Overview
Planning practice involves a number of core skills. This module considers the type of skills required by professional planners, ranging from strategic thinking and future-proofing, through to mediation and negotiation. It examines the nature of professionalism and ethics in planning, and considers presentations from planners on their roles in practice.
Teaching and Learning Methods
Lectures, seminars, workshops and visiting speakers
Aims & Outcomes
The aim of the course is to provide the student with an appreciation of the different aspects of planning practice. The course focuses on those aspects of planning practice that are not covered by BENVGPL5 Spatial Planning. It seeks to enable the student to develop a fuller understanding of such practice by drawing on the research literature as well as empirical examples. Particularly emphasis will be put on the links between theoretical concepts generalizing about planning practice and the everyday experience of such practice.
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
- demonstrate their knowledge of contemporary planning practice;
- refer to relevant material from the academic literature; and
- draw connections between the academic literature and their experience of planning practice.
Structure/Outline
The course is made up of nine sessions, which will take the form of a lecture and a seminar, a lecture and a Q&A session with an invited speaker, or a brief talk and a workshop.
Planning as a profession; the reflective practitioner; the role of learning, with MTJ
Public participation; the collective action problem; strategies; the role of social capital, with Simon Bevan, Southwark Council
Workshop on visioning the future
Negotiation and planning gain; negotiation strategies; reform of planning gain regimes; power within the development process, with Dan Taylor, Southwark Council
Planning Performance
Conflict and dispute resolution; planning appeals and mediation, with Leonora Rozee, formerly Planning Inspectorate Agency
Workshop on mediation disputes with Yvonne Rydin
Strategy development; the means-end model; the role of partnerships and networks; integrating strategies; insights of collaborative planning, with Debbie McMullen, formerly Greater London Authority
Ethics and the planning profession
Staff
Professor Mark Tewdwr Jones
Assessment
100% coursework
Indicative Reading
- Cullingworth, J.B. and Nadin, V. Town and Country Planning in the UK London, Routledge, 2002.
- Rydin, Y. Urban and Environmental Planning in the UK London, Palgrave, 2002.