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About this talk

Join us for a webinar in the AESOP Rural Planning series, focused on pedagogy in rural planning. Teaching rural planning is rarely a requirement of professional planning bodies and, today, the teaching of rural planning is often neglected in the design of undergraduate and graduate programs in the planning field. At the same time, rural communities are facing rapid change, from housing pressures and infrastructure gaps to climate resilience and economic transition. How do we prepare the next generation of planners to meet these challenges thoughtfully and effectively? This webinar places 'rural' within planning education and explores approaches to teaching rural planning in universities and professional programs. Through a panel discussion, the webinar will discuss how rural contexts differ from urban settings, and how the spatial context of 'rurality' may present different types of planning challenges. We further explore how a focus on 'rural' also enables critical sustainability challenges to be embedded into planning education and how to engage students with limited exposure to rural places. Critical questions to be addressed in the panel discussion include: Is there a place for 'rural' on professional planning programs? What knowledge should the teaching of rural planning create? What rural planning knowledge should the next generation of planners develop? How does rural planning contribute to sustainable development pedagogy? Whether you are a planning educator, practitioner, graduate student, or academic leader, this session will offer practical insights, fresh perspectives, and collaborative ideas to strengthen rural planning education and better serve rural communities and sustainability challenges. This 2026 Spring Webinar Series is the inaugural activity of the Rural Planning AESOP Thematic Group, a new international research group operating within the Association of European Schools of Planning. The seminars aim to bring together scholars, students, and practitioners of rural planning to discuss key issues concerning the future of rural areas, their contested development trajectories and sustainability conflicts, as well as the future of rural planning as an integral element of planning education.

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