The development of planning education and its relation to the belated start of geography teaching in Greek Universities

Abstract

Planning and geography teaching in Greek Universities has until very recently been extremely limited. Moreover, there were no planning and geography departments, which contrasted with the substantial research in the field since 1960. The subject of space was insufficiently covered by a number of courses offered unsystematically by various departments of the Greek Universities. Among them the most comprehensive coverage was given by the Departments of Architecture and Rural and Surveying Engineering. Space related courses were usually complementary to the courses of the departments offering them. What was of primary importance to the way geography was taught was the scientific approach adopted by each department, and not the scientific subject. Students were often taught geography concurrently with subjects which did not allow for spatial differentiation. A pivotal question to be answered here is why planning and geography teaching has been so neglected in Greek Universities. The recent establishment of Planning and Geography Departments should principally be viewed as an outcome of the aggravation of the problems stemming from the unequal regional development of Greece as well as the realization of the importance of space. The lack of systematic studies allowed certain scientist to proclaim themselves 'experts' with the right to get involved in the practice of planning and geography. Concerning the more sophisticated needs, these were met by 'imported knowledge' acquired by studies abroad. The outcome of this was two-fold: on the one hand, 'applied' geography relied on explanatory tools and development models which were not products of analysis of the Greek society, and, on the other hand, academic education focused more on physical planning and on traditional theories at the level of analysis.