Planning Education in an International Perspective: Making the Most from Global and Local Knowledges

Abstract

Central to my academic experience, teaching and research, is the development of theoretical and methodological approach called Territorialist Approach. Its central concept is territorio as manifest in space and time, and of the convergence of the local and global knowledges expressed in specific contexts from the different types of man-nature relationships to the culture of work and production, from local social practices and ways of life to the different physical, historical, and architectural components of urban and rural fabrics. All these elements constitute the multifaceted and ever evolving cultures and identities of places, cities, and regions generating the very specific physical and emotional landscapes when territories relate to their inhabitants. Territorio, considered as holistic common good, represents the main resource for both the general well-being of local communities and their significant and indispensable belonging at a global level. Planning education must stem from the awareness of that meaning of what are the resources, local and global, available to produce the desired effects of planning action on a specific area, where inhabitants are the fundamental actors in the process of transformation of their own Territorio. Theoretical tools to investigate and methodological-operational tools to enable the use of these resources in a proper way must be identified by university and other educational institutions in order to ensure an ethical and progressive transmission of knowledge to the students. This is possible only if a multidisciplinary approach is derived in the scientific arena and if the academic knowledge is opened to include local specifics. A few experimental paths in this area are LabPSM, as part of a wide national and international collaborative effort. We have been exploring during the last decades along with development of research activities, educational methodologies, whose main focus is innovation in human resource training and promotion and enhancement of values and potentialities of local territories. By working out and testing multidisciplinary courses, seminars, international workshops, and summer schools in various countries, our efforts are intended gradually to increase the awareness among academic circles and to train students as future professionals in the field of representation and operationalization of local territory and its tangible and intangible resources. A particular attention has been paid to the use of innovative media use and other articulations familiar to new generations to investigate, decode, and represent urban analysis results and consequent plans.