Sebastian Dembski
Biographic Data
| ID | 372524 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sebastian Dembski |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sebastian |
| FAMILY NAME | Dembski |
| SIGNATURE | DEMBSKI S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Liverpool |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4292-6712 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Densification in European city-regions
Urban densification is widely promoted as a strategy to limit land-take and provide housing, yet its sustainability and effectiveness remain debated. The impacts of densification depend heavily on the form of densification, but systematic knowledge about these forms and the policies and actors shaping them is still limited. To better understand this relationship, we present an approach to measure densification on the level of urban form through m…
A Model of Building Changes to Support Comparative Studies and Open Discussions on Densification
Densification is a widely used concept, but there is a lack of terminology and tools to facilitate discussions among data scientists, policy makers and citizens. This paper proposes a model of building changes based on building surveys undertaken in past decades to connect discussions about densification with shared evidence. A specific challenge is to process buildings in city regions and areas in a replicable way across different building data …
Professor Benjamin Davy, 1956–2025
This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/4.0
Densification policy between state and market
Urban densification has become a central policy goal to deliver much-needed housing while reducing net land take. At the same time there has been a significant shift between the role of the state and the market in how to deliver planning outcomes and the type of regulation to achieve densification. This article investigates recent policy changes to promote densification in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, looking at the role of …
Towards a more collaborative planning process for traditional communities? A sociological-institutionalist analysis of the Kampong Kauman in Surakarta, Indonesia
Land for densification
This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0
Reurbanisation and suburbia in Northwest Europe
Following decades of urban decline in many European cities, there is now an abundant literature identifying a process of reurbanisation, which has now also reached many secondary cities, including those in post-industrialised regions. Reurbanisation is an umbrella concept involving several related but distinct processes, though has its roots in spatial cycle models that consider reurbanisation to be a specific stage in the development of urban re…
‘Organic’ approaches to planning as densification strategy? The challenge of legal contextualisation in Buiksloterham, Amsterdam
Urban development in the Netherlands has been dominated by a master-planning approach in combination with a proactive land policy, but has recently witnessed the emergence of a new type of flexible
Enhancing understanding of strategies of land policy for urban densification
Co-Opting the Streets of Liverpool
Within the context of austerity politics, there is an increasing emphasis on regeneration initiatives that originate in civil society itself. While community-led contributions are supported by local authorities for their self-organisation and empowerment of communities, ownership of the planning process allows the local authority to retain power over the community, and subsequently co-opt initiatives in the interest of their own wider regeneratio…
How do planners manage risk in alternative land development models? An institutional analysis of land development in the Netherlands
What about the Urban Periphery? The Effects of the Urban Renaissance in the Mersey Belt
Cities in the UK have undergone an urban renaissance since the late 1990s, when New Labour started an initiative of the same name. However, the effects of urban growth have been limited mainly to the cores of second-tier cities, creating new challenges in the urban fringe of city regions and for cities outside the major agglomerations. In this article, we examine the process of reurbanisation in the Manchester and Liverpool city regions and to ta…
Manufacturing the creative city
Structure and imagination of changing cities
The emergence of new urban configurations – marked by enlarged scale, polycentrism and strong cities – often conflicts with the settled institutions of the ‘old’ city, with its hierarchical, centripetal development model. This model is challenged through the autonomous locational decisions of commercial and private actors, and sometimes through planning initiatives that aim to establish new planning spaces adapting to this new spatial reality, bu…
In Search of Symbolic Markers
The change in the form of cities over the last few decades into amorphous patterns classified as Zwischenstadt (in-between city) has encouraged many urban regions to launch planning strategies that address the urbanized landscape in city-regions. Symbolic markers are used to signify spatial transformation and mobilize various public and private stakeholders (including citizens). As the mindset of people is institutionalized in old perceptions of …
The Transformative Potential of Institutions
Planners use symbolic markers in order to frame processes of urban change and to mobilise actors. How can we explain the fact that in some cases the symbolisation of new urban spaces manages to enhance and enlarge the meaning of social change while in other cases the symbolic markers remain powerless and might even have a reverse effect? The authors doubt whether the sophistication of symbolic markers as such has much impact. The explanation for …
The Transformative Potential of Institutions
Planners use symbolic markers in order to frame processes of urban change and to mobilise actors. How can we explain the fact that in some cases the symbolisation of new urban spaces manages to enhance and enlarge the meaning of social change while in other cases the symbolic markers remain powerless and might even have a reverse effect? The authors doubt whether the sophistication of symbolic markers as such has much impact. The explanation for …
Manufacturing the creative city
How do planners manage risk in alternative land development models? An institutional analysis of land development in the Netherlands
What about the Urban Periphery? The Effects of the Urban Renaissance in the Mersey Belt
Cities in the UK have undergone an urban renaissance since the late 1990s, when New Labour started an initiative of the same name. However, the effects of urban growth have been limited mainly to the cores of second-tier cities, creating new challenges in the urban fringe of city regions and for cities outside the major agglomerations. In this article, we examine the process of reurbanisation in the Manchester and Liverpool city regions and to ta…
Structure and imagination of changing cities
The emergence of new urban configurations – marked by enlarged scale, polycentrism and strong cities – often conflicts with the settled institutions of the ‘old’ city, with its hierarchical, centripetal development model. This model is challenged through the autonomous locational decisions of commercial and private actors, and sometimes through planning initiatives that aim to establish new planning spaces adapting to this new spatial reality, bu…
In Search of Symbolic Markers
The change in the form of cities over the last few decades into amorphous patterns classified as Zwischenstadt (in-between city) has encouraged many urban regions to launch planning strategies that address the urbanized landscape in city-regions. Symbolic markers are used to signify spatial transformation and mobilize various public and private stakeholders (including citizens). As the mindset of people is institutionalized in old perceptions of …
Towards a more collaborative planning process for traditional communities? A sociological-institutionalist analysis of the Kampong Kauman in Surakarta, Indonesia
The Transformative Potential of Institutions
Planners use symbolic markers in order to frame processes of urban change and to mobilise actors. How can we explain the fact that in some cases the symbolisation of new urban spaces manages to enhance and enlarge the meaning of social change while in other cases the symbolic markers remain powerless and might even have a reverse effect? The authors doubt whether the sophistication of symbolic markers as such has much impact. The explanation for …
In Search of Symbolic Markers
The change in the form of cities over the last few decades into amorphous patterns classified as Zwischenstadt (in-between city) has encouraged many urban regions to launch planning strategies that address the urbanized landscape in city-regions. Symbolic markers are used to signify spatial transformation and mobilize various public and private stakeholders (including citizens). As the mindset of people is institutionalized in old perceptions of …
Structure and imagination of changing cities
The emergence of new urban configurations – marked by enlarged scale, polycentrism and strong cities – often conflicts with the settled institutions of the ‘old’ city, with its hierarchical, centripetal development model. This model is challenged through the autonomous locational decisions of commercial and private actors, and sometimes through planning initiatives that aim to establish new planning spaces adapting to this new spatial reality, bu…
Manufacturing the creative city
What about the Urban Periphery? The Effects of the Urban Renaissance in the Mersey Belt
Cities in the UK have undergone an urban renaissance since the late 1990s, when New Labour started an initiative of the same name. However, the effects of urban growth have been limited mainly to the cores of second-tier cities, creating new challenges in the urban fringe of city regions and for cities outside the major agglomerations. In this article, we examine the process of reurbanisation in the Manchester and Liverpool city regions and to ta…
‘Organic’ approaches to planning as densification strategy? The challenge of legal contextualisation in Buiksloterham, Amsterdam
Urban development in the Netherlands has been dominated by a master-planning approach in combination with a proactive land policy, but has recently witnessed the emergence of a new type of flexible
Enhancing understanding of strategies of land policy for urban densification
Co-Opting the Streets of Liverpool
Within the context of austerity politics, there is an increasing emphasis on regeneration initiatives that originate in civil society itself. While community-led contributions are supported by local authorities for their self-organisation and empowerment of communities, ownership of the planning process allows the local authority to retain power over the community, and subsequently co-opt initiatives in the interest of their own wider regeneratio…
How do planners manage risk in alternative land development models? An institutional analysis of land development in the Netherlands
Reurbanisation and suburbia in Northwest Europe
Following decades of urban decline in many European cities, there is now an abundant literature identifying a process of reurbanisation, which has now also reached many secondary cities, including those in post-industrialised regions. Reurbanisation is an umbrella concept involving several related but distinct processes, though has its roots in spatial cycle models that consider reurbanisation to be a specific stage in the development of urban re…
Land for densification
This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0
Towards a more collaborative planning process for traditional communities? A sociological-institutionalist analysis of the Kampong Kauman in Surakarta, Indonesia
A Model of Building Changes to Support Comparative Studies and Open Discussions on Densification
Densification is a widely used concept, but there is a lack of terminology and tools to facilitate discussions among data scientists, policy makers and citizens. This paper proposes a model of building changes based on building surveys undertaken in past decades to connect discussions about densification with shared evidence. A specific challenge is to process buildings in city regions and areas in a replicable way across different building data …
Professor Benjamin Davy, 1956–2025
This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/4.0
Densification policy between state and market
Urban densification has become a central policy goal to deliver much-needed housing while reducing net land take. At the same time there has been a significant shift between the role of the state and the market in how to deliver planning outcomes and the type of regulation to achieve densification. This article investigates recent policy changes to promote densification in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, looking at the role of …
Densification in European city-regions
Urban densification is widely promoted as a strategy to limit land-take and provide housing, yet its sustainability and effectiveness remain debated. The impacts of densification depend heavily on the form of densification, but systematic knowledge about these forms and the policies and actors shaping them is still limited. To better understand this relationship, we present an approach to measure densification on the level of urban form through m…
Urbanization and City Planning (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Economic geography (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Environmental planning (6 works)