17. Diversity and Learning in Urban Planning: Expanding Planning Horizons

In Finnish cities, increasing social and cultural diversity coexists with relatively stable planning institutions and professional practices. This stability provides coherence and predictability, yet it also raises questions about how planning systems recognise external experience, learn from practices developed elsewhere, and broaden the range of perspectives shaping future urban development. As the long-term well-being of Finnish society increasingly depends on the inclusion and success of minority groups — particularly immigrants bringing different cultural backgrounds, values, and everyday practices — planners face a growing need to understand and work with diverse ways of living. This requires not only acknowledging plural needs but also strengthening planning’s capacity to translate them into solutions that support equitable urban futures.

This working group takes Finnish urban planning practice as its primary reference point, while using international cases as lenses for reflection rather than models to be transferred. Planning systems in other contexts have addressed challenges that are historically more recent in Finland, including segregation, densification, and internationalisation. Reflecting on these experiences offers an opportunity to compare approaches, identify risks, and consider how learning across contexts can inform planning debates and support the ongoing renewal of planning practice.

Within this framing, hope is understood as the capacity of planning practice to learn, adapt, and renew itself in response to social and cultural diversification. Diversity can support richer urban life and co-creation only when planning systems and participatory practices recognise and work with different forms of knowledge and experience. The session therefore focuses on how planning systems operate in practice, and on how organisational cultures shape participation, recognition of expertise, and contributions to planning work.

The session is structured around a central question concerning diversity at the organisational and professional level of planning: how the diverse perspectives, experiences, and expertise that international professionals bring to planning organisations—both public and private—can contribute to the renewal of Finnish planning practice. From this starting point, the discussion explores what Finnish planning systems can learn from international planning practices, including approaches to democratic processes, participation, professional education, and planning philosophies that challenge established Finnish approaches.

A further focus lies on how broader cultural literacy within planning organisations can support more inclusive and accessible engagement with diverse stakeholder groups. The session also examines the organisational conditions that enable internationally trained professionals to participate fully in planning work and have their expertise recognised. Attention is given to how Finnish planning culture can draw on international professionals’ educational and professional backgrounds, together with their knowledge of global urban development trends.

The session combines short presentations with moderated discussion, bringing together empirical research and practice-based reflection. The working language of the session is English, while presentations may be submitted in either English or Finnish. Discussion will focus on shared tensions, transferable insights, and the limits of learning across contexts, with particular attention to professional practice and future-oriented planning in Finland.