Liveable Cities

E2022

Nordic Urban Planning Studies

Course

English

Read about the Master Programme and find the Study Regulations at ruc.dk

Sign up for study activities at STADS Online Student Service within the announced registration period, as you can see on the Study administration homepage. When signing up for study activities, please be aware of potential conflicts between study activities or exam dates. The planning of activities at Roskilde University is based on the recommended study programs which do not overlap. However, if you choose optional courses and/or study plans that goes beyond the recommended study programs, an overlap of lectures or exam dates may occur depending on which courses you choose.

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Lotte Kofod Møller (lkofodm@ruc.dk)
David Pinder (dpinder@ruc.dk)

Lasse Martin Koefoed (lmartin@ruc.dk)

IMT Studyadministration (imt-studyadministration@ruc.dk)

U60323

Through a focus on current cases, this course aims to provide critical knowledge and understanding of contemporary urban planning practices in Nordic welfare states. The course is concerned specifically with agendas of ‘liveability’ that have been prominent in recent urban development in the Nordic and specifically Danish contexts, and with examining the social, political, cultural, economic and technological processes that have been shaping efforts to make more ‘liveable cities’, including new entrepreneurial forces associated with local-global interrelations.

The course introduces and critically explores different perspectives on what makes cities liveable, and for whom. Referring to cases from around the world and in particular Copenhagen, attention is given to specific sites through which ideas and practices of urban living are being explored, promoted and contested, and to the potential lessons of these for wider efforts to improve urban conditions. Through collaboration with local practitioners, site visits and conducting their own group research, students learn from multiple perspectives while gaining practical experience of planning analysis, in the process developing insights into real-life challenges experienced by various urban agents

The course introduces and critically explores different perspectives on what makes cities liveable, and for whom. Referring to cases from around the world and in particular Copenhagen, attention is given to specific sites through which ideas and practices of urban living are being explored, promoted and contested, and to the potential lessons of these for wider efforts to improve urban conditions. Through collaboration with local practitioners, site visits and conducting their own group research, students learn from multiple perspectives while gaining practical experience of planning analysis, in the process developing insights into real-life challenges experienced by various urban agents. Themes to be explored in theory and practice centre on questions of the ‘liveable city’. They may include issues of housing, affordability, and models of housing provision; the public city and qthe planning, use and experience of public spaces; the mobile city and strategies of ‘green mobility’ in relation to cycling and walking; the ‘smart city’ and its implications for urban governance and planning; and the green city, in relation to nature-culture relations and ecological practices.

Readings for each session are provided on Moodle before the start of the course. Texts that are relevant to the course as a whole are:

Weiss, K. (ed) (2019) Critical City: The Success and Failure of the Danish Welfare City. København, Arkitektens Forlag.

Simpson, D., Gimmel, K. Lonka, A., Jay, M. and Grootens, J. (eds) (2018) Atlas of the Copenhagens. Berlin, Ruby Press. Cave, R. and Wagner, F. (eds) (2018) Livable Cities from a Global Perspective. New York, Routledge.

Study intensity Outline • The proposed study intensity for a student in this activity: 135 hours

• The proposed distribution of hours on teaching and learning activities Lectures, discussions and excursions: 30 Conference day: 5 Preparation for lectures and discussions: 56 Pilot project and conference presentation: 40

Teaching and learning activities

There are six full day course sessions. These combine lectures and class discussion with excursions, and they include talks and site visits with practitioners. Further details are uploaded to Moodle.

The course is taught at RUC and at varied locations and sites in Copenhagen and the surrounding area. It includes site visits, tours and some off campus teaching.

Evaluation is via an anonymous online survey distributed to all participants. The course will also be discussed with participants in the final session and reviewed at the NUPS Education Committee with input from student representatives.

Dates for the six sessions, including the conference day, to be added.

On completing this course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of contemporary agendas and practices of urban planning in the Nordic context, specifically in relation to liveability and its relations to welfare-state traditions of planning

• Understand social, political, cultural, economic and technological aspects of urban planning projects

• Show knowledge of the political economic basis of urban planning projects, including in relation to public-private partnerships, urban innovation and strategic planning

• Show knowledge of urban innovation and entrepreneurship in relation to planning

• Use interdisciplinary theories and methods to develop holistic analyses of planning projects and cases, and to evaluate their conditions and possibilities

• Understand and discuss different elements and professions involved in planning processes with respect to specific cases, and to communicate analyses of these effectively to different audiences

• Understand the positions of different and potentially conflicting urban actors, and their implications for joint action proposals and/or strategies based on a holistic understanding of planning challenges and opportunities.

The course is passed through active and satisfactory participation.

Active participation is defined as:
The student must participate in course related activities (e.g. workshops, seminars, field excursions, process study groups, working conferences, supervision groups, feedback sessions).

Satisfactory participation is defined as:
- e.g. oral presentations (individually or in a group), peer reviews, mini projects, test, planning of a course session .

Assessment: Pass/Fail.

Individual written take-home assignment

The character limit of the assignment is: 21,600-43,200 characters, including spaces.
The character limit includes the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

The duration of the take-home assignment is 5 days and may include weekends and public holidays.



Assessment: Pass/Fail.

The course is examined through active and satisfactory participation. This is assessed in terms of satisfactory participation in a short group project or ‘pilot project’, from group formation at the start of the course through to participating in the conference day. Participation in the conference day involves preparing, presenting and discussing a pilot project, and also acting as discussants for other group presentations. NUPS students work together in their semester project groups. Students on other programmes should formulate their own groups of 2-6 people for this course. The pilot project should focus on a contemporary planning project, practice or problem that relates to one or more of the themes of the course, and that you can start to research directly. For NUPS students this can have the same focus as the semester project or be related to it, and it can contribute as an initial study towards that. The project involves identifying and starting to research a case or planning project. This might include trying out methods and exploration of the case. Further questions to guide the task will be discussed at the start of the course and posted on Moodle. Assessment criteria - the project work and conference presentation are assessed in terms of ability to: • Identify a relevant current planning case or project and show understanding of how it relates to current themes of ‘liveability’ and the ‘liveable city’ in the Nordic context. • Through reference to a specific planning case, show understanding of the different elements, professions and actors involved, and of their implications for developing planning strategies and proposals. • Identify, outline and evaluate the implications of theoretical and methodological perspectives for analysing the chosen planning case/project, including where relevant its political economic basis as well as its social, political and technological aspects. • Communicate and discuss effectively in a conference setting elements of a pilot project, including initial findings and plans for its development effectively .