Introduction

Abstract

From humble beginnings at the start of the twentieth century, planning education programs have seen an impressive development and expansion. One hundred years on, there are more than 600 planning education programs offered in about half of the world’s countries. As the planning profession is strongly influenced by national planning culture, urbanization trends, and socio-economic milieus, requisite education programs and curricula exhibit a considerable variation of content and format. Despite growing international exchanges amongst academics, planning education and its development remains still poorly understood from a global perspective. Building on the past quantitatively oriented inventories of the education provision for planners, this book reviews the emergence and evolution of planning education curricula through selected case studies and a comparative, longitudinal lens. This introductory chapter elaborates the author’s motivation and provides an overview of the volume’s structure consisting of three parts: “Beginnings”, “Emerging Global Movement”, and “Charting Future Trends.”