From July 24-August 4, 2023 the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (UHM DURP) and Diponegoro University (UNDIP PWK) in Semarang, Indonesia offered their second hybrid international summer course entitled “Resilient Communities for Sustainable Cities: Understanding Urban Informality, Inclusion, and Innovation.” The course was co-organized by Prof. Ashok Das and Assoc. Prof. Priyam Das from UH Mānoa, and their program co-leads Prof. Wiwandari Handayani and Dr. Rukuh Setiadi from UNDIP. The event was coordinated by Assoc. Profs. Yudi Basuki and Wakhidah Kurniawati. 34 students attended – 3 from UHM, 9 from UNDIP, 2 Indonesian students from other institutions, and 20 other students attended online.
The course aimed to support students in developing nuanced understandings of planning challenges related to urbanization, climate change, and evolving institutions in the Global South. Students were also encouraged to reflect critically on the adequacy of extant planning theory and practice approaches to grapple with a range of issues, especially those that are uniquely contextual and seem intractable. The course comprised of lectures on relevant topics and field research fundamentals; site visits to five settlements that exemplify unique planning issues; and learning from the local communities. Students conducted studio-style group work to identify and analyze core issues in the study areas, and conceptualize possible interventions.
Embedded into this summer experience was an August 2-3, 2023 Summer Workshop on Critical Research, Writing, and Publishing for Young Scholars of Urban Planning and Policy (Semarang), co-organized by UNDIP’s Prof. Wiwandari Handayani, UHM’s Prof. Ashok Das and Assoc. Prof. Priyam Das. The workshop had 12 participants: and most also came from urban planning and related departments at Indonesian universities, with priority given to scholars from smaller, outlying Indonesian islands.
Read UNDIP’s review here, and view their Course Booklet here!