The Editors Ela Babalık, Andrea I. Frank and Olivier Sykes and contributing authors are delighted to announce that the Routledge Companion to Comparative Planning will be published on 30 January 2026.
This companion addresses a rich field of scholarship and practice, covering key debates around the purpose and value of comparison as a way of generating knowledge and theory within the planning discipline, and reflects on the place of and prospects for comparative international planning studies in a changing world.
Across seven parts, the book explores the themes of why engage in international comparative planning research, what facets of planning might be compared through such work, and how comparison might be approached. It features 37 chapters by 61 international contributors many drawn from the AESOP and the Global Planning Education Associations Network (GPEAN) and also includes chapters from authors working in planning practice. The book features chapters on planning systems and governance, planning instruments and law, urban morphology and urban design, planning for environmental risk, heritage and conservation, transport, rural development, perspectives on informality, decoloniality, comparative pedagogy, and many other planning topics. Gathering these contributions, the book gives a wide appreciation of comparative studies and delivers vital insights into the vibrant and evolving state of the art of this field of planning scholarship 40 years on from the publication of Masser and Williams' seminal work Learning from Other Countries (1986).
The companion will be of interest to educators, academics and researchers, planning practitioners, city and municipal governments, consultants, and students in the fields of city, urban, and regional planning, urban design, human geography, and urban, environmental, and international development studies, who are interested in comparing and co-learning from global practices and places.
A rountable on the theme of 'Comparative International Planning Research in a Changing World' moderated by the Editors is planned for the 6th World Planning Schools Congress to be held in Helsinki in July 2026.
The book can be preordered on the following link.
