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Economic and Community Development Academic Program

ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Georgia Tech

School of City and Regional Planning

 

Georgia Tech has been sending innovative ideas and ambitious young planners into practice since 1952. In these times of rapid urbanization, climate change, and economic instability, the need for quality thinking, improved technique, and dedicated city and regional planning talent has never been greater. Our laboratories and classrooms in Atlanta are the exciting and challenging home to a next generation of urban planning, community development, and environmental protection research and practice. Please join us on this website or in person at our midtown Atlanta campus.

With world population projected to top nine billion by 2040, the need for talented planners to engage and address global problems has never been greater. We live in a rapidly changing world with the equivalent of seventy-five percent of the United States built environment expected to be newly constructed or renovated by 2035, and sea levels estimated to rise at least one meter in the next hundred years. China’s automobile ownership is rising twenty percent per year. The ratio of seniors to working adults in the U.S. is expected to rise by two-thirds in the next thirty years, and diabetes and heart disease rates are climbing exponentially. The demands on the planning profession are extraordinary.

Is our profession up to the task? Reviews of the exciting ideas in our journals and some of the path breaking proposals in our plans suggests we are on the right track, but the frustrations of our practitioners and scholars expressed at staff meetings and conferences, and the scarcity of planning voices in board rooms and legislative chambers, cast real doubt on whether we will have the needed influence. Turning this around depends heavily on planning schools, where the best ideas are developed and the ambitions and abilities of the next generation of planners are set.

Tech’s tradition of engaged planning education–embracing the organized profession and both the high performing and the needy agencies and firms of the region–coupled with its long standing passion for rigorous and rounded examination of planning work through values of science, governance, and justice, position the School of City and Regional Planning (SCaRP) as a strong leader for the critical next years of our profession. The creativity and energy of the faculty rival any in the nation. The excellent students illustrate the best qualities of public mindedness and seriousness of purpose. The affection of alumni for this program is palpable. The infrastructure offered by the Center for Geographic Information Systems and the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development leverage our energies. The vitality of Atlanta as an urban and environmental laboratory is exceptional.

If you are contemplating enrollment or employment in the School, these web pages will offer you a comprehensive picture of the work that goes on in SCaRP; additional questions may be directed to our officers as listed under About Us. Current students will find basics here, but should also check the School of City and Regional Planning T-Square site, available to those who are enrolled or employed at Georgia Tech. Professional planners, planning researchers, and citizen planners will find much of interest in the pages under Research and Engagement, and may want to participate in events listed under News and Events. Communities and organizations seeking our technical assistance will see examples of our work under Research and Engagement. Employers can learn how to recruit a Georgia Tech planner, and alumni will find information and tools designed to help them stay in touch with classmates and the School on the Alumni pages.

We appreciate your interest and look forward to teaching, learning, and working with you.

Bruce Stiftel, FAICP

Professor and Chair

 

http://www.planning.gatech.edu/

 

University of New Mexico

Community and Regional Planning

 

The Mission of the Community and Regional Planning (CRP) program is to plan and advocate with communities in the Southwest for their sustainable futures by delivering professional education, providing service, and engaging in useful research. The Program’s purpose is to provide future planners and professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to support planning that is responsive to people and place. Students of the CRP program work with communities, including their own, to create community-based plans, programs and policies that sustain and enhance their culture, resource base, built environment and economic vitality.

 

The Statement on Justice

The rich variety of human cultures is a great resource that this Planning Program attempts to nurture. Racism, sexism and homophobia are persistent and pervasive evils that undermine the human species’ hopes for creativity and peace. Prejudicial beliefs, and the structures of power that embody and inflict them, affect all Planning. Grappling honestly with questions about bias is an intrinsic part of what it means to be a Planner. Among these questions are:

  • Why and by what means does one culture or group impose its values on another?
  • What allows a “dominant” culture to push other values to the margins?
  • What means of individual and group resistance are available against the resulting imbalance of power?
  • What circumstances give rise to such resistance; when and why does it fail to arise?
  • What cultural models can be found for societies without significant racist, sexist, or homophobic beliefs?
  • How do the attitudes and methods of Planners amplify, rigidify, or challenge dominant values, especially when embodied in policy or physical design?
  • What constitutes justice in a multicultural society, and how can Planning contribute to its achievement

The faculty considers it of vital importance to create a university climate in which all of us can unlearn those prejudices with which we were raised. In both academic study and personal interaction, we aim to replace bias with a healthy and active respect for the common traits and wonderful differences which, taken together, make us human.

The CRP program also seeks to understand and exercise ecological responsibility, regionally and globally. Both in coursework and informally, students and faculty are asked to think together on this pressing issue. To create a just system for global distribution of resources and population; to halt and reverse the ongoing mass extinction of irreplaceable organisms (including human minorities); and to repair, redesign, and recycle our biologically-damaging infrastructure – these will be the life’s work of this generation of Planners, lest they be the last generation of any human profession. The above questions about prejudice can all be directed at the ecological situation; cultural and ecological issues must in fact be resolved interdependently. Rising to this formidable challenge requires serious commitment from Planning students and faculty, both in their personal and professional lives.

New Mexico, both culturally and ecologically on the margins of the United States, provides excellent opportunities to study issues which are often marginalized, and to support voices from outside the “mainstream”.

 

http://saap.unm.edu/academic-programs/community-regional-planning/

 

State University of New York, University at Albany

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Geography and Planning

 

Welcome to the Department of Geography and Planning at the University at Albany. Our students are educated to succeed in a broad range of careers in the Geography and Planning professions.

 

Undergraduate programs include a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies & Planning as well as an Undergraduate Certificate in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Spatial Analysis. The department is also the home of the Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with a faculty-initiated concentration in Globalization Studies.

 

Graduate programs include a Master of Arts in Geography and a Masters in Regional Planning as well as a Graduate Certificate in GIS and Spatial Analysis and a Graduate Certificate in Urban Policy. Our department also offers a combined Joint Master of Regional Planning and Doctor of Law (MRP/JD) in conjunction with Albany Law School.

 

About the Department

Teaching and research in the department emphasize urban, social, physical, and cultural geography; city and regional planning; urban design; remote sensing; cartography and geographic information systems; environmental studies; climatology; computer and statistical models; area (regional) studies; urban and regional planning methods; economic development; small town and rural land-use planning. Members of the faculty have strong international links with China, Russia, Australia, and various countries in Africa, Latin America and Western Europe.

 

http://www.albany.edu/gp/index.php

 

Pratt Institute School of Architecture

City and Regional Planning Program

 

The mission of the graduate City and Regioinal Planning (CRP) program is to provide a professionally oriented education to a student body with diverse cultural, educational, and professional backgrounds. The CRP program focuses on participatory planning and sustainable, equitable communities, while stressing a multidisciplinary approach. Students graduate equipped with the knowledge of theory, technical capacity, collaborative skills, and critical thinking abilities necessary to plan for economic, environmental, and social justice in urban neighborhoods and metropolitan regions.

 

https://www.pratt.edu/academics/architecture/city-and-regional-planning/

 

University of Oregon

Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management

 

Welcome to PPPM!

The Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management (PPPM) is concerned with the ways governments, nonprofit organizations, and other institutions address some of the most important problems facing society today. With the unique policy and planning environment of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, PPPM builds off this region’s international reputation for livability, pioneering planning, and innovative policy as we explore how to make the world a better place. To pursue these goals, the programs are organized around five areas of expertise.

 

Mission Statement

The PPPM Department prepares innovative public leaders through a challenging and applied curriculum, creates and disseminates new knowledge, and engages in intensive partnerships to solve society’s most pressing economic, environmental and social issues.

 

Guiding Principles

In pursuing our mission, PPPM is guided by:

  • dedication to the highest standards of scholarship by our students and faculty;
  • informed theory and empirical evidence;
  • a commitment to engage the civic community – public, private, and non-profit – in democratic processes addressing economic, environmental, and social issues;
  • an eagerness to seek good ideas and approaches from around the world and test their transferability from one area of the globe to another;
  • an approach that builds on the existing strengths of communities and organizations – to increase their capacity to take advantage of opportunities and respond effectively to challenges;
  • an interest in work that ranges from local to regional to national to international; and
  • a commitment to ecological, social, and economic sustainability.

Because of the desire to maintain the integrity and accreditation of each degree program, PPPM has established separate statements of objectives. The existing statements are as follows.

Program Objectives

The objectives of the Master of Public Administration Program are to:

  1. utilize a cohort structure, rigorous coursework, and extensive real world applications to prepare students for outstanding careers in government and nonprofit service.
  2. promote evidence-based decision making in the government and nonprofit sectors by emphasizing an active and influential research agenda among faculty and students.
  3. incorporate service to public and nonprofit agencies into the curriculum to provide a rigorous career preparation for students while serving the involved agencies. This dual purpose informs our research and benefits the region, the state, and the profession.

The objectives of the Master’s Program in Community and Regional Planning are to:

  1. prepare policy-oriented planners to assume generalist planning and planning-related positions, with emphasis on issues of significance to the Northwestern U.S. and the Pacific Basin region;
  2. advance the state of knowledge in the field of planning by engaging in planning-related research, the results of which are shared with others through public presentations, journal articles, professional reports and meetings, and other appropriate media and fora; and
  3. provide planning assistance to Oregon communities and rural areas, emphasizing the integration of planning process, methods, and theory with other substantive planning knowledge in actual applications of community and regional plan making and policy analysis.

The objective of the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Planning, Public Policy & Management is to provide students with a broad professional background as well as a sound basis for graduate study in fields such as planning, public policy and management, business, law, journalism, and social welfare. In addition, graduates are prepared for entry-level positions in a variety of public service agencies and organizations.

 

https://pppm.uoregon.edu/about-pppm

 

University of New Mexico

Community and Regional Planning

 

The Mission of the Community and Regional Planning (CRP) program is to plan and advocate with communities in the Southwest for their sustainable futures by delivering professional education, providing service, and engaging in useful research. The Program’s purpose is to provide future planners and professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to support planning that is responsive to people and place. Students of the CRP program work with communities, including their own, to create community-based plans, programs and policies that sustain and enhance their culture, resource base, built environment and economic vitality.

 

The Statement on Justice

The rich variety of human cultures is a great resource that this Planning Program attempts to nurture. Racism, sexism and homophobia are persistent and pervasive evils that undermine the human species’ hopes for creativity and peace. Prejudicial beliefs, and the structures of power that embody and inflict them, affect all Planning. Grappling honestly with questions about bias is an intrinsic part of what it means to be a Planner. Among these questions are:

  • Why and by what means does one culture or group impose its values on another?
  • What allows a “dominant” culture to push other values to the margins?
  • What means of individual and group resistance are available against the resulting imbalance of power?
  • What circumstances give rise to such resistance; when and why does it fail to arise?
  • What cultural models can be found for societies without significant racist, sexist, or homophobic beliefs?
  • How do the attitudes and methods of Planners amplify, rigidify, or challenge dominant values, especially when embodied in policy or physical design?
  • What constitutes justice in a multicultural society, and how can Planning contribute to its achievement

The faculty considers it of vital importance to create a university climate in which all of us can unlearn those prejudices with which we were raised. In both academic study and personal interaction, we aim to replace bias with a healthy and active respect for the common traits and wonderful differences which, taken together, make us human.

The CRP program also seeks to understand and exercise ecological responsibility, regionally and globally. Both in coursework and informally, students and faculty are asked to think together on this pressing issue. To create a just system for global distribution of resources and population; to halt and reverse the ongoing mass extinction of irreplaceable organisms (including human minorities); and to repair, redesign, and recycle our biologically-damaging infrastructure – these will be the life’s work of this generation of Planners, lest they be the last generation of any human profession. The above questions about prejudice can all be directed at the ecological situation; cultural and ecological issues must in fact be resolved interdependently. Rising to this formidable challenge requires serious commitment from Planning students and faculty, both in their personal and professional lives.

New Mexico, both culturally and ecologically on the margins of the United States, provides excellent opportunities to study issues which are often marginalized, and to support voices from outside the “mainstream”.

 

http://saap.unm.edu/academic-programs/community-regional-planning/

 

Iowa State University

Department of Community and Regional Planning

 

What is Planning?

The profession of planning exists to help communities manage changes to their economy, environment and quality of life through recommendations such as the use of public transit systems, development of walkable communities, development of affordable housing, sustainable practices, or historic preservation. Planners work to make communities more livable by regulating land use, creating design guidelines, or developing finance packages while working to ensure that all members of the community are involved and represented.

The Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University is one of the nation’s largest and longest-established planning programs, and one of only 16 accredited undergraduate planning programs in the United States. The department has an outstanding international faculty committed to excellence in the teaching of planning at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

We are dedicated to working with students to develop the skills and experience to become practicing planning professionals in a variety of contexts. Students learn about land-use planning and zoning, environmental planning, transportation planning, site planning and urban design. Students regularly work with real communities to understand the challenges and achievements of planning.

We also undertake high-quality research on behalf of federal and state government, business, the nonprofit sector and other funding agencies, all of which feeds into the courses we teach. This is combined with strong linkages to planning practice and other professions, which ensures our graduates are fully prepared for exciting careers in planning, urban and regional governance, and a wide range of related activities.

 

http://www.design.iastate.edu/communityplanning/

 

University of North Carolina

Department of City and Regional Planning

 

Founded in 1946, DCRP is one of the largest, oldest, and best-known programs of graduate planning education and research in North America.

We are located in the heart of the country’s oldest state university, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, founded in 1793. The state of North Carolina, the Research Triangle region, and the community of Chapel Hill are ideally suited to serve as the home of a nationally ranked program in city and regional planning.

 

We are among the first ten planning education programs in the United States.  The original bases of the Department and its program were ideas  about regionalism (hence the degree, Master of City and Regional Planning), broadly conceived development planning, and the application of social science methods to practical problems of government that were being  explored on the Chapel Hill campus in the 1940’s.

 

This was the first planning department to be established with its principal university base in the social sciences rather than in architecture or landscape design and to demonstrate the interdisciplinary union of social science, design and engineering.  We have retained and strengthened that social science legacy through the multidisciplinary research and teaching of our faculty.

 

http://planning.unc.edu/


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