Monthly Archives: February 2023

Expert Q & A – Embedded Planning: A Practitioner’s Origin Story (full version online): https://www.cpp.edu/cppmag/expert-q-and-a.shtml

Expert Q & A – Embedded Planning: A Practitioner’s Origin Story (short version PDF): https://www.cpp.edu/cppmag/pdf/22fall-cpp-magazine-thats-socalpoly.pdf

Excerpt:

“Like many other professions, planning deals with a theory/practice gap. What we’re taught in our urban planning classes frequently differs from what we do on the job. In the academy, planners learn about theories such as #AdvocacyPlanning and #InsurgentPlanning that were born as challenges to technocratic #RationalPlanning. But in practice, radical approaches require the planner to be political, take a stand, and challenge power structures. That makes some planning traditionalists uncomfortable.

Planning, by convention, is a desk-bound profession, and planners work separately from the communities they serve. #EmbeddedPlanning challenges planners to perform their work at the street-level. I use the phrase “move with intention.” This means you do as much as possible to relocate your work from behind a desk to the spaces and places of the community. Go to the people. Be part of daily community life. Plan in plain language. Make the neighborhood your office. This is how you build trust with community members. Embedded Planning makes traditional city planning more accessible.”