Understanding the Disposition of Urban Planning Students Toward Social Justice and Equity Themes

Abstract

This research surveys how graduate level urban planning students think about social justice and equity issues and how academic instruction in urban planning affects the disposition of students toward these issues and themes in the context of their development as urban planning professionals. Although the quantitative findings did not demonstrate that the graduate curriculum and instruction had any appreciable impact on student understanding and navigation of equity and social justice themes, qualitative evidence did suggest that students are understanding and care about issues related to social justice and equity and were interested in incorporating those issues into their professional practice. This research also suggests that graduate academic instruction may fall short in supporting students with the useful integration of social justice and equity issues into their professional practice.Keywords graduate urban planning education, teaching and instruction related to social justice and equity issues, progressive planning practice and advocacy planning, professional urban planning training

Conceptualising Quality in Spatial Planning

“…Second, process design has to ensure that all relevant stakeholders and actors as well as the public have the opportunity to get involved at stages of the planning process that allow them to have a real chance to influence the planning outcome. Power relations have to be made visible (Richardson 2005) and advocacy (Harris 2015) has to be exercised to ensure the representation of interests not able to properly participate in a discussion process, e.g. underprivileged groups, future generations or the environment.…”

“…Banfield 1959;Kaiser 1965), as experimenter (Braybrooke/Lindblom 1972), as advocate (see e.g. Davidoff 1965;Harris 2015), as change agent (see e.g. Lawrence 2000), as communicator, moderator and mediator (see e.g.…”

The ‘just city’ or just a city? : evaluating social justice and equity in planning education.

“…The single opinion survey focused solely on issues of social justice and equity since 1999 administered to incoming students found approximately 75% of first semester graduate students possessed moderate or high levels of social justice activism. Interestingly, Harris (2015) found the levels of interest in social justice activism declined in last semester graduate students, suggesting the educational process dimmed social welfare interests. shift from specific to general, Greenlee et al's (2015) survey of planning faculty and public-sector practitioners inquired about 15 broad categories of competencies rather than the 45 individual competencies inquired about by Ozawa and Seltzer (1999;Seltzer and Ozawa 2002) 13-15 years prior.…”

“…Further, it appears overly reliant on too few -and perhaps outdated -planning theories. The most recent assessment leaves unclear the extent to which planning education currently 28 incorporates the justice and equity planning theory paradigm; Harris (2015) posits the extent is nil. Sen et al's (2017) review is clear about these issues remaining marginalized in planning scholarship, which warrants further investigation.…”

“…Meanwhile, the historic marginalization of social welfare issues remains (Marcuse 2009;Sen, Umemoto, Koh, and Zambonelli 2017) despite the attention called to them in some assessments (cf. Harris 2015;Sanchez 2001) and their required redress in the accreditation requirements and professional ethics standards.…”