Planning Education and Profession in the Global South

In the global south, particularly in countries like India, Indonesia and a few others, we are witnessing a paradoxical situation, where, despite rapid urbanization and higher vulnerabilities due to poverty and climate change, the role of planners and planning professionals have been declining steadily.

With about 8000 towns and cities and about 400 million residents, India is on the forefront of rapid urban transformations. In response to these rapid transformations and emerging challenges, both the urban planning education and profession, have not been able to evolve adequately. Urban planning education in the country has remained dependent, mainly on the discourses from the global north. And adequate theorization of the local issues or discourses does not reflect in the urban planning curriculum or in its pedagogy.

Along with the urban planning education, the overall state of urban planning profession is also deteriorating at all levels- national, sub national and local levels. Urban planning professionals now have very limited role in shaping or implementing urbanization policies. In terms of the numbers, India has one of the lowest ratios of urban planners per 100000 populations, falling behind Nigeria and several other sub–Saharan African countries.

Thus, how the countries in global south are going to manage their urbanization trajectory, how would the core public goods and services such as Affordable Housing, Water and Energy, Public Transport, Social amenities will be delivered to the world’s second largest urban system? More importantly, how would the planning education and profession need to adapt themselves to reflect on the ground situation and future challenges?

The proposed webinar is positioned in this context and set to explore Planning Education and Profession, especially reflecting on the prevailing situation in South Asia and emerging economies. This webinar is positioned in this context, where we would like to reflect some of the challenges from South Asian countries like India and Indonesia, at the same time would like to learn from the experiences of various countries.