This special volume publishes the outcomes of the international competition 'Planetary Urbanism - Critique of the Present in the Medium of Information Design', which addressed the closely intertwined issues of urbanisation and environmental protection. The choice of topic was made with the hope of gaining insight into the social reality of life in the cities of the Global South. Living conditions in cities are impacted by the global economy, and by the extremely imbalanced interrelationships between production, consumption, and waste disposal on an international level. Topics include the local effects of globalisation, informal vs. regulated, migration, urban metabolism, more publiarq.com