Integrative Planning Workshops: The Michigan Experience

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Abstract
This paper contributes to the contin uing debate on the usefulness and role of student workshops in plan ning curriculum. It traces the devel opment of, and systematically evalu ates a course introduced at the University of Michigan in early 1988 which focused on providing techni cal assistance to a neighborhood or ganization located in Detroit's inner city. In evaluating the course, gen eral issues raised in the literature on student workshops are addressed such as the conflict between produc ing an end product and analysis of policy alternatives, the relationship between theory and workshop courses, and the appropriate role of faculty members. In addition, the potentials, constraints, and possible improvements of a student work- shop focusing on inner city neigh- 4 borhood development issues are dis cussed, and an argument is made for including in the planning curriculum a course of this nature as a means of expanding students' understand ing of differing agendas.

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