PhD Workshop June 26-29, 2026
Tampere, Finland
Website: World Planning Schools Congress 2026 – PhD Workshop
The PhD Workshop of the World Planning School Congress 2026 will be hosted by Tampere University from 26 to 29 June, 2026. The workshop offers an intellectual climate characterized by open debate, shared exploration and futures-thinking in planning. The program consists of high-quality lectures by renowned academics, PhD seminar sessions and tutoring discussions.
In addition, the workshop offers urban excursions in Tampere, one of the most interesting and dynamic mid-sized cities in the Nordic countries, along with a varied social evening program.
Each participant’s PhD project or a scientific paper will be discussed in small groups, led by experienced researchers, including Peter Ache (Netherlands), Robert Goodspeed (US), Kristi Grišakov (Estonia), Panu Lehtovuori (Finland), Helena Leino (Finland), Ali Madanipour (UK) and Aleksi Neuvonen (Finland).
Following the PhD Workshop, the participants are warmly invited to join the World Planning Schools Congress in Helsinki and Espoo from 29 June to 3 July, 2026. The PhD Workshop fee includes a free attendance to the Congress.
Important Dates and Instructions
The PhD Workshop application schedule follows the important dates of WPSC 2026:
- Call for PhD Workshop applications opens in September 2025.
- Call closes in November 2025.
- Decision on PhD Workshop acceptance in December 2025.
- Registration opens in January 2026.
- Early-bird registration closes in February 2026.
- Waiting list registration closes in May 2026.
Registration fees (to be confirmed)
- PhD Workshop registration: 400€ (Congress registration included)
- PhD Workshop registration from low-income and lower-middle income countries (link): 350€ (Congress registration included)
Fee includes the academic program, lunches, coffees, dinner on Saturday or Sunday, and public transportation within Tampere during the PhD Workshop, as well as attendance to the World Planning Schools Congress 2026 program.
The students are expected to arrange and pay for their own travel, accommodation and visa costs, and must have their own travel insurance. Unfortunately, we cannot offer any financial support to cover the mentioned costs.
Theme
The main theme of the WPSC 2026 is “Peripheral Visions – Rethinking Planning”. It reflects how planning is increasingly becoming peripheral to more urgent fields of action, especially in times marked by intertwined ecological, economic, and social challenges. Planning is also being marginalised by emerging technologies such as algorithms, big data and the growing influence of artificial intelligence. At the same time, geographic peripheries are being consumed in a continuous global expansion process. In general, both the Congress and the PhD Workshop address new perspectives and approaches to planning in view of a new territoriality.
Building on these starting points, our appeal for the PhD Workshop is: should we focus only solely on the spatial dimension, or should we also consider a new temporal dimension – despite and beyond the prevailing call for urgency and the demand for ‘actuality’? The PhD Workshop will explore the concept of ‘futures’ as yet-non-existent but still relevant fields of action. The PhD Workshop will delve into the unknown and the novel, making these emerging possibilities meaningful for a prudent and forward-looking planner.
Following Sheringham & Wentworth (2016), who have explored the “city as archive”, we invite students to work together on archives of multiple futures, drawing attention to what is “thinkable and unthinkable, possible and impossible, desirable and undesirable, grounded in a place’s communicative and socio-material fabric” (p. 15). Literally, the ‘material’ urban archive provides an arc – an arched roof – and a hive – buzzing cluster of ideas – that entail diverse futures.
Application
In the PhD Workshop, you can bring in discussion your whole PhD project or a scientific paper you are working on. As the theme above suggests, we invite each participant to think about the future-orientation of their research topic.
Please submit your application through this link, with the following elements:
- The working title of your PhD project or paper
- A focused description of your PhD project or an abstract of your paper (c. 300 words)
- Your motivation of participation in the PhD Workshop (c. 200 words)
- Your interpretation of the conference theme “Peripheral Visions – Rethinking Planning” as well as the above thematisation of ‘futures’ (c. 200 words)
- Question, theme or method you especially expect to develop in the field of ‘futuring’ during the PhD Workshop (c. 200 words)
- Key readings related to your PhD project or paper (max. 5 references)
- A separate CV (max 1 page)
The deadline for applications is on 11 November, 2025, at 23:59 EET (Eastern European Time).
The applicants will be informed about the decisions in December 2025. The evaluation is based on the quality of the application and to the representation of different planning schools globally. There will be slots for a maximum of 60 PhD students in the PhD Workshop.
After acceptance to the PhD workshop and successful registration, participants will receive pre-assignments and selected readings from the organizers.
The PhD Workshop participants will be awarded a certificate equivalent of 3 ECTS study credits.
For any questions regarding the applications, please contact phdworkshop.wpsc2026@tuni.fi.
Program
PhD Workshop’s academic program is organized over four intensive days, from 26 to 29 June 2026. We expect participants to travel to Tampere on 25 June at the latest, when there will also be an opportunity to join an informal welcome program in the evening. The final day, 29 June, consists of the closing program of the PhD Workshops, travel to the main Congress venue in the Helsinki City Region and presenting results to the main Congress audience. Please note, that if you choose to participate to the main Congress, the transport to Helsinki City Region will need to be arranged and paid for by yourself.
PhD Workshop’s daily program will be detailed later.
PhD Workshop Venue
Tampere is located 180 kilometers North of Helsinki. The city is easy to access by train or bus from Helsinki and Helsinki airport. Tampere airport has selected connections to Nordic and Baltic cities. For accommodation opportunities please see some options below or check the Visit Tampere website. The PhD Workshop participants are expected to organize and pay for their own travel, accommodation and visa arrangements and have their own insurances.
PhD Workshop is organized in Tampere University’s city centre campus, with several site visits and excursions in the city.
More information
Please direct your possible enquiries about the PhD workshop to: phdworkshop.wpsc2026@tuni.fi
