Social Planning

895 Words2 Pages

Although all planning involves social interaction in one way or another, I reject the statement, “In the end, all planning is social planning” because social planning focus more on the impacts of sociology, the study of human interactions and social structures, as compared to other forms of planning where there is less emphasis on social impacts in decision making. Not all planning have the same approach to an issue and social planning is unique because it is from a sociological perspective where planners use social factors to explain and interpret existing issues in society and examine social impacts on people’s well-being. To support that social planning is unique from other types of planning, I will examine the topics of community housing with the example of Regent Park presented by Laura Johnson and the role of public institutions from class lecture four by Laura Schatz. In the example of Regent Park by Laura Johnson, the University of Waterloo professor examined the social impacts of the neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto. She first introduced the social profile or demographics of the people living in Regent Park which were described as relatively low-income, high unemployment to employment ratio, and young population comparing to other neighbourhoods in Toronto. In addition, the community had a reputation crime and violence (Johnson, 2010). She described various solutions from a sociological perspective to help the people in Regent Park, including subsidized community housing, government sponsored paid learning programs and services that support the children and young adults in the community. She then mentioned the media focus and social implications including the loss of sense of community and safety and that peopl... ... middle of paper ... ...ve the same objective of improving people’s quality life or well-being, all planning is not social planning because other types of planning are used to fill in the gaps of social planning to achieve that common objective. The different focus and approach in achieving an objective set different kinds of planning apart. There will continue to be challenges such as social inequality and NIMBY-ism that planners must face with the public and private sector in planning and decision making in the future. Also, there is a need for better communication between planners, politicians, private policy makers, land developers and residents so that action can be take and plans can be implemented. Planners will also need to promote more tolerance in people when viewing situations from another perspective which is necessary to improve the quality and well-being of a community.

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