Global student mobilities and the making of planning cultures

Global student mobilities have led to different perspectives on urbanity and planning culture travelling at high speed around the globe. During experiences of mobility what is conceptualised as ‘urban’ changes, bringing with it alterations in discourses on planning practices and planning cultures. Such student mobilities and their shaping of local urban imaginations, as well as the effects of returnees entering local job markets, have not specifically been addressed in urban studies. This paper aims to analyse how the mobilities of students – and thus of knowledge – shape persistent or newly emerging urbanisms, planning practices and cultures. Conceptually, the paper elaborates how the production of urban spaces has to be understood in a context of the global mobilities of knowledge and ever-shifting local planning cultures. In the empirical analysis, the paper draws on qualitative interviews conducted with planning professionals in Dhaka on the (global) education and career trajectories of urban planners, and the dynamics of local planning cultures and practices.