- Watch for course eligibility carefully. Additional requirements may also be listed below.
- Non-SCARP students who wish to take eligible SCARP courses may contact info.scarp@ubc.ca to enquire.
- For course dates and times, or more information, please consult UBC's Student Workday interface.
- While SCARP hopes to offer the courses listed here frequently, unavoidable circumstances or changes may impact availability of instructors to teach certain electives. Being listed on this webpage does not guarantee a course is currently offered.
- Course registration is updated and communicated as soon as possible.
- Are you an undergrad student looking to take a graduate course?
Courses
PLAN 211 : City Making: A Global Perspective
This course offers an introduction to the field of urban planning in a transnational context. We will explore the meaning of “a global perspective” on how urban space is produced, used and contested. We will examine a range of historical and contemporary events, inter-scalar processes, and political-economic and cultural forces that shape theory and practice of city making. In so doing, we will pay close attention to issues of social and racial justice in relation to city-making and processes of urbanization. For those interested, the course can serve as one particularly helpful ‘gateway’ into the concepts covered in the Urban Studies program.
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Second-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 221 : City Visuals
How has our way of understanding and visually representing cities evolved? How do we represent spatial data and what do we use, when and how? Gain a historical understanding of how the city has been represented visually, as well as the fundamentals of representation types and information design, in the service of reading and interpreting visualizations of the city. Future creators and consumers of city visuals will be exposed to the data sources and production processes behind a wide variety of representations. Experiential exercises will allow students to comprehend and use the principles for creating clear and powerful graphic narratives of the city.
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Second-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 231 : Methods of Community Engagement
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Second-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 321 : Indigeneity and the City
North American cities were built upon Indigenous lands, and the violent dispossession and attempted erasure of Indigenous societies land and waters. We are living with the consequences. Vancouver has made commitments to reconciliation, including acknowledging that the City was built on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands. How can such declarations translate into decolonizing policies and approaches? This class critically examines assumptions, narratives, and colonial relations entrenched into the city, and listens to others within the movement to decolonize urban planning. Indigenous perspectives on community, land use, governance, etc. will be foundational to the analysis of planning and practice within the Metro Vancouver context.
Second-year students may be admitted with instructor permission.
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Third-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 331 : The Just City in a Divided World
Cities are often posited as locations of density and agglomeration effects; they exist as necessary hubs for people to come together and share in production and exchange. However, this conception of the urban lacks any normative value. It fails to ask questions such as “Who do cities benefit?”, “Why are those benefits allocated across the population in particular ways?”, and “How do citizens, institutions, and the market negotiate urban values and trajectories?” At the heart of this course is the notion of cities as crucibles of justice. City-making requires understanding how spatial and cultural contingencies produce expected and unexpected outcomes for urban citizens.
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Third-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 341 : Smart Cities: Concepts, Methods and Design
This course introduces the technological and policy challenges and opportunities in the emerging field of Smart Cities. It begins with high-level policy analysis of current challenges facing cities around the world including population growth, urbanization, social well-being, economic development, and climate change. We assess sustainability impacts of Smart Cities including urban metrics and indicators, big-data analysis, and applications in urban modelling and simulation. We focus on how data-driven analytics and technological and social innovation can help address urban policy challenges and inform evidence-based decision-making.
Second-year students may be admitted with instructor permission.
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Third-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 351 : Green Cities
For many cities, the path toward greening is lower greenhouse gases, protection from ecological hazards, higher quality of life, and economic growth. Green cities value ecosystems, seek to harmonize development with nature, and adapt to and mitigate climate change. However, rollout can generate unintended consequences. This course examines green cities as simultaneously essential for addressing global environmental degradation and exacerbators of that degradation. We examine historical, conceptual, and applied aspects globally, with an emphasis on North America. We define green cities, how/why green cities take shape, why we need them, how to make one, and the outcomes. We question overly-simple descriptions of urban greening.
Second-year students may be admitted with instructor permission.)
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Third-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 361 : Community Planning in a World of Diversity
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Third-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 425 : Urban Planning Issues and Concepts
An introduction to some concepts, challenges, and debates in community and regional planning, as a profession and as a process of social and political intervention in space. Planning is action- and problem-oriented. Professional planners use zoning by-laws, citizen engagement, and land-use policies to manage transportation, housing, real estate development, community-building, and the allocation of social services, which affect our everyday lives in communities, cities, and regions. By ordinary citizens, planning operates in complex social and political environments shaped by local, regional, national, and transnational forces. This course critically engages students with the meanings, practices, and tools that shape the field of community and regional planning.
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Third-year standing or above in any program
PLAN 452 : Urban Studies Capstone II
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Eligibility
- Fourth-year standing or above in any progam
PLAN 500 : Comparative Perspectives on Planning History and Futures
This course undertakes a detailed, comparative examination of the history, present and future of planning in a global context. It examines planning in diverse settings and highlights how planning has been, is, and might be conceived and practiced.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP
PLAN 501 : Reconciliation and Planning
History of colonization in Canada and other parts of the world, including impacts on Indigenous peoples. Distinguishing features of Indigenous planning practice and traditions. How planners can contribute to social justice, decolonization, and reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous peoples.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP
PLAN 502 : Sustainability and Resilience in Planning
How sustainability and resilience concepts shape planning practice, including planning’s successes and failures in addressing environmental problems. Policies and tools that communities can adopt and employ in response to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and related challenges.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP
PLAN 504 : Urban Design and Visual Representation
Neighbourhood and site-level urban design. The role and power of visual representation. The use of information technologies for mapping, visual representation, and engagement.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP
PLAN 505 : Planning Theory, Values, and Ethics
Major theoretical debates in planning and their influence on practice. Values in planning and their role in decision-making. Planning’s role in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity. The nature of ethical issues in planning and professional practice.
- Level
- Master's
- Eligibility
- Enrolled in MCRP