705-470 Contemporary Planning Practice

Must be in final (4th) year of BUPD.

Contemporary Planning Practice explores a current question in urban planning in depth. In 2007, our focus is on metropolitan strategic planning, in particular the Melbourne 2030 metropolitan strategy. The strategy will provide the context for our deliberations this semester, but as we have a class drawn from a range of cities, we should be in an excellent position to compare practice in Melbourne with that in other places. The course covers the practice of metropolitan planning and can thus be distinguished from many similar subjects offered at universities, which concentrate either on theoretical critiques of traditional approaches, or on surveying current issues in metropolitan planning. We will be dealing with questions of this kind, but will do so in a way that seeks to go beyond mere critique and survey, to possible reform of planning practice.

The type of metropolitan planning explored in this course is new. There are no textbooks or manuals that explain how it is carried out and relatively few practical examples of its successful implementation. Planning academics by and large have preferred to 'deconstruct' old approaches to metropolitan planning, rather than to 'construct' new ones. So all of us, including the staff, will be learning as we go.

On completion of the subject students should have developed skills in research, critical analysis and writing and some experience with group work.

Advanced seminar paper of 3000 words (50%); group project equivalent to a further 3000 words (50%).