Geography and Planning BA

The module provides an introduction to spatial planning in theory and practice, exploring arguments for and against spatial planning and the rationale for state intervention into land and property development. You will get to hear about and explore key debates on the purposes of planning, the historical development of planning as a state activity and the current structure of national, regional and local government. A core function of the module is to introduce key aspects of the English planning system and key debates about its role and purpose, with reference to a range of international comparators. The module builds on these foundations to explore how spatial planning responds to a number of major societal challenges.

This module provides an introduction to key principles, relations and processes that contribute to a diverse array of social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects of human geography.  You will have the opportunity to learn about spatial patterns of power, inequality and interdependence produced by economic and cultural globalisation; how we experience these at the local scale; and how they have changed over time.  Through lectures and seminars you will be guided through key concepts and current debates shaping how human geographers approach these issues, illustrated by drawing on examples from around the world and at a variety of geographical scales.  It highlights the value of a geographical perspective on the world we live in.

Exploring and gaining an understanding of place, space and urban design at the outset of your studies will provide you with the foundation needed to interpret, analyse and practically understand cities - focusing on the city of Sheffield, its communities and its people.  The module explores the fundamentals of urban design and its role in the analysis and design of space. You are introduced to some of the theories, techniques and data that planners use in their efforts to understand and create better places for people. The module will support you to develop your skills of analysis and help to equip you with applied skills to explore, make sense of, and develop spatial data/foundational drawing skills. You will be able to learn how to assess the physical, social, economic and environmental qualities of urban places as well as how to interpret and represent these spatially. You will also be able to learn the fundamentals of visual/graphical communication via professional software and posters. Teaching draws on practical examples via lectures, studio workshops, computer workshops, context-based study and site visits to gain a basic understanding and appreciation of cities and develop skills in the applied analysis of urban spaces and their design.

This module introduces you to cities and urbanisation, from the very first settlements to contemporary metropolises, using examples throughout history from across the world. The module focuses on thinking about the role of cities within societies and civilisations throughout history, and how planning ideas and practice have developed in response. It explores histories of urbanisation, from the earliest urban settlements to the megacities of the twenty-first century, looking at how various forces have shaped cities, and the outcomes of urbanisation for cities and their populations. It highlights influential ideas which have changed our thinking about cities, looks at how urban governments and planners have sought to respond to  challenges of urbanisation throughout history, and discusses critical debates around these. The module takes a global focus, drawing on different cases and examples from around the world. In addition to a focus on the historical foundations of cities, urbanisation, and planning, you will also be introduced to key foundational academic skills required for both your degree and future career. These include an introduction to good academic practice (including academic referencing), identifying relevant information, and communicating academic knowledge orally and in writing.

The complex nature of global challenges illuminates the intricate connections between social justice and environmental change, revealing how these forces shape our world. This module goes beyond identifying problems, delving into how different stakeholders are actively developing solutions and driving positive transformation. The wider impact of our research varies from the local to the global, with benefits to the economy, society, culture, policy, health, the environment and quality of life. From revitalizing local communities to reducing risk to life, you will gain insights into how research can help shape more sustainable and equitable futures. This module takes a  case study approach to explore different opportunities aimed at addressing complex global challenges across research and practice.

This module will introduce you to a wide range of critical environmental issues facing the world today from physical science and social science perspectives. Drawing on a range of examples, you will critically explore the physical causes, consequences, management and solutions to environmental issues and learn how to question assumptions about environmental processes.

This module provides you with an introduction to quantitative and spatial analytical methods, with a specific focus on interpreting and presenting data to better understand urban contexts. It exposes you to a variety of substantive issues surrounding the use of data in practice and aims to enhance your understanding of methods used to analyse real world policy challenges. You will access and use a range of different datasets, covering demographics, property, and land use and will be able to develop and practise skills in analysing them using both spatial and aspatial methods. You will be able to develop competence in accessing, analysing and presenting data to gain a deeper understanding of key issues facing urban settings.

At the heart of every discipline lie the ideas, concepts and frameworks that help its students and researchers to make sense of its object of study. In planning, geography and urban studies there are numerous perspectives, concepts and key thinkers that have shaped the development of these disciplines. This module introduces you to a series of key concepts and thinkers and helps you to make sense of urban life as a result.

This module supports you to develop your imaginative engagement with the nature of urban life and human settlement. Urban theory refers to writing and thinking devoted to 'seeing' and understanding urban life. Concepts and ideas are critical to how we engage with the key features and problems of the urban world, shape the process of conducting research and help us to make sense of and understand many of the key challenges in cities today. Theory is therefore critical to our understanding of how cities work in practice and how we understand and view urban life subsequently informs the development of cities and efforts to make them more socially just, sustainable and better places to live. You are introduced to a range of ideas and key concepts in urban studies with a view to understanding how cities have developed and how they 'work' in broad terms. The module considers a range of thinkers, concepts and perspectives. 

The module aims to introduce and extend your knowledge of different ways of seeing city life. This includes a wide range of perspectives, thinkers and concepts relating to urban social and political life, the economies of cities, the range of communities and groups living in cities and their built and natural environments. It also aims to provide you with an armoury of critical ideas and concepts that will deepen your understanding of the fundamental power relations, inequalities and divisions that characterise cities and which structure localities, particularly in relation to questions of class, race and gender.

The ability to design, conduct, analyse and present meaningful findings from fieldwork is an essential part of the discipline of degree-level Human Geography These skills, as well as experience of conducting fieldwork enhance employability across diverse career choices. This module builds on your learning from 'Human Geography in the Field' in the first year, addressing the philosophical and methodological background to, and the process of, designing and conducting fieldwork. You will hear about the principles of research design and be able to develop key skills through engaging in practical experience of fieldwork. This approach facilitates your immersive learning and engagement with ethical research. The module is delivered through lectures, tutorials, problem solving sessions and a residential field class. Assessments provide ongoing feedback linked to the experience of designing, conducting and reflecting upon the research journey, culminating in a dissertation proposal.

Real estate development is a complex interplay of land acquisition, design, planning consent, construction and marketing / disposal. Developers must navigate these stages through informed decisions, based on thorough market, planning, financial, and risk appraisals. The planning system plays a critical role in real estate development, providing a structure for decision-making that encourages sustainable outcomes and enhances the built environment, whilst also imposing regulatory constraints that can limit project parameters. Examining the real estate development process will enhance your skills in analysing complex problems, developing effective solutions and making sound decisions.

This module explores the real estate development process and the various influences that shape the viability of successful development projects. You will get to examine the structure of real estate markets, the roles and objectives of the various stakeholders involved in real estate development, the main aspects of real estate development appraisal and the ways in which planning, risk and design combine to shape how places change and who profits. You will be supported to work towards producing an assessment of the planning and market potential for a real-world development site incorporating viability, design and risk considerations and, in doing so, be able to learn to balance the competing demands of planning, financial viability and real estate development.

The ability to understand placemaking and urban design processes and their interface with planning, policy and development is crucial for any contemporary planning professional. The overall aim of this module is to enhance your understanding and critical appreciation of the contemporary context of urban design thought, policy and practice - focusing particularly on the role of place-making in cities. You will be able to learn about and apply  the language and techniques of urban design to explore and evaluate what constitutes effective place-making. The module will support you to develop the skills to analyse, appraise and design for urban contexts, supported by professional software and drawing techniques. You will also be able to develop awareness of the sequential stages of the design process, and the ability to deliver a comprehensive design/placemaking proposal supported by enhanced graphical skills for effective communication. Teaching will draw on practical examples via studio workshops, lectures, context-based study and student-led site visits.

This research-led module introduces you to the cutting edge of Social and Cultural Geography. The module illustrates the diversity and vitality of contemporary social and cultural geography including some of the philosophical concepts and theoretical debates that have shaped the subject.  The module aims to deepen and enrich the ways in which you are able to think about geographical issues. It does this through helping you to develop a critical understanding of concepts and approaches that underpin the substance and methods of contemporary human geography. The module team works with you to help you to develop your own 'photo essays'  - which bring the ideas of the module to your experiences from everyday life.

Development in the Global South is a major issue of international concern in the 21st century. This module guides you to explore contemporary development issues and examine the contribution that geographers, and geographical thought, can make towards understanding inequality, poverty and socio-economic change. Definitions of 'development', 'poverty' and 'the poor' shift and are invested with political meaning which reflect specific geographies and ways of seeing the world: you will be able to develop critical understandings of such terminology and the power dynamics implicit within them. This module addresses diverse theories, paradigms and contemporary critiques of development, and explores some of the central issues affecting processes of development. Case examples are drawn from Latin America, Africa and South-East Asia.

Housing and homes are the foundation on which we build our lives. Housing is a unique good which enables access to other services, opportunities, and the pursuit of a whole range of aspirations. It affects access to employment, the quality of air you breathe, proximity to green space, and family formation, as well as often playing an important role in the formation and expression of identities. Housing is deeply spatial and access is spatially uneven.

Housing is also fundamentally linked to the idea of home. In our daily lives - in particular places and alongside other people - we can develop a sense of home or feeling comfortable. Just as home can be made or constructed through particular practices, it can also be unmade or undone. Home can become harmful, threatened, associated with unsafety, or lost via insecurity and eviction. In this module we will develop a critical appreciation of housing and home, questioning some of the taken for granted assumptions that are often prominent in public debates.

The module focuses on contemporary issues related to housing and home, whilst enabling you to develop an historicised and spatialised understanding which recognises complexity and nuance. You will be able to learn from a wide range of case studies, from the UK and globally, to think about provision and access to housing, everyday experiences of home in a changing world, and alternatives. This will be situated within a broader understanding of the role of social, economic and political processes in housing systems, and the ways in which the housing system renders spatial patterns of social difference within society. You will have opportunities to engage with the logics and rationales that underpin the operation of contemporary housing systems, considering the processes underpinning increasing inequalities in people's ability to access housing and make a home. We will engage widely with housing studies, an interdisciplinary area which spans fields such as geography, sociology, history, and urban studies.

Core ideas and cases - of people and places - will be discussed in lectures, further developed through interactive workshops and supported group discussions. In the module you will have the opportunity to critically reflect on what home means to you, and apply learning from academic and policy debates to your own life and the world around you. The module will enable you to understand housing in different contexts, as well as identify the commonalities in experiences that are sometimes more hidden. As part of the assessment, you will have an opportunity to focus on an area which is of most interest to you, developing your independence and self-directed learning.

Environmental issues continue to be a key area of contemporary public concern and current political debate. They raise fundamental questions about the relationship between society and environment, and the politics and equity of that relationship. This module provides a geographical introduction to these issues and debates with examples from a range of scales, from the global to the local. You will be able to learn and understand core ideas, further developing understanding through inter-related explorations covering debates focused on  different real world themes and their potential solutions.

Cities are sites of social conflict and cultural production.  The links between these two facets of modern urban experience have long fascinated scholars seeking to understand the cultural history of the urban imagination.  In this module you will be able to explore different ways artists, intellectuals, political activists, ordinary people and other thinkers have sought to understand and explain various experiences of and conflicts over urban life.  You will get to learn to situate the relationships between sensory perceptions, aesthetic judgments and power relations in their own place and time.  This module draws from historical, cultural, social, and political geographies as well as other disciplines to engage with the shifting nature and spatiality of these relationships through case studies of selected cities, the particular changes in urban culture they occasioned, contemporary responses to those changes, and the theoretical debates they inspired.  Key topics will include, for example, urban form and architecture, cultural difference and social inequality, representational practices and bodily experiences, and the overall consciousness of change in cities over the past two centuries.

Urban violence, insecurity and crime are features of the everyday and crisis moments of city life in many nations around the world. Warfare touches life in many cities today, questions of narco-terror and violence affect many others. Meanwhile, the role of the climate emergency in driving migration and instability, forms of economic crisis and precarity, alongside other forms of disturbance lead to forms of injustice, violence and victimisation. This module seeks to develop your understanding of the political, economic and social drivers of human insecurity in urban settings.

This module has been designed to help you to develop your engagement with and responses to multiple forms of urban insecurity. It discusses the diverse kinds of responses to insecurity by states, armies, police and citizens, many of which bring further rounds of insecurity and violence to marginalised and excluded populations. 

The primary aim of the module is to find answers to the question: how can peace and security be enjoyed by all citizens in cities around the world today? You will be introduced  to a range of examples of violence, conflict and insecurity in urban contexts around the world. Through this, you will be supported to develop your awareness of the programmes and policies being pursued to make better and safer places. Examples of urban violence and crime, policing, forced evictions, domestic violence, terrorism, gangs and the rise of gated communities and other modes of design and control to produce securitised urban spaces are discussed and analysed in their effectiveness.

The module aims to develop your awareness of the political, social and economic context in which urban violence and insecurity are embedded in different global contexts. It also aims to develop your understanding of core debates relating to urban insecurity in both the global North and South. In addition, it seeks to develop your critical understanding of the role of these debates in informing policies and initiatives to try and reduce violence and insecurity in cities.

Trigger warning - this module will bring you into contact with discussions of extreme violence, gender-based violence, sexual violence, police and state violence, including terrorism.

This module introduces you to contemporary debates within political geography. You will be able to develop a detailed understanding of political processes at a variety of spatial scales, from the international to the local, from collective politics to individual political behaviour. You will be guided to explore questions of power, efficacy and conflict, with an emphasis on the spatial and place-specific aspects of politics. The focus will be on issues such as: geopolitics and international relations; the state and territoriality; the politics of nationalism and citizenship; civic activism; and individual political participation.

This module works with critical debates and approaches in Environmental Geographies to help understand a range of environmental crises (such as climate change, sustainability, waste and pollution, biodiversity loss/conservation, extinction) in front of us. You will be able to examine histories, causes and solutions for these environmental crises while drawing connections between global South and North.  The module will cover a range of scales and actors from individual behaviours to community actions, and you will be able to examine the work of local bodies and global organisations and negotiations.The module will leverage conceptual and political tools provided by environmental geographies to ask how we could tackle these multiple and co-constituted crises in socially just ways.

This module introduces you to conceptual and policy debates that frame possible urban futures. It aims to develop your critical understanding of the emerging contemporary visions, practices and challenges that are transforming cities, such as smart cities, eco-cities, cities and technology and cities and the super rich.  It is also focused on engaging you in exploring how alternatives to current mainstream urban planning practices might be imagined and brought into reality to deal with contemporary challenges, and shape more environmentally and socially just forms of urban development. The module uses case studies to explore these issues, and to understand how communities might address contemporary urban planning practices and derive alternatives.

In this  module you will be able to gain experience in leading and managing a research project. You will be expected to prepare, organise, research and report a piece of original work on a topic of your choice, under guidance by a staff mentor. You will decide on the topic and will either be expected to collect original material in order to investigate it, or to perform secondary analysis on information drawn from existing sources. The finished product is presented in the style, and at the length, associated with academic journal articles.

Infrastructure is a core component of cities, enabling economic, social and environmental elements of urban life to circulate and be drawn together or separated. In this module, you will learn about the importance of infrastructure to cities. The focus will be global, with an emphasis on understanding the politics of infrastructure development, how infrastructure projects can exacerbate or address inequalities, and the role of planners in envisioning, delivering and managing infrastructure. The module will start with a wide definition of infrastructures, which will include physical transport, energy, and water networks, but also focus on social and more localised infrastructures and their impacts on urban communities. 

The module will enable you to critically appraise technical approaches to infrastructure as well as developing knowledge of their social bases and cultural meanings. Through the module you will be able to develop knowledge of the ways in which planning deals with infrastructure and examine alternative means of conceiving and delivering infrastructure through planning policies and decisions.

Through a series of case studies, you will have opportunities to engage with a range of infrastructure projects and programmes enabling you to understand how they came about, the underlying planning processes that shaped them, their outcomes and who wins and loses from them.

The aim of this module is to critically examine the development process within a global context, drawing on examples from developed and developing nations, to understand the local global nexus. You will be able to learn about the different ways in which 'sustainable development' is defined, and how we can decolonise development reflecting more critically on our position, and the power relations within this process.  Drawing on debates within development geography, and other disciplines, the module is structured around two themes: current global crises and how these affect us all but differently across the globe; and development interventions which aim to tackle global crises globally and locally.  Topics covered may include: neoliberalism and its relation to the financial crises, the environmental crises and its root causes, populism and the rise of inequalities, sustainable development and the sustainable development goals, alternatives to development, the pros and cons of the use of technology.

This module offers you a chance to explore urban geographies from new angles, which emphasise creative, experimental and subversive ways of seeing and doing geography.  Through lectures and seminars, you will be exposed to experimental fieldwork ideas and methods (such as visual, multisensory and mobile methods), and will also learn about innovative research in urban geographical subjects (such as urban nature, security, mobilities, and access). This module includes a sustained period of non-residential field work in the Sheffield region, which will allow you the opportunity to conduct individual fieldwork projects, whilst also engaging with fieldwork collectively.

Place, in all its forms, has long inspired creativity, while the creative works that result are themselves inherently spatial.  This module explores creative work from several historical and contemporary creative movements and associated cultural producers in context.  Why did their creative work arise where it did?  What difference did that place (or places) make to their aesthetic thought and expression?  How was space itself integral to their creative work?  In this module you are guided through the intricate relationship between art across various media, geography, and the political.  Emphasis is put on specific types of space and place as sites and mediums of aesthetic thought and creative practice.  Core themes will typically include identity, place and displacement, historical imaginations and the built environment, and creativity and socio-spatial transformation.

This module explores how a geographical approach helps us to analyse issues such as controversial election results, divisive immigration policies, and contentious social activism. You will be able to learn how the two key concepts of democracy and citizenship can be used to engage with contemporary debates and theories to draw out the links between geography, policy and society, and the ways in which these are shaped and responded to by citizens, communities, civil society, and political parties. The module emphasises the critical appraisal and interpretation of a variety of perspectives - including our own. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which these interactions are played out across and through multiple scales, from the global to our everyday lives.

The nature of planning activity and its outcomes are underpinned by legal frameworks, procedures and case law decisions. These legal frameworks are intended to ensure clarity and fairness in the exercise of planning powers. They also change over time to reflect changing circumstances and government priorities.

This module explores the role and underlying values of law and policy in the English planning system within an international context. Core themes typically include:

the discretionary basis of UK planning;

the definition of development;

the legal process for undertaking planning decisions;

processes of planning appeal;

the changing status of development plans;

and the role of enforcement.

Through the module you will explore examples where contemporary policy is shaped by legal decisions and the scope for flexibility in working within established legal frameworks. Overall you will be able to develop  a thorough understanding of the procedures for controlling development through planning.

In this module you will be able to engage with a wide range of contemporary housing challenges, considering how planning and wider State policy processes have tried - but often failed - to tackle entrenched issues. We will seek to develop an historically informed understanding by learning from past efforts to tackle problems associated with housing provision, access, quality and security. The module aims to situate planning policy alongside other mechanisms of intervention, building your substantive knowledge, theory and skills about housing and its relation to planning policy and decisions. We will help you to think about the bigger picture for housing, emphasising the links between planning, policies and housing outcomes at national, regional and local levels. 

The module aims to increase your understanding of contemporary debates around housing and housing policy. It will enable you to critically evaluate the means by which planning - and other policies -  shape the delivery, type and quality of homes people live in. You will be able to develop an historicised understanding of the causes and manifestations of problems, dilemmas and conflicts in housing systems and policy processes; and the ability to synthesise and apply knowledge through the development of potential policy approaches to addressing housing challenges. You will be supported to develop a nuanced understanding of people, place and policy through engagement with real-world examples, applying this critical awareness to reimagine future housing policies which can address the challenges we face around the world today.