Deconstructing Diversity in Urban Planning Education in Italy. Implications for the Future of a “Practical Knowledge”

Italian planning education, rooted in architecture, has been traditionally characterized by a focus on spatial and morphological dimensions on one side, and on the regulatory aspects of the planning process on the other. The ability to reach out to a global audience of students has thus been limited because regulatory and administrative aspects tend to be deeply country- or context-specifi c. Against this background, the following chapter critically discusses the experience of the Master of Urban Planning and Policy Design (UPPD) at Politecnico di Milano and how it is widening its scope and diversifying its audience by focusing on emerging urban issues on a European and global scale. Working with increasingly diverse students—in terms of geographical origin, educational background, and culture—it appears that global outreach is related to the ability to identify and tackle emerging urban challenges (climate change, increasing spatial inequalities, shifting work and housing patterns, etc.) even more than the capacity to train professionals for specifi c job markets (local, regional, etc.). Moreover, a distinguishing feature of this path has been the capacity to move back and forth between experimental activities on the ground—working with local contexts and communities—and wider policy discourses with an international dimension, all of which characterize studio undertakings. In order to propose and refl ect on possible working directions, this chapter highlights teaching strategies, program features, and student–teacher interfaces and critically discusses some recurring pitfalls in this evolution toward a diversity-embracing program.