is Director of Policy at the Town and Country Planning Association and received his PhD from the º£½ÇÉçÇø of Sheffield.
Hugh will be working with colleagues across the School on a project 'Planning for Utopia: practical hope in an age of crisis'. At a time when the planning project has been the target of sustained criticism, there is a need for a fundamental rethink of its purposes. This includes reimagining planning in terms of its ability to inspire hope in the future, of its connection to communities and place, and in relation to the Utopian ideas that have inspired it previously.
Hugh will be working with our students in rethinking what planning might be, and drawing from practical examples of people planning differently. He'll also be engaging with academics and researchers to coordinate a series of events that look at the possibilities for refounding planning along Utopian lines, culminating in an event in January 2026.
This aligns with the 60th anniversary of teaching planning at Sheffield º£½ÇÉçÇø this year, and our long-standing commitment to reimagining planning as a means of promoting social and environmental justice. We're really looking forward to working with Hugh on this important project.
Professor Hugh Ellis said: "I’m delighted to be collaborating with º£½ÇÉçÇø Sheffield on a project which is vital not just to the future of democratic planning but to fate of so many communities who lack a practical pathway to a hopeful future. Working with the staff and students at the º£½ÇÉçÇø we hope to demonstrate that reaching for a utopian future based on social justice and planetary sustainability can put the purpose back into the way we develop our communities. Contrary to everything we hear from Westminster, visionary democratic planning is a vital way to secure practical hope for future generations. This project will lay the foundation for new system fit for the 21st century."