Progressive Planning Practice

This book provides justification, a framework, and examples for an emergent alternative approach to planning and community development. Planning, design and community development have often been practiced in a monocultural way, as if all communities are the same, meaning that communities of color and low-income communities are often overlooked or ignored, if not outright harmed. This book highlights a new approach for transformative community development, where worldviews are rooted in the culture of communities of color and everyday people can find expression in decisions about a community’s future. This transformative approach gives voice to people on the margins, unapologetically embraces issues of social justice, and seeks to increase the overall health and wellbeing of the community. This book explores the motives, vision, tenets, and challenges of this transformative paradigm, and provides numerous case examples from the U.S. and Canada. Including a range of diverse contributors, chapters explore themes such as decolonial planning, climate injustice, Black planning, ethics, and more. This book is essential for professionals, students and professors of urban planning, design, and community development in the US.