Module Identifier GGM2030  
Module Title RECENT TRENDS IN POLICY AND POLITICS  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator Dr Martin R Jones  
Semester Semester 2  
Other staff Deborah P Dixon, Professor Mark A Goodwin, Dr Bill Edwards, Dr Michael J Woods  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   11 x 1.5 hrs (as part of 3 hour sessions)  
  Lecture   11 x 1.5 hrs (as part of 3 hour sessions)  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Course Work: 1 long essay (max 4,000 words)   50%  
  Semester Assessment   Course Work: 2 essays (max 2,000 words each - 20% each)   40%  
  Semester Assessment   Presentation:   10%  
  Supplementary Assessment   Students will have to resubmit any component of the above which they fail to complete to a satisfactory standard.    

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module, students will be able to

Brief description

This core module will introduce students to the relations between state, governance, policy and politics. It will explore the diverse processes through which policies are formulated, delivered and practiced. The module will also consider the influence of non-state forces and the resulting political geographies of policy. Attention is also given to how policy is delivered at different spatial scales through mechanisms and institutional arrangements associated with notions of partnership, regimes and coalitions. The module will also consider how policy is constructed and contested through issues of citizenship, social exclusion and social inclusion.

Content

Introduction
Course philosophy and approach

Section 1 : Formulating and Analysing Policy

1. Policy, 'relevance' and political geography
2. Rural governance and rural policy
3. Urban governance and urban policy
4. European regional policy and its spatial consequences
5. 'Fast policy', policy borrowing, and the politics of scale

Section 2 : The Scaling and Delivery of Policy

6. Localism in North America and Britain
7. Devolution and Regionalism I: European experience
8. Devolution and Regionalism II: UK experience
9. Debating the 'new regionalism'

Section 3 : Constructing and Contesting Policy - Citizenship and Community

10. Social exclusion and inclusion: themes and issues
11. Social exclusion and inclusion: case studies

Reading Lists

Books
Ham C and Hill M. (1993) The Policy Process in the Modern Capitalist State.
Healey P. (1999) Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies.
Jones M R. (1999) New Institutional Spaces: TECs and the Remaking of Economic Governance.
Lauria M (ed). (1997) Reconstructing Urban Regime Theory.
Oatley N. (1998) Cities, Economic Competition and Urban Policy.
Sibley D. (1995) Geographies of Exclusion.
Winter M. (1996) Rural Politics.
Cloke P and Little J. (1990) The Rural State? Limits to Planning in Rural Society.
Cochrane A. (1993) Whatever Happened to Local Government?.
Cresswell T. (1996) In Place/Out of PLace: Geography, Ideology and Transgression.
Duncan S and Goodwin M. (1988) The Local State and Uneven Development.