GES3480

Dilemmas of policy and planning

Associate Professor Katherine Gibson

12 points - 3 hours per week (two 1-hour lectures, one 1-hour tutorial) - Second semester - Clayton - Prerequisites: Any second-year human geography subject, or permission of the head of department

Objectives Students successfully completing this subject should have learnt to apply the skills of critical discourse analysis to policies implemented in Australia in the postwar period; gained a familiarity with contemporary economic, social and environmental pressures upon regional development and planning; and acquired a range of field-based research skills.

Synopsis Many of the dilemmas associated with policy making and planning arise from the conflicting or changing understandings of keywords that structure attempts to intervene in and direct or manage the 'development process'. This subject will critically analyse the genealogy of four keywords within Australian policy discourse: 'region', 'dependence', 'sustainability' and 'class'. It will explore the ways in which the following definitional tensions have informed policy agendas and planning interventions: environmental determinist versus social constructionist definitions of the region; economic meanings of dependence versus independence and the shifting attribution of these terms to industries, regions and social groups; ecological versus economic meanings of sustainability; and categorical versus processual meanings of class. Using case studies of selected non-metropolitan regions in Australia, actual dilemmas of policy and planning practice will be explored. Students will be encouraged to investigate initiatives in alternative development strategies that draw upon new definitions of the keywords under investigation. The subject entails a compulsory two-day field trip to the La Trobe Valley.

Assessment Written (6000 words): 70% - Tutorial (1500 words): 10% - Practical work (1500 words): 20%

Recommended texts

Gibson-Graham J K The end of capitalism (as we knew it) Blackwell, 1996

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