Investigating the Concept of “Praxis” in Reducing the Gap between Theory and Practice: The Need to Develop “Soft / Political” Skills along with “Hard / Technical” Skills based on Modern Urban Planning Education

The increasing gap between theory and practice has emerged as a major challenge in the field of urban planning education over the past two decades. Planning literature has approached this gap from a political perspective, identifying the neglect of political contexts and power relations by technical planners as the main cause. This article aims to address the skill requirements of planning theories, explore new approaches to planning education in leading universities worldwide, and present strategies for developing new skills within the master’s program in Iran. To achieve these objectives, data were collected through library studies, questionnaires, and structured interviews conducted with practitioners and academicians. The collected data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results demonstrate that acquiring “soft skills” such as negotiation, mediation, facilitation, and conflict management, in addition to “hard skills” or planning techniques, can effectively reduce the theory-practice gap.