Planning for Urban Sustainability (2022)

Course description 

The planning of urbanization at all scales, related to infrastructures, everyday life, and the reciprocities between urban settlements and their rural hinterlands, stands as an increasingly important research agenda, not least because of increased urbanization and the climate crisis. It is expected that by 2030 there will be around 5 billion people living in urban settlements. Such settlements are hubs for living, interaction, innovation, creativity, trade, research, production, and consumption and provide the best opportunity for transition towards sustainable development, not least because of the opportunity to create common sustainable systems and infrastructures.

This course will provide PhD students with an interdisciplinary approach to urbanization processes and planning complexities in ‘Planning for Urban Sustainability’. We therefore encourage students with a variety of themes and focuses to join, e.g. environmental sustainability, climate change, social justice, gentrification, territorial stigmatization, infrastructures and mobilities, etc. We also consider processes of urbanization to be wide-spanning social phenomena that entail a rather significant influence on our perceptions of ‘the rural’, landscapes, and remote communities. Finally, we also invite students who may not, as such, have phrased their work explicitly in terms of urbanization, but rather in terms of the processes of planning in uncertain environments and complex settings – such entry-points are equally essential for debating sustainability.

In other words, we intend to discuss how sustainability agendas may arise and (re-)combine across such varied insights. By using the works and knowledges of each other, students and teachers alike, we seek out lessons to be learned for interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability, as well as for how to position and better argue the work of the individual student in larger discussions on planning for sustainability.

As such we will encourage and discuss thinking across silos and scales pertaining to both research ideas, theories and methods, and in investigating planning practices. In particular, the course will actively include and use the participant’s PhD projects as a platform for such discussions.

Finally, the course offers two opportunities:

1) that students can publish their papers in a special issue in the Nordic Journal of Urban Studies, see below.

2) that students, having paid the fee for participating in the course, can participate in the PLANNORD symposium on 25th-26th August, see https://www.en.plan.aau.dk/networks/plannord/2022/

Prerequisites

Being enrolled in a relevant PhD program.

Learning objectives

By the end of this course, the students will be capable of:

-describing, understanding and reflecting upon a selective and contemporary body of key trends, disciplines, knowledges and theories associated with Planning for Urban Sustainability,

-describing and understanding exemplary projects with an interdisciplinary approach to urbanization processes in Planning for Urban Sustainability,

-reflecting upon the position of their own project in relation to the need for more interdisciplinary approaches to ‘Planning for Urban Sustainability’,

-discussing their research design methods and tools in relation to how they may contribute to more interdisciplinary approaches in Planning for Urban Sustainability, and vice versa,

-discussing and reflecting upon how their project is a contribution to both their own field of research as well as more general discussions on ‘planning for sustainability’.

Registration

Participants need to register in two ways:

1) through the PhD school at AAU https://phd.moodle.aau.dk/course/view.php?id=1967 (in order for the PhD School to register your ECTS points), and

2) through the PLANNORD symposium site, https://www.en.plan.aau.dk/networks/plannord/2022/ (in order to pay the fee). NB: A link for registration will open up on this site in late April 2022.

It should be taken into account, that:

1) on 25th August the students will be an integrated part of the PLANNORD symposium in Aalborg (25th-26th August 2021)

2) by registering and paying the course fee, full participation in the PLANNORD symposium in Aalborg during 25th-26th August 2021 is offered freely for PhD students.

Student workload

3 or 5 ECTS (two options, to be freely selected by the student)

The 3 ECTS option: This option involves preparation before the course (readings, writing an abstract, and preparing a presentation) as well as participation in the course.

The 5 ETCS option: This option contain the same as the 3 ECTS option, however also including more writing activity (a paper) after the course. We have been offered the opportunity, that students can publish their papers in a special issue in the Nordic Journal of Urban Studies in early 2023, see https://www.idunn.no/journal/njus?languageId=2. The course responsible’s will act as editors of this issue.

Important: We will not ask for an abstract or a paper specifically tailored for this course – instead we prefer the use of the material you are already working on as part of your phd. Hence, we intend to help develop your own work further.

Teaching methods

Writing activities: we will ask for writings (abstract and/or paper) that are part of the work you already do or plan to do as a phd student. We welcome phd’s in all stages of their work – from newly established to matured projects. For those with aspirations to publish full papers (both for themselves as part of their phd publication plan, but also as part of the 5 ECTS option in the course) we can offer the opportunity to become part of a special issue in the Nordic Journal of Urban Studies, as mentioned above.

Participating in lectures

Presenting your own work

Participating in interactive activities to discuss and reflect upon each other’s work and how to position and present your own work in larger discussions and a wider context.

Finally, we are planning to create an interphase between the PhD course and the PLANNORD symposium, https://www.en.plan.aau.dk/networks/plannord/2022/, on 25th August. This will be part of the PhD course and give the students an opportunity to meet a wider group of planning researchers and professionals. The design of this part will be tailored in detail, when we know the number of participants in the course and their preferred choice of the 3 or 5 ECTS options. Please notice that, in any case, registering for the PhD course gives full access to the symposium on 25th and 26th August.


Criteria for Assessment

The students who deliver on the written activities, participate in the lectures and discussions, and deliver a final paper (paper only in the 5 ECTS option) will receive approval of the course and obtain the credits (3 or 5 ECTS). As indicated, we will explore the opportunity to publish papers in https://www.idunn.no/journal/njus?languageId=2

Key literature (inspiration and examples only: to be discussed, filtered and developed further):

Beatley, T. (2012) Sustainability in Planning: The Arc and Trajectory of a Movement, and New Directions for the Twenty-First-Century City, chapter 4 in: Sanyal, B. et al., Planning Ideas that Matter, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, pp. 91-124.

Connell, D. J. (2009). Planning and its orientation to the future. International Planning Studies, 14(1), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563470902741609

Davoudi S. & Madanipour (eds.) (2015) Reconsidering Localism, Routledge, Abingdon.

Davoudi, S. et al (2020) Reinventing planning and planners: Ideological decontestations and rhetorical appeals, Planning Theory, vol. 19(1), pp. 17-37.

Escobar, O. (2017) Pluralism and Democratic Participation: What kind of Citizens are Citizens Invited to be? Contemporary Pragmatism, 14, pp. 416-438.

Flyvbjerg, B. (2001) Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it can Succeed Again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Galland, D. et al (2020) Conceptualising Metropolitan Regions: How Institutions, Policies, Spatial Imaginaries and Planning Are Influencing Metropolitan Development, chapter 1 in: Zimmermann, K. et al, (eds.) Metropolitan regions, planning and governance, Springer, pp. 1-21.

Glass, L.M. & Newig, J. (2019) Governance for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: How important are participation, policy coherence, reflexivity, adaptation and democratic institutions?, Earth System Governance, 2, pp. 1-14.

Hansen C J, Azzopardi E, Béguier I, Ferguson L, Flannery W and Frangoudes K (2022) Building planning spaces for the integration of coastal and maritime cultural heritage in local and regional spatial development, Maritime Studies. https://rdcu.be/cJ8K0

Healey, P. (2010) Making Better Places: The Planning Project in the Twenty-First Century

Kristjánsdóttir, S. (ed.) (2018). Nordic Experiences of Sustaianble Planning. Routledge .

Marschütz, B., Bremer, S., Runhaar, H., Hegger, D., Mees, H., Vervoort, J., & Wardekker, A. (2020). Local narratives of change as an entry point for building urban climate resilience. Climate Risk Management, 28(July 2019), 100223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2020.100223

Natarajan, L. (2017). Socio-spatial learning: A case study of community knowledge in participatory spatial planning. Progress in Planning, 111, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progress.2015.06.002

Olesen, K. & Hansen, C. J. (2020) Introducing Business Regions in Denmark: The ’Businessification’ of Strategic Spatial Planning? Journal of Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Vol. 38 (2), pp. 366-383.

Pizzo, B. (2015). Problematizing resilience: Implications for planning theory and practice. Cities, 43, 133–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2014.11.015

Relevance for students in relation to their curriculum development

This course offers up to date lectures and knowledge on theories, methods and empirical insights concerning interdisciplinary approaches to Planning for Urban Sustainability.

Anchoring

The course is offered by international experts and researchers from the fields of urban and regional development and planning. In particular, the main body of researchers are recruited from the PLUS research group at PLAN, AAU. 

Scientific level

State of the Art. 

Social activities

There will be an informal gathering in the evening of the arrival day the 23rd. On the 24th there will be an opportunity to arrange an early dinner, and later in the evening the PhD students can join the opening reception for the PLANNORD symposium (the latter is included in the fee). Also, when registering and paying the fee, you can also join the symposium dinner on the 25th (extra fee). Lunches and coffee/tea is covered by the fee.

Organizer: Carsten Jahn Hansen (Official AAU PhD Programme organisor of this course)

Organising committee: Maria Wilke, Matthew Howells, Caroline Samson, Miriam Jensen, Nikolaj Grauslund Kristensen, Carsten Jahn Hansen (responsible), Raine Mäntysalo, Maria Håkansson, Knut Bjørn Stokke, Sigrídur Kristjánsdóttir (Tim Richardson?)

Lecturers: 

Presenters and facilitators (in process): Carsten Jahn Hansen (AAU), Raine Mäntysalo (Alto University, Finland), Maria Håkansson (Stockholm University), Tim Richardson (NMBU, Norway), Sigrídur Kristjánsdóttir (Agricultural University of Iceland). Researchers from the PLUS group at AAU.

ECTS:  3.0 or 5.0

Time: 24th-25th August 2022

Place: Aalborg University, Rendsburggade 14, 9000 Aalborg. Room 3.329

Number of seats: max 20

Deadline: 25 July 2022

Important information concerning PhD courses:
We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3.000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.