+1 862 207 3288 You will produce an analytical paper that discusses the planning culture, institutions and challenges of Washington DC.
Objectives:1. to explore the concept of “planning culture” as a means of understanding the contexts, motivations, historical driving forces,
institutional operation and structures of differential planning institutions; 2. to engage with various research methods (archival,
fieldwork, interview, and other qualitative case methods) in producing an analytical paper; 3. to begin understanding the connection between
planning institutions, challenges and outcomes in a comparative manner; and 4. To continue processes of teamwork learning, through shared
qualitative research, analysis and writing requirements.
Your report will be organized in the following manner:
1) Brief introductory paragraphs on the city, its location, population, pertinent statistics and urbanization histories: This should help to
introduce these places to the reader. This introductory material should be limited to no more than a single page/spread. 2) Planning Culture:
a discussion of the planning culture of each of your assigned cities by level of government –generally moving hierarchically from the largest
branch of government down to the municipal level. This discussion of planning culture needs to situate current day city planning practice,
beliefs and associated institutions into the historical, economic, government structure and operations, decision-making models and other
cultural/contextual factors that have driven or shaped planning practice in each place. The following questions should be answered within the
narrative of your text: How has the conception of governance and decision-making at higher levels of government impacted planning at the
local level? What are the historical driving forces and belief systems about the particular society that have helped to shape planning? How
have market and economic forces driven planning processes and practices? How have physical, resource, population, culture, social and
economic contexts shaped the practice of planning? Would you consider the city-region to be one which hosts “planning-like functions” or
actual planning? This section should discuss each country, state, region and city by branch of government. 3)City Planning Institutions and
Structures:in this section of your paper you are to outline and analyze the institutions of city planning in your city, including
organizational charts and tables where needed. The structure of each planning agency should be discussed. What are the various branches of
city planning practice in each city: eg, project, permitting, short/long term, preservation, social, neighborhood, infrastructure, services,
etc.? How are these integrated and how do they communicate to each other? What are the key documents and bylaws that exist in carrying out
their planning mandates? How does the structure of planning reflect the larger holistic planning culture (or does it)? Explain how planning
practice (both long term and short term planning) works in each city and how it is carried out through the structure of the institution? What
institutional challenges exist within the way the structure of the institution is set up? Are these planning agencies perceived to be
successful in what they do and how they carry out their mandates?4) Conclusion–Challenges to Planning Culture and Practice:As a conclusion to
the paper,we’d like you to problematize and evaluate planning culture and practice in the city. What are the key challenges facing planning
practice in the city? Provide a set of no more than 5 challenges that the city faces in producing a more effective planning practice
(respective of their own planning culture frameworks). Each challenge should be followed by a short paragraph explaining and justifying these
issues. Be careful to analyze planning practice within the expectations of their own planning culture. Report Format: Your document should be
submitted in physical format using the following specifications:-professional formatting with a hierarchy of similarly formatted headings and
subheadings; -body of your text to be a maximum of 11 pt font, single spaced, double spaced between paragraphs w/ no paragraph indentation;
please pay attention to line spacing; your text should be legible; use no less than 1-inch margins-a simple page number in the lower and
outer corner of your document-don’t decorate your pages…..present this professionally as a briefing paper.
