Futures Thinking in Planning Education and Research

Planning is inherently about looking ahead. The future orientation entwined in the DNA of the discipline is crucial given the environmental, social and economic challenges confronted at the start of the 21st century. Planning practice shows signs of responsiveness, but what about planning education? Academic discourse suggests concerns often lie elsewhere, with only tokenistic gazes to longer-term futures. The proposition explored in this paper is that the planning academy needs a ‘futures infusion’ to retain and strengthen its strategic relevance to policy making, respect and engagement from the community, and educational and societal obligations to graduates.