AIA718 - Planning Theory, History and Current Issues

Unit details

Content

The unit will begin with a consideration of the nature of planning. The notions of ethical planning practice and the public interest will be explored along with the idea of conflict of interest. From this abstract starting point the unit will engage with the major theories that have informed Western planning before locating Australian planning in this context. In particular, the unit will consider Colonisation as the foundation for Australian planning along with City Improvement and City Beautiful movements, The Garden City ideal, Modernity and Post-Modernity and the Marxist, Feminist and Ecological critiques of planning as well as the contemporary frameworks of New Urbanism and Neo-liberalism. Finally, the unit will focus on current issues, both legislative and those exciting the popular imagination (and these will vary from year to year of unit offer). For example: sustainability, public vs. private transport, sprawl vs. consolidation, heritage vs. development, Indigenous issues, social and spatial difference and consider the policies, laws, regulations and plans relevant to them.

Assessment

Theoretical essay

Choose any one planning document and interrogate it in terms of its ethical and theoretical assumptions 2000 words 40%

Connecting theory to practice

Choose two examples and consider the ways in which planning has either ameliorated or exacerbated the social and/or physical environment. One should be historical and the other contemporary 3000 words 60%

Unit Fee Information

* Rate for all CSP students, except for those who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010
** Rate for CSP students who commenced Education and Nursing units pre 2010
Please note: Unit fees listed do not apply to Deakin Prime students.