Spatial Planning Across Europe, 7.5 ECTS
Second levelFacts
No available factsDescription
Purpose and learning objectives Upon completion of this course, students are expected to be able to: – discuss and compare urban and regional planning in selected European countries, – interpret and analyze planning systems and cultures in Europe and its applications, – analyze relevant planning policies at the EU level and its applications in a multi-level governance system.
Content and teaching methods The course focuses on (1) the European dimension of spatial planning and (2) the national spatial planning systems in a comparative perspective. Regarding the former the emergence and impacts of the “EU spatial policy discourse” will be analysed in regards to a number of key concepts, normative images, main policy documents and instruments. A particular focus will be laid on transnational and cross-border cooperation within spatial planning. Regarding the latter, the idea is to carve out the similarities and differences between a number of European countries (e.g. Sweden compared to Finland, Germany and the Netherlands) related to e.g. the institutional organization of planning, its thematic scope and dominating normative concepts and instruments. This analysis will help to critically revisit the notion of “planning families” and “planning cultures” in a transnational as well as national (and partly regional) perspective across Europe. One key question of the course is to what extent can we observe an Europeanisation of spatial planning across Europe and to what extent some of the prevailing differences between national planning families and cultures in Europe seem to be rather robust.
Teaching includes lectures, seminars and exercises.
Area of interests: Human, Social and Political Sciences, and Law
Are you interested in human beings and society? How we function individually and together, what drives us, our learning processes, how rules and laws have been established, and how we interact with each other? If that is the case we have a lot to offer. This area of interest covers anything from Pedagogy, Psychology and Gender Studies, to Statistics, Political Science, Law and many other subjects. Their common denominator is the relation between human beings and society, independent analytical thinking and often an international perspective.
Subject
Urban and Regional Planning
Urban and Regional Planning is about shaping and structuring the future of society. Planners affect the structure of cities and urban life, the countryside and regional development, the economic situation and the environment, culture and population from social, economic and ecological perspectives. Planning takes place in the public and private sectors as well as within international organizations, such as EU and the UN.
The problems on which planners work require composite analyses. The need for such an approach increases with the increasing complexity of society. The problems are increasingly concerned with balancing different, sometimes contradictory, interests into functional and sustainable suggestions and proposals. Planning often takes place in the form of project work, where suggestions for plans are prepared in teams where different competences are represented.
Planning thus means determining the future while being aware of the fact that at the same time other possible futures are being prevented. It is therefore important to know how society has developed historically and how it works today within different areas, with regard to natural as well as economic and social conditions. A planner must have a broad general knowledge and the ability to merge information and knowledge from different specialist areas. A planner who is responsible for the planning process needs to have an overall view and an ability to see issues from multiple perspectives. For this purpose, there is ongoing basic and applied research where a number of different planning problems are analysed, ranging from individual suburban environments to international environmental issues.
Urban and regional planning may be studied as a three-year programme in the first cycle and in a two-year Master’s programme, or as single-subject courses. Do you want to have an impact on present and future societies? Then Urban and Regional Planning is the right choice!