Engaging Communities focuses on opportunities and challenges at the heart of 21st century policy and planning issues. The urban practitioner’s role has always been instrumental in working through the complexity of a pluralistic society with different opinions, needs, preferences and different levels of power which influence urban change. Addressing these complexities is now the central aim of most government authorities which are seeking new ways of engaging communities – consulting, involving, collaborating and partnering with the general public and stakeholders. This course offers a theoretical underpinning for a very practical approach to designing and delivering public and stakeholder involvement processes. Drawing on contemporary urban policy challenges and reforms, students will be introduced to best practice engagement processes and novel insights into the application of engagement techniques from leading urban policy academics and practitioners and through executive-type peer learning.

This postgraduate elective course provides a theoretical basis for Built Environment postgraduate coursework programs, especially MPLAN and MUPS students.