Description
Organized by the Global Planning Education Associations Network (GPEAN)AESOP Annual Congress – Istanbul, July 2025
Housing remains one of the most urgent and complex challenges facing cities globally and mainly in the Global South. Despite sustained efforts, housing deficits continue to grow, shaped by rapid urbanization, climate vulnerabilities, social and spatial inequalities, land market pressures, and the increasing precarity of livelihoods. The global policy response, spearheaded by organizations such as UN-Habitat, has placed housing at the center of sustainable urban development agendas. Yet, planning education has often struggled to respond meaningfully to the scale, diversity, and political dimensions of the housing crisis across the Global South.
This 90-minute networking event, hosted by the Global Planning Education Associations Network (GPEAN), will bring together academic leaders from GPEAN member associations, scholars, and practitioners working on housing, but not only, to critically explore the intersection between housing challenges and planning education with a focus on the Global South. It aims to generate dialogue around the following key questions:
• How are planning curricula engaging with the realities of housing production, regulation, and everyday practices in the Global South?
What pedagogical innovations are emerging to address housing justice, informality, and affordability within planning programs?
• How can planning education contribute to more grounded, inclusive, and policy-relevant approaches to housing, in alignment with global agendas such as the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals?
The session will feature inputs and facilitate discussion and interactive networking among participants. It is envisioned as an open and informal space for exchange, and the identification of future collaborations among planning educators and researchers.
Held during the AESOP 2025 Congress in Istanbul—a city emblematic of many of the housing tensions faced across the Global South and North—this event also offers a timely opportunity to reflect on comparative insights and shared challenges in housing education globally.
By fostering connections across regions and disciplines, this networking session contributes to GPEAN’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the global dialogue on planning education and to enhance its responsiveness to the pressing housing needs of our time.
