UT Community and Regional Planning Student Forum
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| synopsis: | Since April 2003, thousands of American professionals have hopped aboard planes to Iraq, to participate in the wide-ranging basket of activities we refer to as the reconstruction. Included in their ranks are perhaps hundreds of planning practitioners, who have elected to work for government agencies and private companies, taking part in projects ranging from highway construction to civil society organizing to local election administration. In her ongoing Master’s thesis research, Kate has delved into the subject of the involvement of American planners in post-conflict Iraq through a series of interviews with individuals who worked on a federally funded project whose aim was to rebuild local governance. In this presentation, she summarizes the high points of her research, focusing on a few of the difficulties that planning practitioners face in this context. |
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| dialogue: | Let’s assume that American foreign policymakers “stay the course,” and continue to pursue aggressive (if perhaps naïve and idealistic) democratization programs in non-democratic countries. Are there ways planning practitioners can do good work in that framework? To put this discussion in a more familiar context, planners alwayswork within a policy framework, and are frequently unsatisfied with the policies to which they must adhere. In what ways can planners – even in the American context – make their work more meaningful within the given system? |
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the university of texas at austin, school of architecture * community and regional planning program