Urban planning

This entry synthesizes the official story of the history and evolution of modern urban planning with an emphasis on the domain's representative milestones. It begins by addressing distinctive urban planning notions conceived primarily as urban design during the first half of the twentieth century, and then moves on to highlight different waves of procedural planning approaches and their respective critiques and reactions since the advent of the post‐World War II era to date. The entry mainly focuses on planning thought and practice as conceived in the Global North but also raises awareness about emerging planning theorizations stemming from Global South contexts. Altogether, each planning stage features ad hoc planning conceptions characterized by specific values, interests, preferences, beliefs, and ways of implementation. This chronological account is thereby indicative of the polysemous character of urban planning, a product of its continuous reorientations as regards its ever‐changing planning agendas, policies, and practices irrespective of geographical contexts and sociopolitical realities and transitions.