Alternative Planning Toward Context-Sensitive Planning Education for Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Palestine

In this networking event, we will explore the transformation of urban planning education to better address critical issues in post-conflict contexts, with a special focus on Palestine. Our discussion will highlight the need for new pedagogies that grapple with the complexities of geopolitical strife, viewing the situation in Palestine not only as a territorial dispute but also as a deeply urban-political challenge. This session will extend the dialogue to include pressing, often overlooked urban planning topics in academic curricula, such as climate resilience, social equity, indigenous rights, and the impacts of urban expansion on biodiversity.
This event builds on the insights from the previous roundtable titled 'Life, apartheid & urbicide: Prospects & spaces of decolonial engagement for Palestine,' organized by the Global Planning Educators' Interest Group (GPEIG), which is part of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP).
The gathering will critically assess how traditional planning theories and practices have often reinforced static cycles of ineffectiveness, where change is theorized but seldom realized in tangible forms. This critique invites a profound reevaluation of urban planning as a profession: Is it merely theoretical, or perhaps too entangled in political complexities to effect real change?
The outcome of this event will be the development of an 'Alternative Planning Agenda/Syllabi' tailored for rebuilding and revitalizing areas in post-conflict conditions like Palestine, to be further developed and implemented after the WUF. This event aspires to inspire educators, practitioners, and students to rethink the role of planning in confronting the urgent and complex challenges of the 21st century.