Claire Bénit-Gbaffou. "Producing Planning Knowledge: How Professional PhD Candidates Bridge Research-Practice Divides."

City-of-Johannesburg

Claire Bénit-Gbaffou & Glyn WilliamsUrban Forum (2022)

This paper addresses an important, but under-studied, pathway for knowledge production in the field of urban planning: the practitioner engaging with academia through the writing of a PhD. Drawing on our own experiences of doctoral mentoring, in dialogue with PhD candidates, we reflect on the questions and challenges this form of knowledge production raises. The paper aims to extend planning theory's recognition of 'multiple epistemologies' (Sandercock, 2003) through a deeper understanding of how planning professionals as authors lead the translation of experiential knowledge into academic knowledge. Understanding why this is so difficult to actually (co)produce should lead us not only to better mentoring, but also to critical reflection on how rigorous and relevant knowledge is defined within planning academia.

Read also

Emerging from war

Walter Bruyère-Ostells and Benoît Pouget, book chapters (Guillaume Piketty, Sortir de la guerre)

syphilis and ist

Guillaume Linte, editor of a journal issue and articles: "Syphilis and STIs: Epidemiology and the use of figures, from the 'venereal peril' to HIV" (Annales de Démographie Historique)

UN_POUVOIR_MALHONNETTE-652x1024

Book by Frédéric Monier: "Un pouvoir malhonnête. Public corruption in France, 18th-20th centuries".