Submit a Manuscript to the Journal
Journal of the American Planning Association
For a Special Issue on
Planning and the Politics of the New Infrastructure Economy
Abstract deadline
Manuscript deadline
Special Issue Editor(s)
Justin Kollar,
National University of Singapore
jkollar@nus.edu.sg
Laura Schmahmann,
Texas A&M
laura.schmahmann@tamu.edu
Karen Trapenberg Frick,
UC Berkeley
kfrick@berkeley.edu
Planning and the Politics of the New Infrastructure Economy
Around the world, communities are grappling with infrastructure expansion associated with the digital economy. Data centers and AI infrastructure are reshaping land use and increasing demands on energy and water, with consequences beyond conventional planning and zoning. These developments follow earlier transformations of urban and rural industrial land, from e-commerce and logistics networks to utility-scale solar and wind. Across these sectors, communities weigh promised economic benefits against public infrastructure costs and uneven environmental impacts, renewing debates over environmental justice and the fiscal politics of development. Opposition to AI and surveillance technologies, including Flock cameras, has also become visible in local politics, sometimes uniting coalitions across traditional political divisions.
These conflicts recall longstanding planning debates over regional development and the legitimacy of public intervention. Yet the scale and pace of infrastructure expansion are testing planning’s capacity to direct growth, even as its ambitions broaden to address climate change and energy systems. Major investments are increasingly shaped by utility regulation, state policy, and private investment strategies that span jurisdictions and establish commitments before local land use review. These arrangements invite a reassessment of when and through which institutions planners and affected communities can meaningfully shape infrastructure investment, particularly where these systems extend beyond local planning authority and expertise.
This special issue examines how planning can shape the infrastructures of the contemporary economy and how these investments are reshaping planning authority and practice. We seek contributions that connect contemporary infrastructure conflicts to broader economic and political transformations, with attention to the possibilities for public intervention. Topics include, but are not limited to:
- How data centers, AI infrastructure, e-commerce, warehousing, and logistics networks are reshaping land use and the built environment while intensifying resource demands.
- Economic development trade-offs including employment, fiscal revenues, public subsidies, infrastructure costs, and uneven environmental burdens.
- How megaprojects and infrastructure investment reshape regional governance and redistribute planning authority through jurisdictional fragmentation and state preemption.
- How social movements and community identities shape coalitions around infrastructure development, surveillance technologies, and locally unwanted land uses (LULUs), including public participation, moratoria, and litigation.
- Implications of technological and economic change for planning scholarship, theory, and practice, including institutional capacity, gaps in education and training, and the evolving boundaries of planning expertise, particularly in areas such as energy systems planning and collaboration across professional disciplines.
- International, comparative, and historical perspectives on infrastructure conflicts, including lessons from earlier periods of transformation and alternative arrangements for planning governance and public oversight.
Scope and considerations
The special issue focuses on the physical, institutional, and political implications of technological change rather than the application of AI tools in planning practice. A separate special issue in JAPA has focused on these concerns. Recognizing the pace of these developments, we also invite critical reflections on the challenges of conducting research and informing planning decisions amid rapidly changing technologies and political conditions. Papers published in JAPA must link to planning practice as well as planning scholarship.
Submission Instructions
Submit a title and 500-word extended abstract by February 1, 2027, to the guest editors at jkollar@nus.edu.sg, laura.schmahmann@tamu.edu, and kfrick@berkeley.edu. Abstracts will be evaluated by the guest editors to assess their fit and contributions to the aims of the special issue. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full manuscript for consideration by August 1, 2027.
Abstracts should follow JAPA's abstract structure and include the following sections:
- Problem, Research Strategy, and Findings: Clearly describe the planning problem or research question, the research strategy and methods employed, and the principal findings and conclusions. Authors should also include at least one sentence discussing the limitations of the research approach, methods, and/or data, and the implications of those limitations for the findings.
- Takeaway for Practice: Clearly explain the relevance and implications of the research for planning practice, governance, policy, or professional decision-making.
Acceptance of full manuscripts is contingent upon JAPA's standard peer-review process.