Meike Levin-Keitel, Professorship for Spatial Research and Spatial Planning

Contact Meike Levin-Keitel

"My research focuses on questions of spatial development in connection with transformation processes towards sustainability. At the interface between planning theory principles and action-related planning approaches and instruments, I am interested in the extent to which social transformations are taking place in our regions, cities and urban districts, how they are changing them and what prerequisites the respective spaces have for change. Most of my research work deals with decision-making in complex transformation processes - and with the associated question of how to shape the spatial development of our environment in terms of a sustainable way of life. On the one hand, this involves a practical and transdisciplinary research perspective, characterized by the development of joint research questions with local people and a shared learning process. On the other hand, I am interested in the scientific deepening of the discipline of spatial and environmental planning, its theoretical foundations between natural and social science findings, its normative and ethical orientation and what is understood by planning theories." (Meike Levin-Keitel)

Curriculum Vitae:

2000-2007 Studied landscape and open space planning at the University of Hanover
2007-2010 Employee of the International Relations Office of the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape, Leibniz University Hannover
2011-2012 Research assistant in the Department of Planning and Architectural Sociology at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, Leibniz Universität Hannover
2017-2018 Teaching assignment at HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) for the module "Planning Theory" in the Bachelor of Science Architecture program
2010-2019 Research assistant at the Department of Spatial Planning and Regional Development at the Institute of Environmental Planning, Leibniz University Hannover (Dissertation: Inner-city river landscapes in the mirror of local planning culture. Planning-cultural perspectives of integrated and sustainable urban and regional development in dealing with their river landscapes)
2019-2023 Junior professor and head of the research group "Spatial Transformation in the Digital Age", Faculty of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University
since January 2024 Professor and head of the working group "Spatial Research and Spatial Planning", Institute of Geography and Regional Research, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy, University of Vienna

Selected memberships:

since 2021 Head of the Thematic Group of the Association of European Schools Of Planning (AESOP) "Planning Theories" with Ben Davy and Franziska Sielker
since 2021 Head of the International Working Group of the Academy for Spatial Development in the Leibniz Association (ARL) "Beyond the process - Finding common ground for a discussion on planning's substantial foundation" with Franziska Sielker
since 2017 Member of the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL), (Northwest Regional Working Group), elected for ten years