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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

PROPOSED TIMELINE

30 Apr 2026      Abstracts (500-800 words)

31 Oct 2026      First draft submission and start of peer review

30 June 2027    Publication (paper version)

Built Heritage

CSCD ｜ DOAJ ｜ Scopus ｜WJCI(STM)

CiteScore 2.4      SJR 0.418       SNIP 1.144