It is with much regret that we record the death of our former editorial colleague Benjamin Davy who passed away on 24 January 2025 aged 68 at his home in Bielefeld.  Ben was a long-standing supporter and advocate of Town Planning Review. Appointed as a co-editor in 2018, he brought his formidable intellect, irrepressible personality, dedication, and flair to the journal during his tenure, as well as a determination to both challenge convention and ensure that the journal’s existent international appeal was further broadened. Unsurprisingly, he succeeded in all of these aspects. 

A passionate advocate of young and emerging academic talent, he further cemented the journal’s nurturing of new talent, readily gave his time and advice to those who sought it, and played a driving role in bolstering the journal’s policy against the practice of ‘gift authorship’. He was a first-rate mentor and colleague.

Ben was a seasoned, lifelong, and passionate academic who will be greatly missed by all who knew him, worked with him, and studied under him, as well as by those who have been – and continue to be – influenced by his work and thoughts. Initially trained in law, he was a globally recognised multi-disciplinary expert who focused much of his work on that intersection of study that lies between law, land policy, planning theory, and spatial planning.

Ben received his Juris Doctor from TU Vienna in 1980, and thereafter held a number of positions within the department before moving to TU Dortmund in 1998, where he was appointed Professor of Land Policy, Land Management, and Municipal Geoinformation within the School of Spatial Planning. He would remain at TU Dortmund University until retiring in 2019. Unsurprisingly, formal retirement did not mark the end of Ben’s university-based academic career; he subsequently served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg in the Department of Law.  

In addition to these distinguished departmental-based roles, Ben was the third elected President of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights (PLPR), and served as the President of the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) between 2018 and 2020. During the same period, he co-founded the Planning and Law track, and was a leader in the thematic group on Planning, Law, and Property Rights.

Perhaps less well known to the international planning community, but important for legal scholars are Ben’s earlier publications which focused on dilemmas in planning and property law. His first book was brilliantly titled Essential Injustice, and within it he harnessed law and philosophy to provide an innovative theoretical analysis of what Americans call “regulatory takings” and other forms of intervention in traditional property rights. In his journal publications in the early 1990s he also addressed legal and policy issues underlying NIMBYs.  Within a  book chapter with another enticing title ‘Mandatory Happiness’  Ben critically analysed the compulsory aspects of land readjustment law in Germany.

Another important body of Ben’s research was human rights, especially pertaining to informal land tenure and housing rights. He first published on these topics two decades ago, but his research on these topics received a boost after his appointment in 2019 as a Visiting Professor in Johannesburg and his direct exposure to life in Africa.  Cooperating with his wife, Professor Ulrike Davy – an internationally known expert on constitutional law, migration, and social rights – in recent years Ben expanded his human rights research into the realm of “social citizenship”.

Ben Davy was an extraordinary thinker who introduced the theory of polyrationality into the field of spatial planning and maintained an unwavering interest in questions of human rights and justice in spatial planning. In recent years, he also delved into the emerging field of legal philosophy where human rights are extended to the rights of nature.  

Never afraid to question conventional thinking or to challenge existing protocols or ways of working, Ben enriched scholarly discourse through unexpected, and audacious perspectives, would always speak up for what he believed in and that which he believed to be important, and was, as noted, generous with his time and support for others.

Ben was also tremendously good fun, charming, and erudite with an array of passions and interests beyond academia. In addition to his encyclopaedic knowledge of films and keen love of music and the arts, he was a keen photographer, and would often be seen taking photos of participants at conferences. Other photographs reveal his keen eye for detail and often displayed unexpected contrasts, such as a sex shop and a pet shop sharing an entrance in Poland with the capture “pets + porno” featuring in his well-known essay ‘Plan it without a condom’ in Planning Theory. His photos were thought-provoking and sometimes provocative. Ben’s extraordinary joyful personality was even expressed in his choice of colourful scarfs and sometimes, unconventional clothing. In all these aspects Ben was irrepressible.

Immediately prior to his untimely and wholly unexpected death, Ben had just finished writing a Viewpoint article for the journal entitled ‘Imperial and colonial amnesia of European planning academics – The case of AESOP’s eurocentrism’. Mindful that Ben would not have wanted his voice to be silenced, this article will be published posthumously in the next few days. Ben was also working alongside current TPR colleagues and authors on a forthcoming Special Issue focused on ‘Decolonising spatial planning education and research in Europe’ of which he would have been guest editor. Given Ben’s passion for this subject and his belief in the importance of voices and opinions being heard, the journal will be continuing with the Special Issue. Its publication, envisaged for 2026, will form a further part of Ben’s enduring legacy to our discipline.

He will be sorely missed.

Rachelle Alterman, Sebastian Dembski, Bertie Dockerill, and Olivier Sykes

On behalf of the Management Team and Editorial Board of Town Planning Review

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