Planning Theory & Practice

Situating Equitable Infrastructure: Differentiated Cycling Planning in Mexico City and Toronto The equitable distribution of infrastructure is a central concern of planning theory and practice. Developing an inter-urban comparison of bicycle equity policies in Mexico City and Toronto, the pa...

🚨New article by @tvlaake.bsky.social "Situating Equitable Infrastructure: Differentiated Cycling Planning in Mexico City and Toronto" dissects what is meant by 'equitable infrastructure,' esp wrt underserved populations and the places they inhabit. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Contributions by @awzitcer.bsky.social, Robert Lake, @wolf-powers.bsky.social, @akirarodriguez.bsky.social, Meg Holden, and Ryan Good

Nihilism, Post-Truth and the Moral Future of Planning Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Ahead of Print, 2026)

In this new interface collection, contributors articulate how they view the effects of nihilism on the practice of planning, the education of our students, and even the premise of societal improvement. A must-read, open access article! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

‘Together We Know a Lot’: A Reflective Case Study of Social Learning Through Participatory Action Research This paper examines the social learning process among a group of community resident and academic researchers working together on a Participatory Action Research study exploring the relationship bet...

💡A new article reflects on a long-term participatory action research project on urban development and community health. It describes how social learning occurs, and demonstrates the collective meaning-making behind their guiding phrase, "Together, We Know a Lot." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Everything Counts: Low-Carbon Neighborhoods, Carbon Accounting, and the Transformation of Planning in the Era of Climate Urbanism Scholars have showed how an emerging climate urbanism places carbon mitigation at the center of urban policy, yet limited attention has been devoted to its ramifications for planning and the role o...

In a new article "Everything Counts: Low-Carbon Neighborhoods, Carbon Accounting, and the Transformation of Planning in the Era of Climate Urbanism" Mohall and Magnusson trace the uptake of carbon accounting, and discuss the implications on planners' roles.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Making Space for Time: Temporal and Time-Sensitive Perspectives in Planning Theory and Practice Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Ahead of Print, 2025)

📣 New Interface collection on Temporality and Planning. We need more intentional and critical ways of accounting for time (and how it interacts with space) in planning. Check it out here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Property regimes and climate adaptation. Check out this new article by @lindashi.bsky.social @zacharylamb.bsky.social that very suggests alternatives to guide planners' actions to challenge status quo ideas about the privatization and parcelization of land www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Engaging with the Multiple Temporalities Inherent in Participatory Planning Despite growing recognition of time in planning research, few studies explore the role of time in participatory planning contexts. Drawing on critical temporal scholarship, this paper develops an a...

Multiple temporalities and planning. Planners often deal with conflicting spatial conceptions, but have we under-recognized the role of differing notions of time? Check out this new article by Miriam Holst Jensen and David Laws to read more: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Organising Everyday Planning Practice for Reduced Residential Segregation: Understanding the Strategic-Operational Gap from the Inside This paper discusses how everyday practices within a municipal organisation contribute to the gap between strategic and operational spatial planning. We use reduced residential segregation as an ex...

What causes gaps in strategic and operational planning? Check out this new article that analyzes the experiences of planners in Sweden, using residential housing segregation reduction as an example. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Realizing the Transformative Potential of Experimentation in Planning Experimentation allows planning to explore ways of “thinking, doing, organising” beyond the status quo, as if the world was a radically different one. However, there is limited evidence of its impa...

In this new article, Luca Bertolini connects "prefigurative planning" to ideas of experimentation, thus, addressing critiques that experimental urbanism fails to result in lasting change while also attempting to engage the utopian imagination. Open Access here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mind the Gap: Planning, Plans and Not so Much Progress I examine the use of prior plans for reflection and learning when developing new comprehensive plans in selected U.S. communities. Using a conceptual framework of plan influences, survey data, and ...

Are planners learning to improve their plans over time? A new article by Maria Conroy connects the need for planners to incorporate reflection with the ability to learn how to improve plan quality, but shows how constraints limit reflective practices. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Reflections on Post-Growth Planning: Practices of ‘Undoing’ (De-Urbanisation and Deconstruction) and Methodology for Eco-Social Transition Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Vol. 26, No. 3, 2025)

#Post-Growth Planning. How can planning efforts disrupt the growth system and initiate a just eco-social transition? New article from Romero-Martinez, Romero-Padilla, and del Castillo-Sanchez. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Between Fixed and Flexible. Soft Planning and Informality in the Regeneration of Kalasatama, Helsinki This paper analyses the practices of soft planning in the regeneration of Kalasatama, Helsinki, by asking how and why informal planning approaches have been used in the planning and development of ...

💡Soft planning. In a newly published article, Tuomas Ilmavirta analyzes how "soft planning" (discursive planning, temporary uses of space, and cultural planning) are used in regeneration practices in Helsinki, Finland. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

“What Can I, and Others, Do to Change Things?” Patsy Healey (1940–2024): In Her Own Words Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Vol. 26, No. 2, 2025)

💜 "What Can I, and Others, Do to Change Things?" Patsy Healey (1940–2024): In Her Own Words. Heather Campbell and Theo Lim have selected extracts of Patsy's writings in Planning Theory & Practice over the years. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Social Value Creation Through Bottom-up Urban Development: Mechanisms of Self-Organization This article examines how bottom-up urban development initiators create social value through self-organization in a market-dominated context. Using a multiple case study and a framework combining c...

In their newly published research article, Mens et al use three Dutch cases to illustrate how bottom-up urban development initiators create social value through self-organization in a market-dominated context. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Bioregionalism and Degrowth: Addressing the Urban-Other Divide Scale and spatial politics are central to degrowth research, yet scholars often overemphasise the (limited) potential of local practices. This paper proposes a bioregional spatial planning approach...

In "Bioregionalism and Degrowth: Addressing the Urban-Other Divide" Johanna Waldenberger and Federico Savini propose a degrowth planning framework consisting of five dimensions that move us beyond both growth-based urbanization and the urban-other divide. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In their article, "On the Cognitive Mechanics of Planning Judgment" authors Dan Milz, Meaghan McSorley, Shannon Thayer, and Curt Gervich illustrate how heuristics characterize judgments in planning by describing two examples from a planning process in NY State. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🥳 Congratulations to Harriet Dunn for receiving the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) 2025 Best Published Paper Award for her article "Populism, Planning, and the Politics of Discontent," published in Planning Theory & Practice!! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In their new article, Cai, Gerrits, and Edelenbos analyze China's Multi-Plan Integration Reform (MPI) effort, which began in the 1990s. The article contains useful information about China's complicated planning structure, as well as the MPI policy implementation. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Essential Tension: Patsy Healey’s Conception of Democracy in Planning and Public Policy Patsy Healey was a major democratic theorist. Although often implicit, it is easy to discern in her work a normative-empirical theory of democracy that is characterized by a focus on improving stat...

Democracy as Lived Experience. In his article "The Essential Tension: Patsy Healey's Conception of Democracy in Planning and Public Policy" @hendrikwagenaar.bsky.social reflects on two major themes in Patsy Healey's work: democracy and epistemology. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

YouTube video by Theo Lim John Forester on "Inspirations in Planning" (2025)

We have created a video abstract of Prof Forester giving a brief overview of the Interface, here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwFu...

Inspirations in Planning Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Vol. 26, No. 1, 2025)

A new Interface collection edited by John Forester includes contributions from twelve planning practitioners, researchers, and educators, each reflecting on where they draw their inspiration. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Revisiting Structure and Agency: The Perception and Materialisation of Risk in Property Development and Investment This commentary revisits Patsy Healey and colleagues’ 1980s–1990s work on property development within the context of urban change, examining its relevance to contemporary property-led urban plannin...

Structure and agency in property markets. In another contribution in our SI honoring the impact and legacy of Patsy Healey, Andre Legarza picks up on "Healey’s call for a robust framework to understand the character of property markets and urban change." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

As part of the Planning Research Matters series on housing, a collection of papers explores how community-led housing can help solve the unaffordable housing crisis on both sides of the Atlantic:
www.rtpi.org.uk/policy-and-r...
Interface is a free-to-access section within @planningtheory.bsky.social

Patsy Healey: A Tribute Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Ahead of Print, 2025)

"Here, we knew her as the 'can-do academic,' " writes David Bull, retired Director of Planning and Transportation in Wooler, UK, on Patsy Healey. Bull remembers Patsy in our special issue dedicated her life and contributions to the planning field www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

PATSY HEALEY IS DEAD: Long Live Contingent Universalism Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Ahead of Print, 2025)

As part of a special issue of Planning Theory and Practice remembering and reflecting on the life and work of Patsy Healey, Prof Bish Sanyal @mitdusp.bsky.social has contributed a reflection on how Healey saw the universal and the contingent in planning theory: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Looking for sessions to attend at the International Conference on Urban Affairs @uaanews.bsky.social next week April 15 - 19 in Vancouver, BC? Check out the sessions of these recent Planning Theory & Practice authors!

Pragmatic Spatial Planning: Practical Theory for Professionals Published in Planning Theory & Practice (Vol. 25, No. 5, 2024)

📖 Pragmatic Spatial Planning. Nicolas Paquet reviews Charlie Hoch's 2019 book Pragmatic Spatial Planning: Practical Theory for Professionals, which is an update to the pragmatist ideas of Dewey, James, and Pierce. Paquet describes the book's contributions here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Regulate or Be Regulated: The Institutional Entrepreneurship of Developers Zoning is one of the key roles of land use regulation by the state. In engaging with this land use regulation, developers do not stay put and passively await rules to be imposed upon them. Instead,...

Buitelaar, Lebbing, van den Hurk, and van Karnenbeek show how through zoning, developers engage in ‘institutional entrepreneurship,’ shaping the complex and mutual relationship between planning decisions and developers’ strategies in Utrecht, Netherlands. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A city skyline image (of London) is shaded blue, with nodes and icons overlaid to represent data extracted from the urban environment

Does urban science -- using computational methods & data analysis to address urban planning challenges -- perpetuate historical racial inequities & if so, how could we realize a reparative urban science? Wonyoung So explores in an article for @planningtheory.bsky.social. More: bit.ly/soReparative...