Strategic Spatial Planning

The module explores spatial planning at the strategic level. In practice this can refer to planning activities at the regional, national and international levels. The European Union has dramatically increased the role of regions in recent years and the module examines the theoretical and practical elements in relation to regional development. Uneven patterns of development and increasing regional disparities are common at the level of the European Union and within many of the member states. However, more recently some countries, including England, have moved away from a regional focus in favour of a stronger emphasis on local areas. The module analyses the responses to the problems of economic, social, territorial disparities by examining contemporary processes and mechanisms of governance, government, policy and planning. The
module focuses on the strategic spatial planning agenda at both the UK level and in the wider
European context.