Urban and Regional Planning

Core modules:

Perspectives on Spatial Planning and Development

This module is seen as core in developing initial knowledge and understanding of planning and urban development. It critically explores the role of spatial ideas in planning policy and practice and plays a key part in developing critical skills and understanding of different contexts and environments relevant to that practice. The module covers urbanisation in a range of contexts and examines how spatial planning seeks to respond to key economic, environmental and social challenges.

15 credits

Values in Planning

This course explores the inter-relationships between theoretical debates within planning and everyday practice. An awareness of theoretical debates is crucial to understanding the assumptions implicit in spatial planning practice and the challenges confronting practitioners - what frameworks are available to help planners to decide how to act and to determine whether their actions have been appropriate or otherwise? This raises fundamental questions about the very nature of spatial planning and the way it is currently practised. The course, therefore, addresses such questions as: what are the justifications for spatial planning and what goals should it have? What methods should guide the work of practitioners? Is the spatial planning system fair and just? What constitutes ethical action in spatial planning? Particular emphasis is placed on the dilemmas faced by individual practitioners in conducting their day-to-day work. The British planning system forms the focus for the course but it also draws on personal experiences derived from other work environments and planning contexts during the seminars.

15 credits

Research Methods

This module aims to develop core knowledge and skills required to undertake research in planning, housing, urban design and real estate. It provides grounding in the design of research projects, linking this to both underlying principles (intellectual and ethical) and the choice of methods for data collection and analysis. The emphasis is on engendering an understanding of the research design process, rather than on training in specific methods, and so forms a critically important part of the initial preparation for the Masters dissertation.

15 credits

Optional modules - one from:

Spatial Planning Systems

This unit provides an introduction to state-led planning. It considers the administrative, legal and political contexts in which planning decisions are made and the role of different groups in mediating land-use development. The unit will focus around work to understand how spatial planning systems are constructed and mediated by different actors. The unit will use practical scenarios to explore how action surrounding development might be organised, the ways in which the state is talked about and how it is organised, as well as the means by which the state makes planning policies and implements these.

15 credits

Urban Development in the Global South

This module looks at the challenges of urban planning and development in the global South: how are conflicting imperatives of ecological sustainability, social inclusion and economic competitiveness being balanced by practitioners, and what implications does this have for those living there? The unit will develop understanding of how urban planning systems are constructed and mediated by different actors. The unit will use a series of scenarios representing some of the diversity of conditions that exist in the global South to develop understandings of how planning systems shape and are shaped by the contexts in which they operate.

15 credits

Politics, Planning and the State

Understanding how cities function is central to the role of planners, urban policy advisers, and other built environment professionals. Drawing on cities from different national contexts, this unit provides an introduction to the administrative, legal and political contexts in which decisions are made about planning, regeneration and development and the role different groups play in mediating and affecting development. The module explores how practitioners approach urban development challenges, define problems and frame policy interventions. Conceptual and practice-based perspectives are employed to encourage students to think critically about the tensions and trade-offs that confront those involved in planning and managing cities.

15 credits

Core modules:

Integrated Project

This module draws together skills and knowledge gained during the first semester and applies these to the specific problem of planning for an area of Sheffield. The module will use an in-depth project to explore the problems and potential of a site in inner Sheffield. In doing so, the project will develop skills and knowledge in policy making and evaluation, design and property financing. The over-riding objective of this module is not to view each of these three topics as separate, but to understand the inter-connected nature of these topics in order to respond to complex urban problems in an innovative and sensitive manner. Through this module you will develop skills and knowledge in policy appraisal and formulation, analysis of sites and urban areas, urban design and financial and development appraisal. These skills and forms of knowledge will be drawn together in the form of a site-specific planning brief and design-sketch scheme, a final scheme including financial and development appraisal and a reflective report. The module will also develop presentational skills and inter-disciplinary working.

The overall aim of the module is to develop knowledge and skills acquired in the first semester of the programme through their application to an actual planning problem by drawing together three critical themes: policy-making and evaluation, design and property financing.

30 credits

Optional modules: two from:

Governance and Participation in the Global South (details to be confirmed)

Cities of Diversity

Acknowledging diversity within cities is increasingly regarded as central to successful planning, urban development and city making and is a very hotly debated issue currently, particularly with #MeToo, Brexit and Trump! But what do we mean by diversity and what theories exist to help us understand it? This module will focus on various aspects of diversity in the form of differing social identities (such as age, ethnicity, sexuality, disability and gender – including focusing on masculinity within cities) but also critically explore the ways in which diversity is understood by policy makers and city managers. The module will focus on cities in both the global South and North and consider the significance of migration in relation to diversity in both contexts. The module will rely on a critical engagement with literature from the discipline of geography, planning, urban studies and development studies.

15 credits

Planning for Informality

The overall aim of this module is to critically examine informality, with a particular but not exclusive focus on cities of the Global South. The module relies on a mixture of lectures, seminars and student-led group work, with the latter focusing on an in-depth case study of a selected city. It explores patterns and causes of informality and discusses the strengths and limitations of a range of theoretical approaches. It also analyses the success of different real-world urban planning responses (understood in broad terms), including government-led, donor-led and community-focused ones, in addressing key urban issues in the context of informality.

15 credits

International Urban Development Consultancy Project

This module provides an opportunity for students to work on a team-based consultancy project for an external client. Students will apply the analytical tools and critical thinking skills they have gained to a 'real world problem'. Working in small teams, students produce a report for a client that deals with a problem of theory or practice relevant to the client's interests or activities. Projects are defined by clients, who provide the terms of reference to their assigned team of student consultants. The specific nature of projects varies but will relate to international development challenges with a particular urban dimension.

15 credits

Mega Urban Projects

In many cities nowadays, mega urban projects such as mega events like the Olympic Games or Central Business Districts like Canary Wharf are seen as an effective means to boost the local economy and to promote the city on a global scale. However, many of them often fail to contribute to the local economy whilst having detrimental impacts on local residents and the wider society. This module offers an in-depth understanding of the development processes and outcomes of large-scale urban projects by exploring aspects of why such projects are developed, how they are governed and their socio-economic impacts.

15 credits

Transport Planning

This module will provide students with an introduction to transport planning and policy. The module develops students' ability to think critically about the framing of transport policy using UK transport planning as an example. It will focus on how planners in localities give shape to effective transport strategies, which balance a range of environmental, social and economic objectives.

15 credits

Transport and Connectivity

This module provides students with an introduction to GIS network and connectivity analysis as it applies to debates in the field of transport planning. The module develops students' ability to apply geospatial techniques to transport and network connectivity challenges and to think critically about how these techniques can be used to understand spatial mobility in complex urban environments. The module is taught in a series of lectures and inter-related computer workshops focusing on real-world data and policy problem scenarios.

15 credits

Issues in Housing

The aims of the module are twofold: to build both on substantive knowledge, theory and skills about housing gained in earlier parts of both the UG and PG courses, with an emphasis on policy analysis; and to look more closely at the links between housing and planning (in its widest sense) at the local and regional level.

15 credits

Sustainable development: a critical investigation

This module provides critical, in-depth analysis of a concept which is central to planning and development, yet is notoriously ambiguous and impossible to define in an uncontested way. Students will explore and debate the contestable nature of sustainability through the innovative use of computer gaming technology. Using a city-building game (Cities: Skylines) to develop a 'sustainable' virtual city and then 'deconstructing it' intellectually, the aim is to provide students with the understanding and conceptual tools to approach their own and others' claims to deliver 'sustainable development' in a constructively critical way.

15 credits

Health, Wellbeing and the Built Environment

This module explores the built environment as a determinant of health and well-being and examines how planning and urban design can contribute to improvements in health. Beginning with an exploration of the historic relationship between planning and public health, the module focuses on how the built environment supports or undermines health in relation to mental health, ageing, obesity, air quality and noise pollution. The module also introduces the notion of health impact assessment and further reflects on the contribution of planning to environmental justice and the reduction of inequalities in health.

15 credits

Planning Law

The course is intended to give students an expertise in the legal framework for the planning system and to set that legal framework within the wider context of law in the United Kingdom. It considers the origins of planning law and seeks to provide explanations for the powers that the law confers on decision makers. The course focuses particularly on the development control aspects of planning law and looks at the rights and duties of applicants, local authorities and the Secretary of State in making and determining planning applications. It considers the criteria for decision making and the possibilities for the redress of grievance. It considers planning law in the light of wider discussions about human rights and planning gain.

15 credits

International Real Estate Market Analysis

This module will provide a comprehensive introduction to key concepts and approaches to the analysis of international real estate markets. This module makes a simple operational distinction between mature, emergent and transitional markets as a first step towards a systematic framework for analysis. It gives an introduction to specific real estate markets and the ways in which they function, and offers generalizable conclusions about the wider operation of global real estate markets. Students will develop knowledge and understanding of global political economy as a context for interpreting real estate markets.

15 credits

Advanced GIS Methods

This unit is aimed at students who already have a good degree of knowledge in ArcGIS. The module aims to develop in students a high degree of competence in relation to advanced spatial analysis, understanding spatial approaches to problem solving and the theories and precepts which underlie software applications in GIS. The module is taught in a series of inter-related computer workshops focusing on real-world data and problem scenarios. The assessment for this module is based on a multiple choice exam and a 2,000 word advanced methods report.

15 credits

Managing Cities: The Seoul Case Study

This unit provides students with the opportunity to explore and research the management and development of major cities, and is based on an in-depth case study and field visit to Seoul in the Republic of South Korea to enhance their understanding. The module will provide students with direct experience of the contemporary management and governance of sustainable and global urban development, with exposure to real practices and to the socio-economic and physical contexts experienced by the population of a major South-East Asian metropolitan area. The module contributes to students' transferable skills through teamwork, research design and implementation, overseas collaboration and presentation skills.

15 credits

Core module:

Dissertation

This is a core module which allows students to develop and manage an individual research project. The module aims to help students to develop and apply research skills and an appreciation of the issues involved in managing a research project; to develop an understanding of the role of research in relation to theoretical and practical dimensions of the chosen discipline; and to further and deepen knowledge in their chosen field of planning, real estate, urban design, development, or related interests.

60 credits