Efforts to teach students pursuing graduate degrees in urban and regional planning are often frustrated by the "case books" that have been prepared for use by law professors teaching similar courses. Dawn Jourdan and Eric J. Strauss have attempted to take their concerns to heart in the design of this Planning for Wicked Problems: A Planner's Guide to Land Use Law.
- Each chapter begins with a planning problem that is complex and has no "correct" answer. Students should answer this hypothetical before reading the subsequent sections of each of the chapters.
- The second section of each chapter provides a primer for each topic. This primer is meant to summarize the basic principles of the law and to identify the types of questions relevant to planners when such issues arise.
- The third section of each chapter includes a series of edited court opinions. The cases selected have been identified by American Institute of Certified Planners as those fundamental to planning education.
- Each chapter concludes with an answer to the proposed wicked planning problem.
Planning for Wicked Problems has been written to demonstrate to future planners how the law may be a useful tool in helping them invent solutions to wicked planning problems. The book features a companion website for additional study and review.
Dawn Jourdan is an Associate Professor and Director of the Division of Regional and City Planning at the University of Oklahoma. Previously, she held a joint appointment between the Colleges of Design, Construction, and Planning and the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida. She began her academic career as an Assistant Professor of Planning at Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas. Before returning to academia, Dawn worked for the State and Local Government Division of Holland & Knight LLPs Chicago offices. Dawn earned a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from Florida State University in 2004, a joint degree in law and urban planning from the University of Kansas in 2000, and a B.S. in Urban Affairs and Theatre Arts from Bradley University in 1996.
Eric J. Strauss is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Director of Graduate Programs in SPDC at MSU. He is a former Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Program. He has more than 40 years of experience in planning practice in both the public and private sector. Dr. Strauss has been a planner for federal and state governments, a City and County Planning Director, a City Attorney and a consultant to more than 50 organizations, both public and private, on a wide variety of planning related issues. He has prepared many comprehensive plans and land use regulations at all levels of detail for many communities.
