News

The School of Environmental Technology at the Federal University of Technology in Akure (Nigeria) will host an international conference on ‘Man, Technological Advancement and Sustainable Environment’ from 25 to 27 October, 2010.

The geographic profile of AAPS continues to expand, as we warmly welcome another Sudanese planning school to the network. The joining of Omdurman Islamic University (OIU) follows that of the University of Khartoum in May this year.

The membership of the AAPS grows month by month, as our email and website updates attract more attention from planning educators in Africa. We have great pleasure in announcing the addition of the Federal University of Technology, located in Akure, Nigeria, to the members' roll.

The influential journal Planning Theory & Practice is offering free access to two important ‘Interface’ discussions: the first is entitled ‘Wind power: Is there a planning problem?’ (link here) whilst the second deals with ‘Health at the heart of spatial planning’ (link here).

The AAPS team has great pleasure in welcoming another Nigerian planning school to the AAPS network.

Pictures of the recent AAPS workshop dedicated to the promotion of case research and teaching methodology are available below:

The two articles chosen by the AAPS editorial board for re-publication in Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning, volume 4, are:

Kamete, A. (2009). ‘Hanging out with “Trouble-Causers”: Planning and Governance in Urban Zimbabwe’, Planning Theory and Practice, 10(1), pp. 85-103.

Winkler, T. (2009). ‘For the Equitable City Yet to Come’, Planning Theory and Practice, 10(1), pp. 65-83.

AAPS takes pleasure in welcoming two new planning schools to the network.

The ninth International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH) will be held from 27 to 29 October 2010, in New York City. ICUH 2010 is being jointly organized by the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH).

The second instalment of the AAPS case study research and publication workshop series was held in Johannesburg from 28 April to 1 May 2010. This followed the widespread acclaim granted to the first workshop, held in Dar es Salaam in early February 2010.

The World Bank has provided planning practitioners and researchers with a vital information source in the form of the Open Data Initiative, which was launched on 20 April 2010 alongside the World Development Indicators 2010.

UN-Habitat commissioned a series of background reports to enhance the Global Report on Human Settlements 2009 (subtitled ‘Planning Sustainable Cities’) by illustrating ‘empirical conditions and trends, as well as effective policy responses’. These are now downloadable, free of cost, on the UN-Habitat website (click here to visit the download page).

Time marches on. The event of the year approaches… it may surprise you that it is not the 2010 Football World Cup. The second workshop of the AAPS case study research and publication project will be held in Johannesburg from 28 April to 1 May 2010. This follows the success of the pilot workshop held in Dar es Salaam in early February 2010 (more information on that event is available here).

The pilot workshop for the AAPS case study research and publication project was held from 3 to 5 February 2010, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The proceedings were facilitated by Prof Bent Flyvbjerg (Oxford University) and Dr Fred Lerise (GTZ/Ardhi University). Participants were drawn from a diverse profile of AAPS member countries including Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania.

Other participants included Prof Jorgen Andreassen (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts), Dr Tumsifu Nnkya (Tanzanian Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements Development), Prof Vanessa Watson and Nancy Odendaal (both of the University of Cape Town).

The Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN), of which the AAPS is a member, will host the 2011 World Planning Schools Conference (WPSC) in Perth, Australia. The theme of WPSC 2011 is ‘Planning’s Future – Futures Planning: Planning in an Era of Global (Un)Certainty and Transformation’.

A PhD funding opportunity is available at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

The UN-Habitat Global Report on Human Settlements was released in late 2009. The report included an interesting chapter on global planning education prepared by a team of GPEAN members. A number of AAPS members also contributed to other chapters. The full report is available for download by following this link.

Free access to the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER) is available to institutions in developing countries.

AAPS takes pleasure in welcoming the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Maseno University, Kenya, to the network. The Department offers two planning programmes: a Bachelor of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning and a Master of Arts in Project Planning and Management, as well as a Doctor of Philosophy in Planning. There are currently 112 students registered in the Department. The Head of Department is Dr George Wagah. He can be contacted at ggwagah@yahoo.

Georgia Tech will host the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) PhD Workshop from 23 to 26 June 2010 in Atlanta.

Applications for participation in this year’s workshop are due by 15 February 2010.