Aims

This module introduces students to key ideas, debates and shifts in planning theory through addressing the idea of power in the planning process. It considers the ways in which different theories of planning (and policies based on them) engage (or not) with ideas of power and ascribe different roles to planning professionals and citizens alike.

The module asks students to ‘think through’ theory and will help generate (especially when taken in conjunction with other modules on SAPL’s masters programmes) a reflexive understanding of the ideas that underpin planning systems and planning practice. It will also consider the role of critique and outline key concepts intended to offer critical positions on planning practice. Taken together these to dimensions will engender a theoretical and practical understanding of the need to engage with power inequalities and diverse knowledges in and through the planning process.

Outline Of Syllabus

Key topics include:
Planning theory and thinking through theory;
Power and rationality and planning
Theories of Publics, stakeholders, participation and collaboration; Government and policymaking; Post politics, futures and other directions in planning theory

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The module is delivered via a flipped classroom model. Weekly structured online content, consisting of pre-recorded lectures and recommended readings, introduces a critical framework about planning theory and power as an analytical perspective that will run through other content. It then provides information on key theories, concepts and the contexts in which they have emerged. This includes engaging the arguments of key texts with critical/reflexive questions each week, which helps students build towards the final assignment.

In-person lectures frame the module as introduction and conclusion (with a focus in both on the assignment and its relationship to the taught material) and include interactive elements. In-person workshops combine small group tasks and whole group discussions to develop critical analytical skills at key points in the module, and support development of ideas for individual assignment. One workshop will be a student-led critical Q&A. In-person surgery session provides for more focussed discussion of individual assignments, but with group participation and collective learning encouraged.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessment requires students to present their own planning theory and situate it in relation to existing planning theory literature. The essay must include an account of how the theory addresses questions of power in planning. This assessment requires an active engagement with all of the intended knowledge outcomes of the module and requires the development of the key skills outcomes in order to 1) undertake the critical /creative ask of developing a theoretical framework; 2) communicate that theoretical framework effectively.