Paralysis or empowerment: climate anxiety, hope and action in planning education

Jessica Debats Garrison and Douglas Houston

Planning Practice & Research, 2026, vol. 41, issue 4, 966-985

Abstract: Climate change pedagogy is increasingly integrated in planning education, but planning educators have a limited understanding of whether addressing the climate crisis results in student paralysis or empowerment. We surveyed 194 undergraduates in planning courses to assess how climate anxiety and hope influenced three types of climate action: individual behavioral change, discussing climate change and political action. Findings indicate climate anxiety was more productive than climate hope in empowering students to take action and that both can productively co-exist in planning classrooms. Findings inform instructor efforts to support healthy cognitive-emotional engagement that empowers future planners with climate knowledge and resilience.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02697459.2026.2649277 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cpprxx:v:41:y:2026:i:4:p:966-985

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cppr20

DOI: 10.1080/02697459.2026.2649277

Access Statistics for this article

Planning Practice & Research is currently edited by Vincent Nadin

More articles in Planning Practice & Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().