DUSP faculty present at the annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
DUSP faculty members attended the 2018 Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, where Professors Patrick Cooper-McCann, Carolyn Loh, and Kami Pothukuchi, presented papers. The conference was held October 26-28 in Buffalo, NY. The theme of the conference was The Continuing City: People, Planning and the Long Haul to Urban Resurgence.
Professor Cooper-McCann presented "The Fragmentation of Park Provision: Implications for Planning", in which he examines the provision of urban parks in the city of Detroit from the 1960s to the 2010s. He examines the rise in public-private partnerships and the resulting fragmented and unequal system of parkland in Detroit. Cooper-McCann argues that "planning can reduce spatial inequalities by ensuring that parks and facilities are designed in relation to one another, not just in relation to the agendas of individual providers and that residents have a say in planning all of the city's public spaces through a coordinated, transparent process."
Professor Loh presented "Secure in it's Future, Grounded in it's Roots, and Hopeful in it's Present State: Planning and Partnership with Citizens in Detroit," which she co-authored with Jacqueline Taylor. Using the City of Detroit as a case study, the paper analyzes current approaches to community engagement in neighborhood planning efforts. Loh and Taylor argue that current planners have an opportunity to reassess their core values and practices with regard to community engagement in order to move up to the top of Arnstein's "ladder of citizen participation" in new ways that will allow for planning professionals and residents to develop a better balance of responsibilities in the development of their cities.
Professor Pothukuchi presented "Developing a Community-Engaged Scholarship Agenda," which provides planning faculty with lessons for developing a community-engaged scholarship agenda. Pothukuchi drew on her own efforts to develop and hone a community-engaged scholarship agenda at WSU, a survey of planning faculty engaged in community partnerships in teaching and research, and current literature on community-engaged scholarship within the planning and related fields. From her analysis, Pothukuchi realized broad lessons for developing a community-engaged scholarship agenda for both new faculty and those seeking to expand activities post-tenure.