Call for Contribution: Special Issue of the Scientific Journal Urban Challenge

Walking with Hope: Public Spaces for Wellbeing

We invite academics, practitioners, artists and all other interested contributors to submit full-length papers for a Special Issue of the international scholarly journal Urbani izziv / Urban Challenge. This call builds on the event "Walking with Hope: Public Spaces for Wellbeing" of AESOP Thematic Group Public Spaces and Urban Cultures, which was co-organized by the Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia (UIRS), Polygon – Center for Cultural Research and Project Development, and Center for urban transition, architecture and urbanism – DeltaLab at the University of Rijeka.

The Special Issue explores the vital relationship between the built environment, public spaces and human wellbeing through the interconnected lenses of walkability and the concept of hope.

Thematic focus

This special issue goes beyond the traditional understanding of walkability, examining it as a critical framework for assessing the accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability of our cities, settlements and other populated areas. We seek to encourage an interdisciplinary dialogue by bringing together two distinct epistemological perspectives – urban design/scholarly research and artistic expression/practice, both grounded in processes of exploration and reflection. We imagine new ways of reading space, tracing the shifting relations between bodies, movement within space, the economies of architecture that shape them, and the spaces they inhabit, while proposing models and practices that move fluidly between scientific inquiry and artistic creation. From here, we envision public spaces not only as sites of design but as more hopeful, human-centred environments of encounter and possibility.

We encourage contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes and questions:

•  Urban design perspectives:

• walkability as a catalyst for social, economic, and cultural vitality,
• ‘’broken world designs’’ (Rethinking Repair, Steven J. Jackson, 2014) as a starting point for the future public spaces for wellbeing,
• human-centered spatial planning and design strategies that prioritise pedestrian experience and wellbeing,
• empirical research on the psychological and social dimensions of spatial experience and its impact on mental health and community sense,
• the intersection of walkability with social equity, environmental justice and climate change adaptation;

• Artistic & cultural perspectives:

- artistic research-based methodologies that emphasise embodied spatial inquiry, including practices of peripatetic exploration, dérive and ambulatory methods, drawing on traditions such as situationist psychogeography, performative studies of space and contemporary artistic research frameworks, which position walking and wandering as critical tools for examining spatial, social, and political relations,

- the role of the pedestrian in public space, politics of space, urban innovation, art and social change as artistic resistance,

- contemporary art practices and interventions that illuminate or challenge trends in urban planning,

- how artistic approaches can transform the experience of movement and public space into a sense of identity, atmosphere and hope,

- investigations into historical urban pedagogies and their relevance for human-centred design today.

Submission types and audience

We strongly encourage submissions from a wide range of disciplines, including architecture, urban planning and design, cultural studies, social sciences, environmental studies, contemporary art, philosophy, policymaking etc.

This call is open to:

• original research articles, review articles, or methodology papers and
• contributions that critically engage with the theme through artistic practice, inquiry-based design, reflective essays, or theoretical explorations of the artistic process in urban transformation, e.g in the form of a visual essay.

Submission guidelines and publisher requirements

All submissions intended for the "Articles" section of Urbani izziv will undergo high-quality double-blind peer review.

• Submission language: Papers must be submitted in English
• Manuscript type: Full-length research, review or methodological articles, or high-quality artistic/practice-based papers or essays ADD WORD COUNT!
• Review process: Double-blind peer review for all contributions
• Publication fees: The journal is Open Access and charges no submission fee for authors and no publication fee

Key Dates

• Full paper submission: February 15, 2026
• Notification of review: March 2026
• Revised paper submission: May 2026
• Foreseen publication deadline: Summer 2026

Please consult the journal's official Instructions for Authors on the publisher's website for detailed formatting and referencing requirements before submission of academic papers that intend to be classified as a scientific contribution. The artistic/practice-oriented contributions can be structured more freely and according to the needs of the presented theme. However, if authors intend for their work to be listed within the scientific part, they must still ensure some attributes of scientific work.

Submission Email: matej.niksic@uirs.si and branka.cvjeticanin@polygon.hr

Guest Editors: Matej Nikšič, Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia; Branka Cvjetičanin, Polygon; Tihomir Viderman, BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg