Since 2012 is Professor at the Faculty of Spatial Planning at Technical University of Dortmund where he holds the chair for European Planning Cultures. He is educated as a political scientist and dedicated most of his academic work to the study of cities and regions. From 2013 to 2017 he was the president of the European Urban Research Association EURA, from 2014 – 2018 he was country representative for Germany at the council of the Association of European Schools of Planning AESOP. He is editor in chief of Urban Research & Practice.