Title:
Towards a politics of human flourishing
Towards a politics of human flourishing
Author(s)
Mcsorley, Meaghan Suzanne
Advisor(s)
Botchwey, Nisha
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Abstract
This research responds to this central question: how can planning scholars empower students and practitioners to (re)engage with the core role of planning (helping communities determine their future)? This research explores three scholarly pathways in response: theory to inspire and offer new (and more hopeful) frameworks for approaching future-oriented and community-based planning work; the study of planning practice with regards to planners’ interpersonal skills to document the current state; and the development of innovative pedagogies to improve future practitioners’ skills over the long-term.
Specifically, the first chapter develops a framework for human thriving and justifies it as a focus for planning, which lays the groundwork for the importance of interpersonal skills that will be discussed in further chapters. The research question that guides this chapter is, how is human thriving defined at the level of both individuals and communities, and what role could planning practitioners have in promoting thriving through their work?
The theory-building work of the first chapter bolsters several streams of planning-thought by asserting that interpersonal skills are themselves a critical means by which planners can promote thriving civic cultures and a method of operationalizing the social domains of the thriving communities framework. If human thriving depends on the means and the ends, then an individual planner’s actions themselves are of interest and import. Greater attention to an individual planner’s interpersonal skills becomes necessary.
Building on this idea, the next chapter takes stock of the current state of practice around interpersonal skills in the United States. As a result, the research question that guides the next chapter is, how can the guidance that American Planning Association (APA) offers for developing interpersonal skills be characterized via national planning publications including PAS Reports, Memos, and QuickNotes as well as Planning Magazine articles? Importantly, there appears to be an assumption that planning practitioners are gaining interpersonal skills during their education.
The final chapter covers an exploratory, mixed methods intervention study to identify creative means of improving interpersonal skills during planning education. This chapter leverages the construct of emotional intelligence because (1) it has been well-studied in professional education contexts, and (2) it is a construct that underlies many interpersonal skills. The research question at hand in this chapter is, to what extent do structured reflection activities support first-year planning students in developing greater emotional intelligence?
Ultimately, this research offers planning practitioners a framework to support community visioning conversation; identifies new pathways for scholarly research around the current state of practice as it relates to promoting community thriving via interpersonal skills; and explores novel pedagogical methods for planning educators to support students in gaining important interpersonal skills.
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Date Issued
2023-07-14
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Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Dissertation