CP0310: Contemporary International Planning

School Cardiff School of Geography and Planning
Department Code GEOPL
Module Code CP0310
External Subject Code 100197
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Professor Richard Cowell
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2015/6

Outline Description of Module

This module invites students to reflect on their knowledge of their ‘home’ planning system from an international and comparative perspective. It explains the international forces driving changes to planning cultures, such as economic and environmental globalisation, Europeanisation and cross-national policy learning, and considers how far the present and future forms of planning in different national settings reflects political, social and administrative cultures. Key components of planning law and practice (e.g. definitions of development, scope for discretion, role and status of plans, opportunities for participation, national-to-local relations) are analysed through a series of national case studies taken from Europe, North America and Asia. Students will apply their knowledge in a group-work exercise in teams of students act as consultants to design a new planning system for the European island of Pontevedro. The module is also helpful in prompting students to think about the scope for studying or working abroad.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  • understand the basis for the main commonalities and differences in planning systems in different countries, and understand how they reflect their social, economic, cultural and political context
  • possess sufficient theoretical and empirical knowledge to be able to undertake cross-national lesson drawing, and evaluate the scope for effective policy transfer from one national setting to another
  • organise an effective team to produce a consultancy-style group project and deliver a high quality presentation

How the module will be delivered

 

The module will be delivered through a combination of lectures and workshops. There will be a two hour lecture every week, accompanied by Powerpoint slides that summarise key issues. These slides will form the basis of class handouts which, along with suggested additional reading, will be made available via Learning Central before each lecture commences. The first three lectures cover core theoretical issues on Europeanisation and cross-national lesson-drawing. The majority consist of case studies of planning systems in different countries, each delivered by experts from within and beyond the School.

 

Six one-hour workshops also support the module. These cover skills (like presentation skills and team management), explain what is required of the coursework, and test and discuss students’ understanding of (i) the core components of planning systems and (ii) key features of planning systems in other countries.

Skills that will be practised and developed

  • logical reasoning and evaluation.
  • advocacy, cross-examination and team-working
  • presentation skills
  • appreciation of the particularities of one’s domestic planning arrangements, the value of cross-national thinking, and respect for the diversity of cultures, views and ideologies that planning needs to accommodate
  • situating career aspirations in an international context

How the module will be assessed

The formal assessment of this module is in two components.

 

1) A group presentation, in which teams of students – role-playing as consultancies – pitch ideas for the structure of a new planning system for the European island of Pontevedro. Marks are awarded for content and presentation skills, as well as performance in the role of a select committee, cross-examining another team about their proposals. Students get a shared group mark for this assessment, with 20% allocated to individual presentation skills.

 

2) The other piece of assessment is a written analysis of the scope for cross-national lesson drawing to improve Pontedro’s planning system.

 

Type of assessment

 

%

Contribution

Title

Duration
(if applicable)

Approx. date of Assessment

Groupwork presentation

50%

A proposed new planning system for Pontevedro

1 hour

Autumn

Written report

50%

Cross-national lesson drawing

2000 words

Spring

 

 

The opportunity for reassessment in this module

 

Students are permitted to be reassessed in a module which they have failed, in line with the course regulations. The reassessment will usually take place during the summer.

 

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 50 Report - Cross-National Lesson Drawing N/A
Presentation 50 A Proposed New Planning System For Pontevedro N/A

Syllabus content

This module invites students to reflect on their knowledge of the British planning system from an international and comparative perspective. It explains the international forces driving changes to planning cultures, such as economic and environmental globalisation, Europeanisation and cross-national policy learning, and considers how far the present and future forms of planning in different national settings reflects political, social and administrative cultures. Key components of planning law and practice (e.g. definitions of development, scope for discretion, role and status of plans, opportunities for participation, national-to-local relations) are analysed through a series of national case studies taken from Europe, North America and Asia. Students will apply their knowledge in a group-work exercise in teams of students act as consultants to design a new planning system for the European island of Pontevedro.

Essential Reading and Resource List

The following are useful introductory readings for the module as a whole:

 

Rose R (1991) What is lesson drawing? Journal of Public Policy 11(3), 1-30.

Sanyal, B. Ed. (2005) Comparative Planning Cultures, Routledge, London.

Background Reading and Resource List

Booth, P. (1993) The cultural dimension in comparative research: making sense of development control in France European Planning Studies, vol. 1(2), 217-229.

Booth P, M. Breuillard, C. Fraser and D. Paris (eds) 2007) Spatial Planning Systems of Britain and France. Taylor and Francis

Dolowitz D and Medearis D (2009) ‘Consideration of the obstacles and opportunities to formalizing cross-national policy transfer to the United States: a case study of the transfer of urban environmental and planning policies from Germany’, Environment and Planning C 27, 684-697.

Grant J (2009) ‘Experiential planning: a practitioner’s account of Vancouver’s success’, Journal of the American Planning Association 75(3), 358-370.

Knieling, J and Othengrafen, F (2009) (Eds) Planning Cultures in Europe, Decoding Cultural Phenomena in Urban and Regional Planning, Ashgate: Farnham and Burlington

Newman, P. and Thornley, A. (1996) Urban Planning in Europe, Routledge

Rose, R. (1993) Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy, Chatham House Publishers, Chatham, NJ.

 

Sykes, O. (2008) ‘The importance of context and comparison in the study of European spatial planning’, European Planning Studies 16(4), 537-555.

                              

 

Each week, additional and more-up-to-date readings will be issued to support the topic being discussed, and these lists will be placed on Learning Central.

Booth, P. (1993) The cultural dimension in comparative research: making sense of development control in France European Planning Studies, vol. 1(2), 217-229.

Booth P, M. Breuillard, C. Fraser and D. Paris (eds) 2007) Spatial Planning Systems of Britain and France. Taylor and Francis

Dolowitz D and Medearis D (2009) ‘Consideration of the obstacles and opportunities to formalizing cross-national policy transfer to the United States: a case study of the transfer of urban environmental and planning policies from Germany’, Environment and Planning C 27, 684-697.

Grant J (2009) ‘Experiential planning: a practitioner’s account of Vancouver’s success’, Journal of the American Planning Association 75(3), 358-370.

Knieling, J and Othengrafen, F (2009) (Eds) Planning Cultures in Europe, Decoding Cultural Phenomena in Urban and Regional Planning, Ashgate: Farnham and Burlington

Newman, P. and Thornley, A. (1996) Urban Planning in Europe, Routledge

Rose, R. (1993) Lesson-Drawing in Public Policy, Chatham House Publishers, Chatham, NJ.

 

Sykes, O. (2008) ‘The importance of context and comparison in the study of European spatial planning’, European Planning Studies 16(4), 537-555.

                              

 

Each week, additional and more-up-to-date readings will be issued to support the topic being discussed, and these lists will be placed on Learning Central.


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