Planning, at urban, regional, national and international levels, faces new challenges, notably those related to the growth of globalisation as both an objective socio-economic process and a shift in policy-maker perceptions and modes of analysis.

International Planning Studies addresses these issues by publishing quality research in a variety of specific fields and from a range of theoretical and normative perspectives, which helps improve understanding of the actual and potential role of planning and planners in this context.

Specific policy areas covered include:

• urban design
• economic development
• environmental policy
• spatial planning
• housing
• transport
• social inclusion.

IPS fills a gap between the more specialist theoretical and empirical journals in planning and urban-regional studies. In so doing it throws new light on the influences on, and effects of, the evolution of planning around the world.

The editor particularly welcomes contributions addressing the relationships between the ideas informing planning theory, practice and process, and the outcomes of planning, past and present Contributors are invited to submit articles based on original empirical or theoretical work, or assessments or critiques of existing studies, that offer new perspectives, critical insights, or new data to stimulate and inform debate over the future development of planning.