Strategic planning is a dynamic, analytical, and interdisciplinary process, and in its academic context is where the practical, applied nature of the discipline is interrogated through a more conceptual, theoretical and critical lens. A major characteristic is the synthesis of diverse information and analysis, alongside community and stakeholder opinion into communicable planning documents. This course provides instruction in the theory and practice of strategic planning as an integrative activity and adopts an applied focus in considering a contemporary multifaceted planning issue. The key drivers of change within our cities, for example housing supply and affordability, urban renewal, urban justice, infrastructure and transport, are unpacked, and the tensions that shape how decisions get made – or not – understood through the complex lens of urban governance and how planning – and planners – engaged with those we plan for. As planners we are interested in the inherently spatial dimensions of these urban processes, recognising that collective efforts to influence land use change and behaviours of urban stakeholders take place at different geographical scales, and impact on different groups in different ways. This course focuses on the metropolitan scale, where the conditions requiring strategic planning are arguably most evident.