Educating spatial planners for the age of co-creation: the need to risk community, science and practice involvement in planning programmes and curricula

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We can further explain our perspective on the spatial planning discipline, and differences between practice and university, based on the spatial planning triangle ‘object of planning – process of planning– context of planning’ (based on Spit and Zoete, 2006; Hidding, 2007). The objective of spatial planners in practice is to develop—together with the relevant stakeholders—coherent ideas, visions, strategies, designs and/or plans for steering and interventions in the process of reciprocal adaptation between space and society in order to realize public goals, values and meaning. The objective of spatial planners in the university is to study these elements, processes and actors involved. At the same time, the processes of developing spatial plans and realizing, implementing and executing them bring their own challenges to the fore: legal issues, communication with other stakeholders and plan actors, the availability of means (like money, time, energy, know-how), different and conflicting priorities and interests of actors and time limits. And thirdly, planning contents and processes take place within a societal context. Economic, demographic, environmental, political, institutional and/or technological trends can have a large impact on how we can or should plan our cities.

Figure 1. Thinking about the future for designers, planners and engineers (the possible), fundamental scientists (the probable) and politicians (the desirable) (De Jong, 2012, p. 17).

Table 1. Multi-actor approaches (based on: Davoudi, 2010).

A multidisciplinary approach is a way of working, in which the professionals from different disciplines contribute to the same design and/or planning task	Interaction
An interdisciplinary approach is a way of working, in which the professionals from different disciplines together and integrally define the design and/or/ planning task. All involved disciplines are encouraged to cross their disciplinary boundaries, because all actors ‘understand’ that the problem at hand is too complex to tackle with the separate disciplinary concepts and/or methods	Integration
A transdisciplinary approach relates to the cooperation between scientists and other actors from society, such as practitioners, policy makers, civil servants, companies et cetera in order to solve complex societal design and/or planning tasks	Co-creation

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Under the umbrella of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS), Delft University of Technology and Wageningen University are developing^4 a two-year MSc programme Metropolitan Analysis, Design and Engineering (MADE). It focuses on the identification and analysis of metropolitan challenges and the design, engineering and implementation of solutions. Students will learn to use the latest technologies to acquire, analyse, represent and interpret (big) data at city-region level as a means to optimize urban functions and processes.

AMS develops a deep understanding of the city: sense the city, design solutions for its challenges and integrate these into the city. The city of Amsterdam will serve as its home base and test bed.

Because of the connection with AMS, in which many industrial and societal actors are involved, a unique inter- and transdisciplinary learning environment is created for the MADE master programme, which brings together scientific research, academic education and practice (both public and private). The Amsterdam societal and industrial partners offer concrete case studies from the field, for which students will develop – in close cooperation with stakeholders – so-called metropolitan solutions. The city of Amsterdam presents itself as a living lab.

www.ams-instite.org

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The Field Academy. These words literally represent the essence of this knowledge platform: an academy in the field. It functions as a neighbourhood knowledge centre and works from its own visible location(s) in the city districts. The Field Academy facilitates and organizes the co-operation and communication between inhabitants, entrepreneurs and professionals. Together they work on sustainable solutions for today’s and tomorrow’s urban design and planning tasks.

The Field Academy connects these concrete urban planning tasks to academic research trajectories, in which a variety of students can participate, with all kinds of disciplinary backgrounds. They also offer internships and project topics for students. They challenge and use the creative and intellectual potential of students and researchers. Their future professionals are trained in an inter- and transdisciplinary setting by working on the city’s complex urban challenges. Students are tutored by teachers from various higher education institutes.

The Field Academy sets the platform’s research agenda for students and guarantees the professional connection, coherence and synergy between the different challenges which the students focus on. In this way, academic education and research are directly connected to policy development and implementation.

The Field Academy operates as platform, where clients and problem owners can get in touch with knowledge institutes, researchers and students, and (other) local actors. The initiators of the Academy are the municipality of Rotterdam and Vertex Architecture + Urbanism. Their clients are, for example, governmental bodies, NGOs, housing corporations, health care institutes and developers. The knowledge institutes connected to the Field Academy are the Delft University of Technology, the Rotterdam Erasmus University, the Rotterdam Higher Professional Education Institute and research centre TNO.

www.veldacadmie.nl

Spit, T. & Zoete, P. (2006) Ruimtelijke Ordening in Nederland. Een Wetenschappelijke Introductie in het Vakgebied (Spatial Planning in the Netherlands. A Scientific Introduction in the Field). Planologie series (The Hague: Sdu Publisher).

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Hidding, M. (2007) Planning voor Stad en Land (Planning for Urban and Rural). 3rd rev. version (Bussum: Coutinho Publisher).

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De Jong, T. M. (2012) Diversifying Environments Through Design, PhD thesis, Delft University of Technology.

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Davoudi, S. (2010) Planning and interdisciplinarity, in: A. Geppert & G. Cotella (Eds) Quality Issues in a Changing European Higher Education Area. AESOP Planning Education No 2, July 2010, pp. 33–35 (Leuven Heverlee: Association of European Schools of Planning).

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