In a session chaired by Nancy Holman, Teis Hansen and John Tomaney will be discussing inequality and environmental sustainability in regional policy.

Cities and regions across the world are experiencing pressures on the housing, governance and sustainability fronts. Challenges such as creating sustainable transport links, enhancing local democracy or tackling housing shortage push urbanists to think creatively. Founded in 1966, LSE's MSc Regional and Urban Planning Studies (RUPS) programme has established its reputation as a key player in urban innovation with alumni working in public policy, architecture, think tanks and government across the world. Our new series Progressing Planning is designed to showcase LSE's impact on urban issues by bringing together academics and RUPS alumni. In so doing, we aim to show how research at LSE links to practice across the world.

This interactive session will bring together professionals, academics and the public around presentations and a general discussion.

Teis Hansen is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Human Geography, Lund University and Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Technology Management at SINTEF (Trondheim, Norway). His research focuses on sustainability transitions and the bioeconomy, regional development, transformative innovation policy, and technology transfer in renewable energy technologies. Teis is a graduate from LSE (MSc RUPS) and holds a PhD in economic geography from the University of Copenhagen.

John Tomaney is Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. Previously he was Henry Daysh Professor of Regional Development and Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University. His research has been principally concerned with development of cities and regions as socioeconomic, political and cultural phenomena and the role of public policy in the management of these. His work has focused especially on questions of the governance of local and regional economies, including questions of spatial planning.

Nancy Holman is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Director of RUPS. Her work deals primarily with issues of governance and local planning including sustainable development and community participation. She has often used social network analysis to explore the complex relationships in the multi-level, multi-actor partnerships present in modern governing arrangements.

RUPS (Regional and Urban Planning Studies) is a strongly focused and internationally based planning programme with a long tradition in training both people seeking careers in urban and regional planning policy and mid-career professionals.

LSE London is a research centre at the LSE that focuses on the economic and social issues of the London region, as well as the problems and possibilities of other urban and metropolitan regions. The centre has a strong international reputation particularly in the fields of labour markets, social and demographic change, housing, finance, and governance, and it is the leading academic centre for analyses of city-wide developments in London.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEProgressingPlanning