Call for Papers

Reshaping Higher Education for Urban-Rural Heritage Conservation: 

Experiences, Concepts and Trends

Prof. Yong Shao

College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University

DEADLINES

Submission deadline for extended abstracts

30 April 2026

Submission deadline for full papers

31 Oct 2026

Aims and scope

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations and the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) issued by UNESCO jointly underscore the central importance of culture and heritage as catalysts for more sustainable, higher-quality development. Achieving sustainable development through heritage, particularly across the urban-rural continuum, requires new knowledge, novel methods, and updated skills, as well as closer interdisciplinary collaboration toward shared goals. It also calls for experimentation with research and pedagogical models that reconcile traditional knowledge systems with emerging tools such as artificial intelligence. As principal actors in this process, universities and higher education institutions have an enduring responsibility to educate professionals equipped for contemporary challenges and to pursue frontier research and teaching that can fundamentally reshape the human environment.

This special issue focuses on frontier theory and innovative practice in higher education institutions for urban–rural heritage conservation, and on approaches for integrating heritage conservation with sustainable development. We welcome papers that probe the fundamental aims of heritage education, introduce methodological and pedagogical innovations, and examine mechanisms for professional formation. Contributions that analyse new challenges and opportunities under conditions of globalisation, and that help advance forward-looking, strategically oriented disciplinary consensus, are particularly encouraged.

We invite both theoretical and empirical contributions on higher education in urban–rural heritage conservation. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Histories of heritage education. Research tracing the historical evolution of heritage education, including analyses of former curricula and teaching methods, studies of the transmission of traditional construction systems and craft knowledge, and critical reflections on the present state and future directions of the field.
• Pedagogical and theoretical innovation. Studies that address the gap between existing theoretical frameworks and the diversity of contemporary practice: how to strengthen the dialogue between values-based perspectives and technical methods; how education can better respond to challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanisation, and social equity; and how local and traditional knowledge can be effectively mainstreamed into higher education. Interdisciplinary and place-based educational models and novel curricular frameworks are particularly encouraged.
• Integration of new technologies in heritage education. Investigations of digital and computational tools in teaching, such as artificial intelligence, Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM), and immersive technologies (VR/AR), that assess both their pedagogical potential and the tensions they may create between technocratic approaches and the humanistic foundations of conservation.

联合国可持续发展目标（SDGs）与联合国教科文组织《关于历史性城镇景观（HUL）的建议书》共同强调了文化和遗产的核心地位——它们是推动更可持续、更高质量发展转型的关键要素。通过遗产实现可持续发展，尤其是在城乡发展领域，意味着需要获取新知识、新方法、新技能，并将不同学科紧密联系起来以朝着共同目标迈进。同时，这也要求我们探索新型研究与教育模式，兼顾传统知识与人工智能的融合。作为关键参与者，大学和高等教育机构有责任继续发挥其历史性作用——培养适应新时代需求的专业人才，并探索那些可能深刻改变人类生活环境的前沿领域。

Proposed Timeline

30 Apr 2026      Abstracts (500-800 words)

31 May 2026     Acceptance decision and invitation

31 Oct 2026      First draft submission and start of peer review

31 May 2027     Final version

30 June 2027    Publication (paper version)

All submissions to this collection will go through rigorous peer review. Reviewers will follow Springer Nature's and the journal's more detailed Peer-Review Policy. Accepted articles will be first be published online. The print issue is scheduled to be published in the second quarter of 2027. 

Abstracts (500-800 words) should contain the title of the paper, research question, methodology, main findings, and conclusions. Abstracts should be submitted to: built-heritage@tongji.edu.cn with the subject line: 
Reshaping Higher Education for Urban-Rural Heritage Conservation.

Questions may be addressed by email to: built-heritage@tongji.edu.cn

Prof. Yong Shao: nyshao163@163.com

Built Heritage  

CSCD ｜ DOAJ ｜ Scopus ｜WJCI(STM)

CiteScore 2.4      SJR 0.418       SNIP 1.144

Official Website｜www.built-heritage.net
Email Adress｜built-heritage@tongji.edu.cn
Telephone｜+ 86 21 65982193