Planning ahead: Toward a critical, environmental, just, and action-oriented planning theory, practice, and journal

Abstract

This essay contributes to the 10th Anniversary Special Issue of plaNext – Next Generation Planning by offering reflections and ideas for inspiring a renewed roadmap in planning theory and practice that more systematically incorporates tools and contents from emerging critical disciplines. It emphasizes the crucial contributions that young researchers and planners can make through their work, as well as the potential of a journal led by early-career scholars—such as plaNext—to shape the field. The paper introduces the contemporary challenges facing planners within the context of the current global polycrisis—crises of the ecosystem, society, democracy, and knowledge. It links these crises to the urgent need for renewal in the field and a rethinking of how planning scholars and practitioners engage with societal transformation and existing inequities. Drawing on emerging critical disciplines—including ecofeminism, disability studies, environmental justice, critical heritage studies, multispecies justice, and critical food studies—the paper explores how these theories bring an ecosystemic understanding of power, inequality, and injustice. It considers the extent to which these perspectives are already present in planning studies and the potential for their applied translation in planning practice. Finally, the article outlines ideas for how plaNext could provide space for innovative theoretical development and support action- and justice-oriented work.