Planning for Whom? Elite-Driven Development in Highly Stratified Urban Environments and the Role of Personal Values
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Summary
This case explores the ethical planning dilemmas that can arise from client-driven, private sector development. The case takes place in the 2000s in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), during a time of exuberant investment and rapid expansion of luxury urban development, despite the prevalence of extreme poverty and environmental concerns. Students will take on the role of a recent Master of Urban Planning graduate whose first assignment with a US planning firm is to help plan a villa complex in Sana’a, Yemen, targeted to Yemen’s small elite and military class. Students must weigh their long-term career goals and personal ethics when deciding whether to challenge or meet questionable client desires.
Learning Objectives
Understand the dynamics of, and difficulties with, reconciling one’s own values with diverse planning challenges, directly and indirectly.
Explore the potential conflicts inherent in client-driven urban development projects where maximizing return on investment is the dominant development criteria (versus government-led or community-based development).
Recognize the short and long-term implications of promoting exclusive residential development in the context of widespread poverty and environmentally sensitive lands (i.e. the intensification of spatial segregation).
Consider the role and influence of international financial flows in local development.
Case Materials
Instructor Version
Student Version
PowerPoint Presentation
Suggested Readings
Coy, M. and M. Pohler. (2002). Gated communities in Latin American megacities: Case studies in Brazil and Argentina. Environment and Planning B, 29: 355-370. Read the abstract
Frank, L. (1997). Chapter 26, The development game, 263-273, in Rahnema, M. (ed). The Post-Development Reader. London: Zed Books. Read the abstract
Noorloos, F. and M. Kloosterboer. (2017). Africa’s new cities: The contested future of urbanization. Urban Studies, 55(6): 1223-1241. Download the full paper
Watson, V. (2006). Deep difference: Diversity, planning and Ethics, Planning Theory, 5(1): 31-50. Read the abstract
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