LUP-33306 Methods for Strategic Planning

Course

Credits 6.00

Teaching methodContact hours
One day excursion8
Lectures12
Practical extensively supervised40
Practical intensively supervised36
Self-study
Course coordinator(s)dr. ir. GJ Carsjens
Lecturer(s)dr. ir. GJ Carsjens
ir. JPA van Nieuwenhuize
G Kleinrensink
Examiner(s)dr. ir. GJ Carsjens

Language of instruction:

Dutch and English

Contents:

This practical course is an in-depth planning methodology course, focusing at methods and techniques to support strategic planning processes at regional scale level. The course familiarizes the students with methodologies for decision-oriented as well as design-oriented approaches of planning.
The decision-oriented approach includes the toolbox of strategic choice. Students gain an in-depth knowledge with the intricacies of choosing strategically, the organizational context, the dilemmas of decision-making and the responses to uncertainty. The emphasis is on the philosophy of strategic choice (methodology) perceived as a joint learning process. The design-oriented approach includes methodology for prospective scenario study. Students are practicing with conceptual framework of the social-physical organization, i.e. the domain of spatial planning. Students gain in-depth knowledge and skills with the construction of alternative futures with the help of creative leaps then taking consecutive steps backward in scale level and time in order to arrive at practicable policy guidelines. Scenarios are considered indispensable for initiating debate about desirable and probable futures. Special attention is also given to writing a work plan for an actuel working process wich results in a regional, strategic plan with a package of short-term actions.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the course unit, the student is expected to be able to:
- demonstrate a detailed theoretical and methodological understanding how to develop projective and prospective scenarios and related spatial plans for the regional scale with a long-term horizon;
- demonstrate a detailed theoretical and methodological understanding of how to organize complex spatial decision-making processes using the tool-box of the Strategic Choice Approach;
- deal with the range of uncertainties that are evident for these complex processes;
- analyze the consequences of alternative choices for different stakeholders involved.

Activities:

Instruction and evaluation lectures, reading literature, group and individual exercises, excursion, writing essays and short reports, presentations, and a closing debate with discussion.

Examination:

The work of the individual student is assessed on the basis of:
- his/her contribution to the group work
- group as well as individual essays and reports

Literature:

J. Friend & A. Hickling, 2004. Planning under pressure; the strategic choice approach. 3rd Edition, Elsevier, Butterworth-Heinemann.
A reader available at the WUR-shop.

ProgrammePhaseSpecializationPeriod
Compulsory for: BLPLandscape Architecture and PlanningBScB: Spatial Planning6WD
MinorPeriod
Compulsory for: WURDPBSc Minor Regional Development and Planning6WD