting the article is met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is a review of the book: Escudero D. (2023), Neorealist Architecture. Aesthetics of Dwelling in Post-war Italy, Routledge, Abingdon, OX, UK, 236 pp., ISBN 978-1-003-27800-9. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a review of the book "State-of-The-Art Cohousing: Lessons from Quimper Village" by Alexandria Levitt and Charles Durrett with Quimper Village Residents, published in 2020 by Kindle Direct Publishing (ISBN 978-0-945929-05-5, 145 pp.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article is a review of the book: Boţic S. (coordinator) (2021), Law no. 50/1991 on authorizing the execution of construction works. Comments and case law by article, Hamangiu Press, Bucharest, Romania, ISBN 978-606-21-1798-8, 962 pp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research exercise aims to identify all areas affected by what is now known as ‘youthification’ in the Metropolitan Area of Cluj. Broadly speaking, an area touched by youthification witnesses a massive arrival of young adults, who invest in housing, but only remain there until they age. Youthification is usually the second phase within an encompassing process of gentrification. To gain a clearer picture of this phenomenon, we employed a snapshot of the situation recorded by the Population and Housing Census of 2011. Using this image as a starting point, we then applied statistical thresholds aimed at measuring the presence and intensity of youthification within different areas. Thereafter, we looked at areas exhibiting the same level of youthification, in order to find those common traits of their young adult inhabitants that might prove relevant for their choices in matters of housing. Once completed, our efforts resulted in the first map showing the areas affected by youthification within the Metropolitan Area of Cluj. In addition, we reached the following conclusion: Young adults who live in the city are more likely to still be enrolled in a form of education and less likely to be married or to have children than those who live in the suburbs or in rural areas. This observation implies that there might be some hidden dependency relations, which are at work in shaping the choice of housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the quantity of open data has multiplied dramatically. This newly found wealth of data has raised a number of issues for any research exercise within the field of spatial planning: underpowered traditional tools and methods, difficulties in tracking data, transparency issues, sharing difficulties and, above all, an erratic workflow. Some new research tools to counter this irksome tendency do exist at the moment, but, unfortunately, we feel that there is still ample room for improvement. We have therefore commenced the development of our own research instrument, based on the Scientific Workflow System concept. This paper lays the foundation for its architecture. Once completed, both the instrument and the resulting data shall be freely available, truthful to the spirit of the open source and open data tradition. We strongly believe that spatial planning professionals and researchers might find it interesting and worthwhile for increasing the quality and speed of their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There shouldn’t be any doubt that globalization not only affects economies, but also other areas of scholarly interest, such as the research environment. Within research, multi-disciplinary approaches are now being utilized on a grand scale. As a result, the joint evolution of scale and multi-disciplinarity seems to direct modern research from the ‘potholing’ towards the ‘sky-diving’ approach. In this context, many countries where the research tradition was affected by isolation are trying to catch up fast and compete within the global research ecosystem. However, some of the research domains have a longer tradition and developed their own rules, which are rapidly adopted by other fields, in order to equal the visibility of their predecessors. The positivist approach, consisting of statistically analyzing data resulting from experiments, which are, in turn, designed to test hypotheses derived from empirical observations or theoretical reasoning based on a literature review, has left an important fingerprint on current research practices. It also appears to be related to the pressure of publishing research, translated into the ‘publish or perish’ adage, and more recently, to the use of scientometric approaches to assess the value of articles, based on their citations. These new trends, along with an emerging competition between the scientometric giants, Thomson-Reuters and Scopus, facilitated the evolution of ‘predatory journals’, but also engendered a propensity towards designing hybrids between science and economy or between science and social networking. At the same time, the pressure resulted into individual unethical behaviors; some authors are no longer interested in delivering their results to the appropriate audience, but are looking instead for those means that could facilitate their academic or research promotion. Consequently, some journals are also attempting to meet these needs. The global race for research competitiveness, measured in terms of scientific yield and citations, primarily affects fields where articles and citations are not the traditional outputs, such as the humanities and social sciences in general and planning-related disciplines in particular. When discussing planning, it has to be stressed out that research has a merely societal value and is not aimed at developing products that can foster economic growth or delivering scientific articles that profoundly change the theoretical perspectives. Simply put, research in planning aims at increasing the safety and welfare of people. As a consequence, planning research topics have shifted from providing scientific grounds to regional development policies, to addressing research quality and social responsibility or producing research guidelines. This article looks at the particular case of Romanian planning research based on SCImago data, in an attempt to assess whether this field is able to meet these global challenges, especially after the consistent, albeit uneven, in terms of goal and pace, application of new research policies designed after joining the European Union, which were aimed at increasing its article output and its international visibility. The findings indicate that the numerical growth of articles and publications is spectacular in Romania for most fields, and even more so within the humanities, the social sciences and planning. However, the question remains whether this impressive growth is supported by an increase in quality. We have therefore left aside matters such as the globalization of authors, topics or citations. These aspects require a more in-depth research effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an exercise in studying travel behaviour among morning commuters within the metropolitan area of Cluj, Romania, as well as their attitudes towards urban transport. We have designed and conducted an on-line survey amongst two major occupational groups, namely private and state sector employees. This survey concentrated upon the social and economic characteristics of these two commuter groups, while taking into account existing structural and functional patterns within the built environment. We have received answers that point to a noticeable difference between private and state sector employees, but the overall results are deeply worrying: Travel behaviour in Cluj is surprisingly immune to common sense. It is, however, deeply indebted to personal comfort. Hence, considering current development patterns affecting Romanian cities, this research exercise critically examines travel behaviour and calls for a paradigm shift, which would hopefully lead to more effective transport policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]