Developing Comparative Competencies in Planning Education

This chapter addresses the issue of the “international planning studio” or “studio abroad” and its development in the broader context of the internationalisation of higher education. This studio pedagogy is one of the ways in which educators and students can compare cultures and planning practices. Research in urban planning pedagogy and associated publications is steadily developing a body of evidence that documents the relevance of learning from such studios. International studios share a common basis albeit with very different formats, content and objectives. These international experiences, while particularly demanding for teachers, are valued for their effectiveness in training students for an increasingly globalised professional world because they enable students to build their relationship with the world by entering into a host-guest relationship. Different typologies serve different purposes: short-term international studios (intensive workshop) help develop conditioned reflexes, while long-term studios aim to be “transformational” and lead to incremental but profound changes in learners and teachers. They enable everyone to move away from a model and recipe approach to urban planning, and help developing international comparative planning skills for students (and possibly for staff).