TRP 2012 Volume 60

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11660/2547

Browse

Browsing TRP 2012 Volume 60 by Subject "Sustainable development"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Incorporating informality into urban and regional planning education curriculum in Nigeria
    (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2012) Oduwaye, Leke; Olajide, Oluwafemi
    English: To achieve sustainable development in any society the educational system must be responsive to the dynamics of that society. This article discusses issues on the level of training on informality in African planning schools with emphasis on the Lagos, Nigeria situation. The article reviews the concept of informality, the challenges, the quantum of training in planning schools curricula on issues relating to the informal sector, legislative tools available to tackle the phenomena, among others. The article concludes that there is currently inadequate training and paucity of legislation to guide the integration of the informal sector into the urban system in the study area. In the light of these findings, the need for responsive planning education curriculum in Africa is imperative. There is the need to teach on issues concerning the sporadic emergence of the informal sector in the African urban landscape. This is one of the major consequences of 21st-century African urban growth. Unfortunately, African planning schools curricula are based on standards of developed countries; thus formal training on planning solutions for the informal sector are not well entrenched, nor adequate planning regulations provided to integrate the informal sector into land use. To achieve a sustainable city landscape this article recommends the need to introduce courses such as informality, community engagement, social mobilisation, participatory planning, among others, in planning curricular. This will go a long way in improving the skills of planners towards resolving the challenges posed by the sporadic phenomena of the informal sector in Nigerian cities.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The use of group work and journal writing in reinventing development planning for sustainability under complexity
    (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, 2012) Muller, Anneke
    English: Since 2002 Stellenbosch has offered a multidisciplinary Masters programme in Planning, Management and Practice of Sustainable Development (with a specialisation in development planning), offered mainly for working adult students. One of the challenges of developing a curriculum for this degree is that sustainable development (SD) and ‘development planning’, the focal points of the programme, are potentially very broad concepts, requiring the exploration of a variety of complex challenges in the African context, moving beyond the traditional spatial focus of planning in South Africa. This article explores the various potential meanings of SD, as well as its link with complexity thinking, systems thinking and complex adaptive systems and its implications for planning education and curriculum development. Complex adaptive systems thrive on diversity, creativity, and innovation. The programme is not about spoon-feeding, but about allowing space to explore and discover for oneself the diverse interpretations, tensions and contradictions inherent in planning, development and sustainability. Most concepts (participation, sustainability, planning, development, and so on) have a whole continuum of possible meanings between polar opposites, and it is important to make students aware of the language games people play in order to enable them to move beyond the clichés, myths and spin. Self-managed learning is an important element of this programme and innovative methods have to be found to teach the basics (to kick-start the learning) and create the pre-conditions for lifelong learning, as well as instil the critical, questioning, and imaginative attitude needed to invent the sustainable future we need. In addition to formal lectures and discussion classes, writing skill workshops to teach the important skill of writing, two of the more innovative teaching techniques used to try and bridge the teaching divide are journal writing and group work. In the real world, actor collaboration and group processes are very important methods of building knowledge. Since SD does not have a fixed meaning and is value-laden and multi- (or trans-) disciplinary, it requires democratic and deliberative public processes to give meaning to the concept. For this reason, group work forms an important element of the teaching curriculum and students are required to give feedback on the group process after each exercise and in their journals. The purpose of the journal writing is also to try to stimulate deep, rather than superficial learning and to help make the linkages in support of transdisciplinary learning, where learners are taught to make connections between social, political, economic, biological and physical dimensions and to make use of more holistic ways of thinking. Journal writing and reflections on group work have demonstrated many learning benefits, but also the need for more structure and guidance to steer individual learning processes.