Hi!
Sean here from Victoria, BC (off the west coast of Canada).
I'm 27, but I've been interested in issues related to planning for the past 6 years. The seeds were sown through self-directed and certificate study in permaculture, '97 to '99. I've since had numerous other diversions into farming, publishing, and computer programming, but social studies have always been my avocational mainstay. Finally I've bitten the professional bullet (lord knows why it took me so long), and have just started to look at undergrad programs in planning.
I am in fact not that clear about the possible career paths of planners. I am interested in research-based decision making, and everything related to group dynamics: mediation, negotiation, consensus decision making, facilitation, etc. As far as I am aware, this characterizes the work of at least some planners, but just how extensively is this the case?
I also have a long-standing interest in intentional community and co-housing, or movements in a similar direction within, say, neighbourhood planning. In addition, I have a burgeoning interest in the connection between the nonfalsifiable (moral, intrapersonal/emotional, ideological) aspects of belief systems, their conflict with more empirical and collaborative/democratic approaches to decision making, and their corresponding social and policy implications. Are there any other professional planners involved in some fashion in these areas?
More generally, I would also like to get my feet wet with some bona fide planning literature, so can someone suggest an elementary bibliography appropriate to Canadian planners? I'm thinking of something along the lines of the APA's "Essential Planning Library:" http://www.planning.org/resources-k/essentiallibrary.htm
Cheers,
Sean
Sean here from Victoria, BC (off the west coast of Canada).
I'm 27, but I've been interested in issues related to planning for the past 6 years. The seeds were sown through self-directed and certificate study in permaculture, '97 to '99. I've since had numerous other diversions into farming, publishing, and computer programming, but social studies have always been my avocational mainstay. Finally I've bitten the professional bullet (lord knows why it took me so long), and have just started to look at undergrad programs in planning.
I am in fact not that clear about the possible career paths of planners. I am interested in research-based decision making, and everything related to group dynamics: mediation, negotiation, consensus decision making, facilitation, etc. As far as I am aware, this characterizes the work of at least some planners, but just how extensively is this the case?
I also have a long-standing interest in intentional community and co-housing, or movements in a similar direction within, say, neighbourhood planning. In addition, I have a burgeoning interest in the connection between the nonfalsifiable (moral, intrapersonal/emotional, ideological) aspects of belief systems, their conflict with more empirical and collaborative/democratic approaches to decision making, and their corresponding social and policy implications. Are there any other professional planners involved in some fashion in these areas?
More generally, I would also like to get my feet wet with some bona fide planning literature, so can someone suggest an elementary bibliography appropriate to Canadian planners? I'm thinking of something along the lines of the APA's "Essential Planning Library:" http://www.planning.org/resources-k/essentiallibrary.htm
Cheers,
Sean
