• Offered for Year: 2023/24

• Module Leader(s): Dr Andrew Donaldson

• Owning School: Architecture, Planning & Landscape
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

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

Introduction – planning theory
Power in planning
Rationality and planning
Challenging the power of planning
Publics and participation
Stakeholders and collaboration
Government and policy
Post political planning, global urbanisms and futures

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

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 module talks frame the module as introduction and conclusion (with a focus in both on the assignment and its relationship to the taught material). 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. Final workshop (held prior to Easter vacation) will be a student-led critical Q&A. In-person surgery sessions provide for more focussed discussion of individual assignments, but with group participation and collective learning encouraged.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Other Assessment

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The assessment is an essay in which students will be asked to connect theory to practice in a speculative manner, developing themes from the module.

Reading Lists

• TCP8939's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• TCP8939's Timetable