Scaling up planning education? on the changing scalar imaginations of Swedish planning and its challenges for planning pedagogy
Pries, Johan LU
and Melgaço, Lorena
LU
(2026)
World Planning Schools Congress
- Abstract
- The possibilities and constraints of spatial planning tracks closely with the scalar politics of the legal instruments planners can work with. In Sweden, planning has relentlessly focused on and taken place at the municipal scale. Regional, national and transnational tools have been largely been used by planners in improvised and non-statutory ways, and been the domain of other forms of politics and governance. This, however, seems to be changing. Attention to regional governance beginning with Sweden joining the EU in the 1990s have been accelerated by a recent change to the legal system mandating three regional authorities to pilot statutory regional spatial plans. Against this background, we have asked how planning education can combine... (More)
- The possibilities and constraints of spatial planning tracks closely with the scalar politics of the legal instruments planners can work with. In Sweden, planning has relentlessly focused on and taken place at the municipal scale. Regional, national and transnational tools have been largely been used by planners in improvised and non-statutory ways, and been the domain of other forms of politics and governance. This, however, seems to be changing. Attention to regional governance beginning with Sweden joining the EU in the 1990s have been accelerated by a recent change to the legal system mandating three regional authorities to pilot statutory regional spatial plans. Against this background, we have asked how planning education can combine the teaching of critical analysis with the changing scalar politics of planning practice in Sweden. Drawing on a series of interviews and workshops with planners, we suggest that scaling up planning education to meet the changing scalar politics of planning practice is a challenge as well as opportunity. Teaching future planners critical analysis across the scales they will encounter in practice will require connecting research, practice and pedagogy in new ways. It could also prepare planners to be make better use of critical faculties in practice in new ways, and bring critical perspective to new, bigger and more complex problems. This presentation will introduce some reflections on our ongoing work between planning education and planning research on the related and shifting scalar politics of both worlds. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/417dacd8-a41c-44c4-b2e6-951a5fc7b12d
- author
- Pries, Johan
LU
and Melgaço, Lorena
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- conference name
- World Planning Schools Congress
- conference location
- Espoo, Finland
- conference dates
- 2026-06-29 - 2026-07-04
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 417dacd8-a41c-44c4-b2e6-951a5fc7b12d
- alternative location
- https://eventos3-202b6.kxcdn.com/uploads/957/materials/94495f4e6c7f5379dfd7de08833705ef.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2026-07-09 10:51:56
- date last changed
- 2026-08-04 14:26:53
@misc{417dacd8-a41c-44c4-b2e6-951a5fc7b12d,
abstract = {{The possibilities and constraints of spatial planning tracks closely with the scalar politics of the legal instruments planners can work with. In Sweden, planning has relentlessly focused on and taken place at the municipal scale. Regional, national and transnational tools have been largely been used by planners in improvised and non-statutory ways, and been the domain of other forms of politics and governance. This, however, seems to be changing. Attention to regional governance beginning with Sweden joining the EU in the 1990s have been accelerated by a recent change to the legal system mandating three regional authorities to pilot statutory regional spatial plans. Against this background, we have asked how planning education can combine the teaching of critical analysis with the changing scalar politics of planning practice in Sweden. Drawing on a series of interviews and workshops with planners, we suggest that scaling up planning education to meet the changing scalar politics of planning practice is a challenge as well as opportunity. Teaching future planners critical analysis across the scales they will encounter in practice will require connecting research, practice and pedagogy in new ways. It could also prepare planners to be make better use of critical faculties in practice in new ways, and bring critical perspective to new, bigger and more complex problems. This presentation will introduce some reflections on our ongoing work between planning education and planning research on the related and shifting scalar politics of both worlds.}},
author = {{Pries, Johan and Melgaço, Lorena}},
language = {{swe}},
title = {{Scaling up planning education? on the changing scalar imaginations of Swedish planning and its challenges for planning pedagogy}},
url = {{https://eventos3-202b6.kxcdn.com/uploads/957/materials/94495f4e6c7f5379dfd7de08833705ef.pdf}},
year = {{2026}},
}