The management of space is one of the big challenges that human societies have to deal with. Competing claims over the use of finite resources have pushed human societies to develop institutions, technologies and paradigms that help manage these competing usages. Challenges like increasing urbanization, the depletion of land and other natural resources, and climate change make this management of space ever more urgent.
The governance of land and urban development is essential when considering development approaches to support sustainable futures. As a concept, governance encapsules (1) Multi level co-ordination and multi-faceted problems; (2) Multi actor networks, and (3) Multi-instrumental steering mechanisms. This implies that an understanding of problems, actors and steering mechanisms involved in the governance of land and urban development is necessarily focused on the context in which a certain problem is placed and how it can be addressed by the governance settings available.
In this course we focus on key concepts of land and urban governance. The aim is for the student to gain a background in (challenges of) governance of land and urban development, that will influence how individuals, organizations and institutions work towards land and urban futures. An additional challenge in the course is inviting the students to reflect, discuss and imagine different land and urban futures.