Land Use Planning and Practice introduces students to how planning systems are structured and operate, engaging with the institutional frameworks and processes behind the delivery of land use decisions and outcomes. This course aims to introduce students to the administrative and governance contexts within which land use planning operates as a function of government – a function which has become increasingly complex and arguably less coherent within the neoliberal political economy of Australian states and most advanced economies internationally. Clear synergies between strategic and statutory functions are illustrated throughout the course; however, the focus is on the design and implementation of the planning system at State, regional and local scales with particular reference to NSW. Through this lens, students are introduced to statutory and regulatory frameworks and procedures which shape plan making processes, urban management activity and development assessment decisions. As well as exploring how policy is formulated that exercised through a variety of instruments and plans the course places emphasis on the political and practical realities which impact upon institutional settings and their capacity to apply fair and transparent land use decisions. Ongoing questions of Planning reform and how the performance and outcomes delivered by current processes and systems are also discussed. While the course is necessarily grounded in the NSW context, international perspectives and comparative studies will be discussed throughout.