Introduction

There is much talk about globalisation and its effects on urban planning. ¹ Less in the headlines, but prominently positioned in the view of some planning educators, is the potential for international comparison to improve planning scholarship (Lim and Miller 2003; Afshar and Pezzoli 2001). International comparison can take two forms: comparison of practice and its contexts on the one hand, and comparison of research on the other. The Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning project is designed to foster comparison of planning research, although it cannot help but contribute to comparison of planning practice. Our premise has been that planning scholars often labour in isolation from others from whom they might productively learn: isolation brought on by language differences (Aalbers 2004, Albrechts 2004), geographic and cultural distance (Gregson et al. 2003, ACSP 2003), and contextual distinctions in planning practice systems (Friedmann 2005: 184) that seem to create barriers to cross-national application of planning principles.