in june 2018, professionals and scholars, from various fields dealing with public open spaces, put politics up for discussion. in the conference series x–larch at the university of natural resources and life sciences, boku/vienna, issues are raised that are relevant for the profession of landscape architecture and have a direct impact on our environment, be it urban or rural. in the 2018 conference entitled ‘park politics’, practitioners and academics were invited to present findings and projects in order to gain a range of perspectives from which to consider and discuss the topic of politics behind the built environment.