Mission / History
GPEIG Mission
GPEIG’s mission is to enable planning educators and students to collaboratively: (1) share global perspectives in planning education and research, (2) foster an understanding of the global perspectives in planning education and research, (3) foster an understanding of the global context of local and regional issues; and (4) engender an appreciation of and respect for cultural, economic, and political dimensions of planning; and the recognition of the rich array of planning processes that can be fully appreciated only by learning about what is being done in other countries.
GPEIG aims to work closely with the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN). GPEAN is a network of national or multi-national associations of university level planning programs and schools in urban and regional planning, intended to facilitate international communication on equal terms amongst the university planning communities in order to improve the quality and visibility of planning pedagogy, research and practice, and to promote ethical, sustainable, multi-cultural, gender-sensitive, participatory planning.
The Global Planning Educators Interest Group (GPEIG) is an advocacy organization within the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP). The ACSP is a consortium of university-based programs in the U.S. offering credentials in urban and regional planning. ACSP member school programs and faculty collaborate to express their shared commitments to understanding the dynamics of urban and regional development, enhancing planning practices, and improving the education of both novice and experienced planners.
Co-chairs of GPEIG
1998-2001 Ruth Yabes
1998-2000 Tridib Banerjee
1999-2001 Weiping Wu
2000-2002 Johanna Looye
2001-2003 Nihal Perera
2002-2004 Teresa Vazquez
2002-2004 Keith Pezzoli
2003-2005 Siddartha Sen
2004-2006 Michael Hibbard
2005-2007 Faranak Miraftab
2006-2008 Petra Doan
2007-2009 Annette Kim
2008-2010 Smita Srinivas
GPEIG History
Selected Landmark Events (compiled by various GPEIG members)
- 1990 Publication of book: Breaking the Boundaries: A One World Approach to Planning Education. Plenum Press, based on a meeting held in MIT in 1988. Sanyal, Bish editor. Authors: Afshar, Farokh. Amirahmadi, Hooshang. Banerjee, Tridib. Chatterjee, Jay (Afterword). Dandekar, Hema. Dunlap, Louise. El-Shakhs, Salah. Ertur, Omar. Gakenheimer, Ralph. Lim, Gill-Chin. Qadeer, Mohamed. Sanyal, Bish. Schuster, Mark.
- May 1990 Conference on “Global Approaches to Planning Education,” Center for Comparative Studies in Development Planning, School of Architecture and Environmental Design, SUNY Buffalo. Organized by Himi Jammal, Director of the Center and Bish Sanyal, MIT. Thirty-three participants including most of chapter authors in Breaking the Boundaries.
- April 1991 ACSP authorizes the creation of a National Commission on Globalizing North American Planning Education. This results from Himi Jammal presenting a paper in the May conference to the ACSP executive committee with the proposal that such a commission be established. The Commission initiates work soon after. Chair: Himi Jammal. Members: Farokh Afshar, Hooshang Amirahmadi, Hemalata Dandekar, William Goldsmith, Deborah Howe, Alan Kreditor, Linda Lacey, Gill-Chin Lim, Riad Mahayni, Paul Niebanck, and Bish Sanyal.
- 1993 Publication of Gill-Chin Lim (guest ed.) (1993) “Special Issue on Planning Education toward the 21st Century,” in Environment and Planning. Vol. 20, No. 5. pp.497-605. Contributors: SC Orlick; P Niebanck; T Banerjee; H Amirahmadi, FD Zinn, and RC Hinojosa; GC Lim; C Goldsmith; IM. Jammal. This is a important work because the contributors played key roles during the early stage of the development of global interest within the ACSP. Also the writings are good. Many questions being asked again and again these days were already dealt with at that time. In that sense, they are classics. (annotation by Gill-Chin Lim).
- 1994 Final Report issued of the ACSP National Commission, titled Global Approaches to North American Planning Education. Himi Jammal, Chair and Editor. Recommendations accepted by ACSP. Deborah Howe, of Portland State University, chaired an ACSP committee on global planning immediately after the 1994 Commission report.
- January 1996 A proposal (drafted by Hooshang Amirahmadi) was submitted to the ACSP President to form a Society of Planning Educators for International Development within ACSP. This idea was formed during informal discussions during the 1995 ACSP in Detroit. The response from the ACSP leadership was that ACSP could not have a society within and the appropriate form of organization should be an interest group. Some people involved in this proposal were Hooshang Amirahmadi, Gill-Chin Lim, Weiping Wu, and Tridib Banerjee.
- April 1998 Workshop on Global Integration and Comparative Approach to Planning organized by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT (Bish Sanyal). Purpose: to develop a precise agenda for the Standing Committee on Globalization and Planning, discuss participation in upcoming ACSP conference, new initiatives for the Committee. Cambridge, MA. Thirty participants.
- Fall 1998 GPEIG formally accepted as an interest group by ACSP and established as such. Co-Chairs elected: Tridib Banerjee and Ruth Yabes.
- Spring 2001 Special Issue on “Globalization and Planning” in the Journal of Planning Education and Research. Guest Editors: Farokh Afshar and Keith Pezzolli.
- Summer 2001 First World Planning Schools Congress held in Shanghai, China, at Tongji University. GPEIG sponsored six panels and roundtables. Bruce Stiftel signs the “Shanghai Statement” and commits ACSP to forming a Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN) and to participating in a second World Planning Schools Congress in 2006.
- Fall 2001 Wim Wiewel, (ACSP President) convenes a Planning Globally Task Force, chaired by Ruth Yabes, and co-chaired by: Salah El Shakhs, Bish Sanyal, Johanna Looye, Bruce Stiftel, Gill-Chin Lim, and Jay Chatterjee. The committee’s mission was “to prepare specific recommendations and plans for discussion, adoption, and implementation in the following areas: 1) curricular changes ACSP member schools might consider and implement, 2) development of opportunities for research and study abroad and interaction with non-U.S. scholars, 3) strengthening planning education and the field of planning abroad.” Though not a formal responsibility of GPEIG, many members of the interest group were actively involved in the committee.
- Spring 2002 Special Issue on “Globalization and Planning” in the Journal of Planning Education and Research. Guest Editors: Farokh Afshar and Keith Pezzolli.
- Spring 2002 Wim Wiewel, (ACSP President) convenes a Curriculum Sub-committee of the Global Task Force. Professor Bish Sanyal of MIT hosted the meeting, which was facilitated by him and Ruth Yabes. Betsy Sweet, Edward Jepson, Hemalata Dandekar, Keith Pezzoli, Niraj Verma, Ruth Yabes, Siddhartha Sen, and Teresa Vázquez participated in the taskforce. Most of the participants are GPEIG members. The taskforce worked on the elaboration of the conceptual base for a global planning curriculum.
- Fall 2002 GPEIG formally adopted by-laws.
- Fall 2004 Establishment and first time presentation of two new GPEIG Awards: the Gill-Chin Lim Award for the Best Dissertation on International Planning and the Gill-Chin Lim Student Travel Grants (to support travel to the annual ACSP conference). The two awards were presented at the 2004 ACSP Awards Luncheon in Portland, Oregon..
- Fall 2004 On Friday, October 22, 2004, Judy and Mike Hibbard hosted a reception for GPEIG members at their home in Portland, Oregon. It was the largest GPEIG reception ever held, preceeded by the largest GPEIG business meeting ever held (69 participants). The Gill-Chin Lim Annual dinner also broke the record for attendance (50 people).
- Fall 2004 New GPEIG web site launched through a team effort.
- Fall 2005 GPEIG participants organize a series of panels and roundtables at the 2005 annual ACSP conference. Begin effort focused on progressive regionalism.
- Summer 2006 GPEIG secures approval from JPER editors to try and create a special issue of JPER focused on Progressive Regionalism. Call for papers released.
- Fall 2006 HUD (International Division) gives GPEIG a $7,500 grant to promote global mindedness in planning research and pedagogy, and supports GPEIG participation in the second World Planning Schools Congress. ACSP agrees to manage the fund.
- Winter 2006. GPEIG co-Chairs launch a critical visioning and strategic planning process focused on GPEIG near, medium and long term aims. Business meeting/lunch (40 participants) and brainstorming session held at the 2006 ACSP conference...Learn More.
