MSc Strategic Urban Planning and Policies

Cities are complex, dynamic systems, influenced by a myriad of stakeholders. This specialisation track delves deeper into how urban planning and policy making responds to urban dynamics and how different stakeholders are engaged in the co-creation of a commonly desired urban development.

The Strategic Urban Planning and Policies programme is a specialisation track within the MSc in Urban Management and Development, which links theory and practice by working with concepts, theories, and tools of urban planning and policies, governance, spatial justice and sustainability. The track addresses the role of urban planning in the context of rapid urbanisation, informal settlements, social deprivation, growing inequalities, and economic decline. Through the lens or urban justice, students will analyse how cities function and what the strategic planning and policies  contribute to steered urban development processes. Next to learning how to engage and apply urban planning and policy instruments, you will also reflect on the implications different planning approaches have on the socio-spatial dynamics of cities. You will study how the spatial distribution of wealth, services and opportunities, representations of identities, social practices in space and in decision-making impact the city.