Abstract
In the profession of planning, a highly political activity, decisions invariably entail ethical decisions. The sensitization of students toward ethical dilemmas has become more critical as increasing urbanization and large agglomerations require more complex decision making for development. With many actors intervening in planning decisions, planning practice today faces many pressures particularly in the context of privatization and real estate interests influencing decisions related with land use, development controls, etc. This paper, in the first section, provides an introduction to professional ethics. In planning education, articulation of professional ethics is through the syllabi. It reviews syllabi of undergraduate program of selected planning institutes. Many of the curricula invariably include a course on professional practice with a module on code of conduct. Discussion on ethics is not easy because it can easily degenerate into a cliché’ on one hand and is extremely challenging to incorporate into every day life on the other. This is particularly true when the social context in which the planning education and profession is situated places insignificant importance to the question of values. Third section with the help of examples from plan making of Delhi highlights the context of practice and the challenges this practice imposes on teaching of planning ethics. Fourth section suggests moving from mere familiarity to code of conduct to much more intensive teaching of ethics through experiential learning and case study method for the students to develop skills to undertake ethical decision making. This paper concludes that for planning to gain more legitimacy as a profession in the present context, planning education needs to give greater importance to the question of ethics in planning in India and suggests an approach to teaching of professional ethics.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Introduction of subject ‘Human Values in Planning’ was a part of a requirement by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to introduce value education at all levels including higher education. Most of the engineering colleges introduced this subject.
- 2.
These two sections of the paper are taken from a paper presented in APSA conference 2015 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
References
AICTE. (2008). Model curriculum for undergraduate programme in town planning. New Delhi: AICTE.
AICTE. (2012). Model curriculum for undergraduate programme in town planning. New Delhi: AICTE.
Bayles, M. D. (1986). Professional power and self regulation. Business and Professional Ethics Journal, 5(2), 26–46.
Bolan, R. S. (1983). The structure of ethical choice in planning practice. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 3(1), 23–34.
Campbell, H. (2012). Planning ethics and rediscovering the idea of planning. Planning Theory, 11(4), 379–399.
Campbell, H., & Marshall, R. (1998). Utilitarianism’s Bad Breath? A Re-evaluation of the public interest justification for planning. Planning Theory, 1(2), 163–187.
Delhi Development Authority. (2014). Master Plan for Delhi-2021 (incorporating modifications upto March 2014), draft compilation for reference only. New Delhi: Delhi Development Authority.
Government of India. (2014). The National Capital Territories of Delhi (Special Provisions) Act, 2014. New Delhi: Government of India.
Hendler, S. (2001). Planning ethics. International Encyclopaedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences: Elsevier.
Kaufman, J. L. (1987). Teaching planning students about strategising, boundary spanning and ethics—Part of the new planning theory. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 6(2), 108–115.
Ministry of Urban Development. (2007). Master Plan for Delhi-2021. New Delhi: Government of India.
Taylor, N. (1992). Professional ethics in town planning: What is a code of professional conduct for? The Town Planning Review, 63(3), 227–241.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prakash, P. (2016). Ethics and Planning Education in India. In: Kumar, A., Meshram, D., Gowda, K. (eds) Urban and Regional Planning Education . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0608-1_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0608-1_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0607-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0608-1
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)