This paper makes an argument for greater reflexivity in planning and design education. Reflexivity is understood as a sustained reflection on the positionality of knowledge. It is an opportunity to strengthen the academic dimension of planning and design curricula. Landscape architecture and planning, we argue, cannot tackle these issues without a deeper and more systematic self-reflection, a reflection on the disciplines, their teaching, on the role of planners and designers in society. We will show how research and outreach can play a transformative role in the development and delivery of professional landscape architecture and planning curricula. Theoretically, we take our cue from the post- structuralist theories of Bourdieu and Foucault, supplemented with notions from Niklas Luhmann’s social systems perspective. (download here)

Key words: Planning, design, education, Reflexivity, Bourdieu, Luhmann