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SPL-3005: Comprehensive Planning and democracy Work Load
10 credits (ECTS) | Type of course
Theoretical subject. | Level of course/Year of study
First or second year at master''s level. | Language of instruction
Norwegian | Examination semester
Spring | Objectives
This subject is intended to provide student with insights into recent advances in planning theory, with particular emphasis on the critical relation between planning and democracy. | Contents
Planning used to be the expert-based mode of government, but today all public planning in the Nordic countries is based on the principles of representative democracy. Increasingly planning is practised in contexts involving different and competing traditions of knowledge, cultures, and economic interests. The democratic mode of planning is thus challenged from a multitude of positions, and in this subject the students will be informed of the new complexities of planning, and how planning theory may be used to cope with this. Like planning in practice, the theory of planning is complex, based on ideas from intellectual traditions within the social sciences, architecture, natural sciences and engineering sciences. Today there is no single, dominant planning paradigm. Planning is not a value-free and rational practice based on objective scientific knowledge; rather, it is woven into processes of formal-political and informal powers.
Central to this subject is the idea of planning as a predominantly political process, but a process that can hardly be understood by a simple model of implementing political decisions made by democratically constituted bodies. Planning theory has accordingly become more preoccupied with planning as a mode of governance and as an arena for conflicting interests, with a multitude of institutional linkages, but also with great potential for the staging of communicative interaction and the production of meaning.
Common to all theories of planning are their commitment to action and practical applications. Students of planning are almost invariably driven by a desire to contribute to future planning processes. The different theories of planning offer their specific answers to questions of rationality and power.
The communicative turn in planning theory implies a strategy to neutralize the use of power by establishing conditions and rules for communication in which the better argument decides, rather than structural powers. In a more Foucault-inspired perspective, power is regarded as productive and, by definition, an integrated part of planning itself.
In a post-modern perspective, reflexivity and the theory of learning theory will have a central position.
Planning is constantly exposed to criticism and critical reflection over means and procedures and thus is susceptible to continuous change. Its societal foundations are, in a democratic perspective, not only the representative democracy; planning is also affected by the social capital of its environment. The complexities surrounding planning processes have undermined its legitimacy, and there is no return to the clear-cut industrial-type social development that planning championed in the mid-twentieth century. The comprehensive ambitions and the ability to formulate overall societal strategies to enhance efficiency combined with sustainability and social equity is a task that no society can do without.
| Form of teaching
Lectures. | Coursework requirements
Mandatory test assignments (3-5 pages).
| Exam and assessment
A take-home written assignment exam (10 pages) based on a theme from the lectures/curriculum, over one week.
Grading: A-E=pass, F=fail. The course is open for re-sit examination early in the following semester. | Contact person/lecturer
Kari Mette Foslund | Recommended reading/syllabus
See homepage. | Homepage
http://uit.no/planlegging/1989/19
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| Forelesning | Kurset kjører forelesning med påfølgende seminar i ett, undervisningstid fra kl 1315-1600.
Orienteringsmøte: Mandag 9. januar kl, 12.00, rom N-119
Foreleser Toril Merete Ringholm
| | Eksamen | Utlevering av hjemmeeksamen: fredag 31. mars kl. 09.30
Innleveirng av hjemmeeksamen: fredag 7. april kl. 14.00 |
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