MSc Environmental Impact Assessment & Management / Course details

This module provides an introduction to some of the most important debates in contemporary urban theory, planning theory and practice. It does not, could not, attempt to cover all of planning theory and urban theory – rather it looks at the intersection of the two. The particular ‘take’ of this module involves exploring evolving issues in these two literatures around ‘the good city’ and ‘the good planner’.
 

1. To explore the relationship between planning theory, urban theory and planning practice.
2. To question the main functions of planning intervention.
3. To explore the development of different (often competing) modes of planning thought.
4. To consider the impact of ethics and values upon planning thought and practice.

 

By the end of the course students will have developed:

1. Critical awareness of the broader social and environmental context to planning activity.
2. An appreciation of the dominant themes in planning theory and urban theory.
3. Awareness of the nature of the theory-practice gap.
4. Understanding of the impact of differing social and political agendas upon the direction of urban planning.
5. Have established an appropriate framework for reflective practice
    

For post-graduate students, the course will have at its heart a series of weekly 2-hour lecture slots, supported by five seminar classes, two assessment support drop-in hours and one essay workshop. You are welcome to email and to come and discuss issues with course unit director and by arrangement with other module teaching staff. 
 

Assignment 1: Seminar discussion reflection (1000 words) 35% weighting

Assignment 2; Essay (1500 words) 65% weighting

Feedback given as per Faculty’s timeframe. 

Allmendinger, P. (2017) Planning theory (3rd edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Fainstein, S.S. and DeFilippis, J. (eds.) (2015) Readings in Planning Theory (4th edition). Chichester: Wiley.

Fainstein, S.S. and Campbell S. (eds.) (2011) Readings in Urban Theory (3rd edition). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Haughton, G. and White, I. (2019) Why Plan?: Theory for Practitioners. London: Lund Humphries.

Healey, P. (1997) Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Spaces. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Lawhon, M. (2020) Making Urban Theory: Learning and Unlearning through Southern Cities. London: Routledge.

McCann, E. and Ward, K. (eds.) (2011) Mobile Urbanism: City Policymaking in the Global Age. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

Pojani, D. (ed.) (2022) Alternative Planning History and Theory. London: Routledge.

Sandercock, L. (1998) Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities. Chichester: Wiley.