11.701 Introduction to Planning and Institutional Processes in Developing Countries, Fall 2005

Abstract

This introductory course is structured to cultivate the key sensibilities necessary for effective planning practice in newly industrializing countries. The word "sensibility" refers to an awareness of key developmental issues, interdependent causalities, and anticipated as well as unanticipated consequences of social action which mark most planning efforts. In cultivating such sensibilities, this course will use examples from varying institutional settings, ranging from the local to the international levels, and probe how the particularities of each setting call for an awareness of particular institutional opportunities and constraints that planners need to account for when devising planning strategies.