Description
Special Session: Reframing Planning Education: Crises, Transformations, and New PathwaysThe 20th Annual Conference of the International Association for China Planning, July 10-12, Xi’an, China
Session Organisers: Yunpeng Zhang (University College Dublin), Yitian Ren (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University), Weijie Hu (Swinburne University of Technolog)
Planning is increasingly expected to respond to climate emergencies, widening socio-spatial inequalities, and rapid socio-technological changes (Frank et al., 2014). At the same time, planning education itself is being reshaped by shifting labor markets, evolving expectations of professional practice, and institutional pressures on universities. In mainland China, these dynamics are especially visible. In response, some universities and planning schools have discontinued or restructured their planning degree programmes, developing international education pathways, or strengthened the training on computational and digital technologies. Many of these developments are not exceptional to China but resonate with similar changes undergoing in planning education beyond China, thus raising broader questions about how planning is delivered, what knowledges and skills are prioritised or marginalised, what capacities future planners should develop, and what implications these changes have for planning practices and for addressing societal challenges of our times.
This session invites critical and constructive contributions that examine changes in the provision of planning education and the implications. We welcome conceptual, empirical, and practice-oriented papers that engage with curriculum design, pedagogy, institutional strategy, and the changing boundaries of the planning profession.
Contributions may consider the following questions (but are not limited to):
1. How do social, political, ecological, and digital transformations challenge planning education, and what roles can education play in shaping future planners capable of navigating these changes?
2. How are universities and planning schools responding? What knowledge and skills are prioritised or marginalised in curricula, and what trade-offs and implications follow?
3. How do internationalization strategies (joint degrees, joint universities, overseas campuses, cross-border studios) reshape planning education, and how do they affect the production, delivery, and circulation of planning knowledge?
4. How might planning education be reframed to remain publicly relevant, ethically grounded, and intellectually robust?
We particularly welcome contributions that draw on empirical studies, employ comparative lenses (across institutions, regions or degree levels), share innovative pedagogical approaches (including engagement with Generative AI in planning education), and offer critical reflections on the professional identity of planners, public purposes of planning, and the politics of planning knowledge production and circulation (especially in relation to internationalisation, cross-language/culture teaching and learning, and epistemic power).
If you are interested in this session, please submit your abstract (200-300 words) via the conference submission portal (https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/User/Login) before February 12, 2026. Submission guides can be found on the conference website (https://www.china-planning.org/alpha/2026-iacp-annual-conference-call-for-abstracts-2/).
Important note: When submitting, please select “others” when indicating the subject areas and indicate in your abstract that your submission is for this special session.
| Period | 10 Jul 2026 → 12 Jul 2026 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Xi'an, ChinaShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |