This module introduces students to key aspects of diversity and inequality in contemporary societies in the Global North and Global South. The module considers contrasting theoretical perspectives to explain these, before examining examples of relevant policy and practice. The first half of the module introduces various definitions, measures and patterns of inequality. Students will reflect on some of the relevant policy and academic debates concerning issues such as social exclusion, social mobility, as well as class, racial and health inequalities. The second half of the module focuses on how some of these issues specifically manifest in urban planning issues. Students will explore some of the policy measures that can be deployed by planners to address structural inequalities and to mitigate the spatial inequality impacts that can arise from development proposals. Overall, the module is designed to help planners and geographers to understand the spatial consequences of social change and to introduce a range of interventions that have been put in place to address inequality across the globe.

1. Describe and explain key forms of structural inequality in contemporary societies in the Global North and Global South
2. Describe and explain the patterning, including the spatial dimensions, of these inequalities
3. Describe and explain the processes which lead to these inequalities
4. Use official statistics to describe and explain aspects of inequality
5. Use appropriate spatial and social theories and social planning theories to explain patterns and trends in published data
6. Evaluate sociological theories to explain the spatial context of social change
7. Understand a variety of planning logics to frame planning interventions

The module will be delivered through lectures and seminars, in-person and on campus unless mitigating circumstances arise. Seminars will enable small group discussion about key issues relevant to the module. Students are expected to engage with additional module content on Learning Central e.g. readings or other material, to prepare for lectures and seminars, and to supplement and deepen taught components.

Subject specific skills

An understanding of:

• Contemporary social structure and the consequences for the production and regulation of the built environment
• The role of built environment professionals in ameliorating structural inequalities
• Class, identity, and their spatial contexts at a variety of scales
• How to use and understand statistics in planning interventions
• Gaining a sense of structural disparities and how to measure them

Academic skills

• Report writing, synthesising, presenting and critiquing ideas
• Research skills – using secondary data, accessing and reviewing peer reviewed journal articles
• Essay writing skills – developing an argument, marshalling evidence, using creativity and imagination
• Referencing sources
• Using theories, applying theories
• Report writing

Employability skills

Efficacy:

• Awareness of own positionality and the role that identity plays in inequality
• Empathy
• Questioning the taken for granted

Metacognition

• Self-awareness – in relation to gender, ethnicity, class and identity, social, cultural and economic capital
• Appreciation of different voices and experiences
• Recognising how policy problems and academic debates are socially constructed

A blend of coursework and portfolio assessment

Formative Assessment

Formative assessment takes place throughout the module.  There are seminars and workshops which support the assessments provide an opportunity for peer to peer and tutor feedback.

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

Re-assessment

Students are permitted to be reassessed in a module which they have failed, in line with University regulations. https://intranet.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/teaching-and-supporting-students/teaching-support/academic-regulations. You will only be reassessed on the components of the module in which you have failed. The format of the reassessment will be the same as the original assessment and will take place in the Summer re-sit period.

Data Collection and Ethical Approval

For some assessments, students may be required to collect their own data. In such assessments ethical approval from the School Research Ethics Committee must be obtained before data collection can begin. The module leader will discuss the process for obtaining ethical approval if it is needed in this module. Ethical approval is not needed for students using existing, open data sets (e.g. anonymised secondary data). This does not include social media data (e.g., Twitter or Facebook posts), where ethical approval must be obtained. The ethical approval process will take time and you are strongly recommended to adhere to the timetable outlined by the module leader to ensure you are not delayed in your assessment.

This module draws upon debates from the social science discipline of sociology and social planning, but it is not simply a theory module.  It makes no assumptions about prior learning and presents theories as practical tools to explain the world “out there”.  Typically these will include:

• the distribution of income and wealth, poverty and inequality across the world; within and between cities, regions and neighbourhoods
• social class, social stratification and social mobility
• social exclusion
• gendered inequalities
• ‘racial’ inequalities, institutionalised racism and plural cities
• consumption inequalities and consumer culture
• resistance, riots and civic unrest
• Public Health and well-being
• planning approaches and interventions