Introduction

This introductory chapter elaborates the rationale for collating an overview of international comparative planning as a field of work important to urban and regional planning and related built environment disciplines. Firstly, the editors situate recent research and planning practice activities in a broad history and past literature. Secondly, the chapter delves into the interpretation of relevant key terms, such as international , planning , comparative , and research as used in the context of this volume. This contextualisation illustrates tensions and differences between approaches to comparative work depending on the motivations that underlie the comparison in the first place, and hence offering valuable insights into the current state-of-play in the field. Thirdly, the chapter reviews the content and structure of the volume which comprises 7 parts and 37 chapters in total.