This course aims to introduce students commencing their planning studies to the principles which underlie planning as a profession, the explicit and implicit meanings of planning and its activities, some of the basic methods planners use to achieve their goals, and the interrelationships between planning, society and governments. The course familiarizes students with the social context of planning, the roles of various organizations involved in planning processes, and the relationships between planning and related development and environmental activity. It does this by way of lectures, student-presented seminars, directed exercises and field investigations.