It is our pleasure to welcome Prof. Dr. Menelaos Gkartzios to our department. Prof. Dr. Menelaos Gkartzios was educated in Ireland (PhD in Regional & Urban Planning; MSc in Environmental Resource Management, both at University College Dublin) and in Greece (MAgrSc in Agricultural Economics & Rural Development, Agricultural University of Athens). His scholarly work focuses on the theory and practice of sustainable rural development and planning; mobilities, social change and urban-rural relationships; as well as the role of artistic practice and cultural capital in place-based development. His research on these topics has been published in various journals such as the Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, Regional Studies, Land Use Policy, Geoforum, Population, Space & Place, World Development, and others. His recent books include: Postcapitalist Countrysides: From Commoning to Community Wealth Building (UCL Press, 2025); Town and Country Planning in the UK (Routledge, 2024); Rural Places and Planning: Stories from the Global Countryside (Policy Press, 2022); and The Routledge Companion to Rural Planning (Routledge, 2019). He has held academic posts at the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey, Newcastle University in the UK, University College Dublin in Ireland, and the University of Tokyo in Japan. Most recently, he served as a Visiting Professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University in China. He is Associate Editor of Habitat International and currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Rural Studies, Progress in Planning, Planning Practice & Research, and Rural Society. Within the Association of European Schools of Planning, he co-leads a new AESOP Thematic Group on Rural Planning.

Personal page: Prof. Dr. Menelaos GKARTZIOS