3 ECTS credits
90 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 4018432EER for all students in the 2nd semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.
This course starts from thinking about the future of the built environment and its possible role in future society. The differences in approach to this issue by urban sociologists on the one hand, and urban planners on the other, are explained using Richard Sennett's concept of the ‘open city’. Subsequently, a number of aspects of the interaction between the built environment and society are studied. Building on insights from residential ecology and the study of modernization, specific attention is paid to the role of planners and urban designers in the future functioning of the urban society, including - but not exclusively - within formal planning processes.
In the first part of the course this issue is approached in a theoretical manner, as organized within the following themes:
• Utopian thinking and explorations of the future
• The open city
• Social engineering
• Social mix and gentrification
• The sustainable city
• Residential ecology and planning on a human scale
• Planning for neighbourhoods and villages
• Spatial planning versus mobility planning
The second part of the course consists of advanced case studies, both contemporary and from the 20th century. Each of the cases relate to a planning question that cannot necessarily be answered from within the formal framework of spatial planning. Examples of cases that have been presented in the course are Flemish planning culture and the demarcation of urban areas, ‘great’ planning disasters, the complex project of Klein Rusland, the Brussels pedestrianization project, the planning process for the Oosterweel junction, and the role of spatial planning in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An electronic syllabus will be available on Canvas. The syllabus consists of book chapters and scientific articles, and should be considered together with the posted slides as the course material, which should be studied for the exam.
• Students acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of current approaches of the role of planning in shaping the urban society.
• Students develop a theoretical basis to understand processes of interaction between the built environment and society.
• Students understand the role planners and urban designers play in socio-economic developments.
• Students are acquainted with contemporary planning issues and planning processes in and outside Belgium.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
None.
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of Adult Education: Profile Social Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Adult Education: Profile Education Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Geography: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Urban Design and Spatial Planning: Track 1 (Bachelor via SCH of VRB) (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Urban Design and Spatial Planning: Track 2 (Master indirect) (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Urban Design and Spatial Planning: Track 3 (Bachelor of Master direct) (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Behavioural Sciences: agogische wetenschappen (120 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)