ABSTRACT

The enterprise we call planning education bears many of the traits of any teaching program–classes meet, homework is prepared, exams are taken–but, it is also unique in breadth of aspirations, spirit of collaboration, and experimental approach. If planners are to usefully address the challenges of rapid urbanization, economic development, disaster preparedness, climate change, social justice, and resource sustainability, they must develop capacities for prediction, analysis, and intervention that defy textbook prescriptions, and most of all, they must be prepared for lifelong learning and renewal. With this, the first Handbook of International Planning Education, the editors and authors have sought to capture the essence of that unique education in ways that can richly inform curricular and pedagogic choices by city and regional planning faculties across the globe.