Between research, practice and governmental policies in the global south: understanding the Egyptian urban planning scene

Purpose: Urban planning in the Global South is insufficiently discussed in research. In addition to the global lack of utilization of research in practice, this lack of discussion resulted in an apparent gap between research, practice, governmental policies and education particularly in the Global South. The paper explores the inconsistency of interest between policymakers, practitioners and researchers by reviewing their themes of interest comparatively. The paper investigates the case study of Egypt, which recently faces a new regime with optimistic urban agendas and examines the research publication that coincided with it. Design/methodology/approach: A scientometric analysis is conducted on all urban planning publications in Egypt between 2016 and 2022 using the software ‘CiteSpace’. The analysis illustrates the dominating research interests using the publications keyword. Findings: The analysis revealed a distinct interest between researchers, who were more invested in themes like ‘planning policies’, ‘informal settings’, ‘urban expansion and growth’ and ‘urban governance and management’, while policymakers were more devoted to themes related ‘satellite cities or new cities’, ‘public transit and transit networks’, ‘informal settings’ and ‘urban expansion and growth’. The themes of interest are displayed in network analysis for a comparative analysis with other aspects like practices, governmental policies and education. Originality/value: The research utilizes all research publications in the field (in a selected period) to develop a study of the research interest in the field of urban planning in Egypt during the recent years. In addition, it uses novel scientometric software to assist in analysing existing publications to produce new findings and trends.