ECON 254 - Urban and Regional Planning

As of 2017, according to the latest Census of Governments conducted every five years by the US Census Bureau, there were 38,779 cities, counties, towns and other general-purpose local governments (excluding special districts), reflective of a high degree of fragmentation and a central impediment to the realization of enhanced regional planning, coordination and cooperation across the country. Nevertheless, the arguments on behalf of the pursuit of such planning—from reduced duplication of services, economy of scale savings, and strengthened competitiveness, to enhanced capacity of metropolitan and rural areas alike to respond to increasingly pressing environmental and social challenges—remain compelling indeed. In this course, beginning with the origins of urban and regional planning in the U.S. and continuing through the 1990s-era “new regionalism” movement to the present, including the tensions between urban and regional governance, we explore a comprehensive series of applications and issues pertaining to both urban and regional planning, their potential, and prospects for the future. Fulfills an elective requirement of the Urban Studies minor (Social Science of Urban Life).

Prerequisites
ECON 101 or ECON 102 or ECON 103 or Permission of Instructor. ECON 252 recommended but not required

Credits 4

Area
Social Sciences

Division
Social Sciences

Compass Attributes
Social Science