Urban Planning 538:  Economic Development Planning  Winter 2012 Assignments last updated Sunday, April 29, 2012 1:10 PM

Prof. Scott Campbell (home page) College of Architecture and Urban Planning University Of Michigan sdcamp@umich.edu office:  2225C A&AB (734) 763-2077

Students are expected to complete all the required readings before the scheduled class time, actively participate in class discussions and presentations, and prepare several written assignments over the semester.  Evaluation of your work will be based on substantive content, analytical rigor, and writing quality.  Be sure to follow appropriate citation guidelines in all your work. Late assignments will result in point reductions. There are two main assignments. The first is to write several short essays on specific economic development topics (that the class will assemble together to form a web-based local economic development reference handbook). The second is to complete a take-home exam (consisting of a 6-7 page essay).

Assignments and deadlines (for details, see below) -- REVISED	Date due	Percent of Grade
Handbook Entry 1	Draft: Feb 21; Final April 25 (12:00 noon)	32.5%
Handbook Entry 2	Draft: April 3; Final April 25 (12:00 noon)	32.5%
Glossary Entries (2 per student) 2.5% each * 2 = 5%	Draft: April 3; Final April 25 (12:00 noon)	5%
Take-home Final Exam (questions handed out April 12) page length: 6-7 pages.	April 23 (12:00 noon)	25%
Class Participation		5%

Update: to accomodate points for the 2 glossary entries, I have slightly adjusted the above: each handbook entry (32.5%, down from 35%); each glossary entry (2.5%).

The goal of this assignment is to create a handbook of useful resources and analysis on local economic development that will be available online and available to other students and the world at large. The class as a whole will decide on the elements/entries to be included in the handbook. Each student will then be responsible for writing at least two entries for the handbook. Students may use text, tables, graphics and photographs in the entries. Creativity, clarity, brevity and analytical rigor are encouraged. (In addition, each student will write at least two short glossary entries -- e.g., 20 - 100 words each).

Emphasis of handbook: Each entry should provide a concise, stand-alone explanation of a specific economic development theme or topic. It should allow the reader to quickly get up to speed on the topic, including (where appropriate): basic definitions, explanation of concepts, historical background, examples, and major debates or controversies. In addition, do provide links and a brief bibliography in case the reader would like to examine the issue in more depth (either in theory, case studies, policy descriptions, etc.). The entry should, therefore, NOT be just a page of links to outside resources. (Nor should it be a patchwork quilt of outside quotes and bullet points from other sources.) It should instead be primarily an analytically rigorous exploration of the topic.

Format: the handbook will be in the form of a series of web pages. In the past, I had students use Adobe Dreamweaver to create html pages. However, the recent emergence of a wide range of web content options (Tumblr, wordpress, etc.) gives us more choices. We will decide, as a class, on a common platform for the handbook by late January. (I will help you develop a common format. No prior web page skills required. Some class time will be allocated for work sessions.) I am leaning towards using wordpress, since it has more relevant features than Tumblr and is more friendly than Dreamweaver. (Here are some examples of wordpress pages: "The Lean Years" Conference" (UM arch + planning doctoral students); aftercity.mit.edu; "My Hometown is better than yours". Here is a UM Library wordpress tutorial.

Topics will include: key programs, important economic development concepts, case studies (best practices and otherwise), profiles of individual local economies, analyses of contemporary economic development controversies, links to further resources, glossary of important terms.

SCHEDULE -- REVISED April 21

EXAMPLES OF TOPICS (partial list):