Community Development and Planning, MA

Overview

Community development isn’t a one-size fits all endeavor

Community development is so much more than blueprints and zoning. It’s about cultivating spaces where people can flourish. Spaces with enough green space to play and relax. Spaces that offer economic opportunities that allow people to realize their dreams and aspirations. Places where people have access to quality, culturally responsive food, education, healthcare, and housing. At Clark, you will learn about the power structures that shape community spaces, and how to create processes in which community members have a say in those power structures.

Change happens at the speed of trust

Community development happens in the context of relationships. As practitioners, we can’t impose our own visions on communities. Rather, through community-engaged learning, students collaborate with community members and other stakeholders to understand each community’s unique strengths, and then collectively create strategies so that people’s dreams can take root and grow.

Be a partner in a community’s transformation

Grounded in principles and practices of ethical community engagement, we provide students with knowledge and skills in finance, project management, monitoring & evaluation, geo-spatial analysis, and non-profit leadership. These skills are needed to be a practitioner who can be a partner and ally in a community’s transformation.

Community Planning and Development Course of Study

The M.A. in Community Development and Planning requires a minimum of 10 graduate course units, combining skills/methods courses and elective courses that link theory with practice. The final requirement is one experiential learning credit.

Program Requirements

• Common Seminar (.5 unit)

• SSJ 30180 - Principles and Ethics in Community Engagement

• Sustainability (1 unit)

• SSJ 365 - Cities, Regions, Climate Change & Health
• SSJ 367 - Climate Change Adaptation Planning and Implementation
• SSJ 334 - Planning and Zoning for Community Developers
• SSJ 332 - Sustainable Development Assessment and Planning
• SSJ 328 - Food Security and Climate Change for non-SFS students
• SSJ 30701 - Beyond the Population Bomb: Rethinking Population and The Environment in an Era of Climate Change can also fulfill the intersectionality requirement
• SSJ 30245 - Natural Resource Management
• SSJ 30205 - Climate Change, Energy and Development
• SSJ 30287 - Fundamentals of Environmental Science for non-ES&P students
• SSJ 30118 - Science Meets Policy in the Real World for non-ES&P students
• SSJ 30117 - Place-Based Ecological Knowledge
• CES 303 - Climate Change Mitigation Planning and Implementation
• GEOG 363 - The Climate System and Global Environmental Change

• Social Change and Institutional Transformation (1 unit)

• SSJ 341 - Nongovernment Organizations: Catalysts for Development
• SSJ 383 - Cultures of Exile
• SSJ 309 - Policy Analysis
• SSJ 30115 - Community Power, Community Change
• SSJ 30247 - Development Economics, its Discontents and Alternatives
• SSJ 30191 - Climate Narratives
• SSJ 31218 - Environmental Governance and Justice for non-ES&P students
• SSJ 30121 - Food Systems: Place, Politics and Policy for non-SFS students
• SSJ 30101 - The Political Economy of Food and the Ethics of Eating
• CES 302 - Social and Economic Dimensions of Climate Change
• CES 305 - Climate Justice in Action, Advocacy, and Activism

• Intersectionality (.5 to 1 unit)

• SSJ 357 - Sex and development: the intersection of sexuality, morality, and modernity
• SSJ 31119 - Intersectional Justice Movements
• SSJ 30322 - Adolescent Girls and International Development
• SSJ 303 - Youth Work: Practice and Social Justice
• SSJ 30297 - Refugees, Forced Migration, and Belonging
• SSJ 30248 - Gender and Health
• SSJ 30327 - Ideologies of Race in Development for non-ID students
• GEOG 340 - Graduate Seminar in Critical Mobilities
• PSYC 325 - Intersectional Psychology

• Experiential Learning (1 unit)

• SSJ 306 - Environmental Knowledge, Governance and Justice Studio
• SSJ 398 - Internship
• SSJ 30240 - Community Development Planning Studio
• SSJ 30113 - Farming for Multispecies Justice: Urban Food Security, Racial Capitalism, and Abolitionist Agroecology Studio
• SSJ 30397 - People on the Move Research Studio

• Summer Global Leaning Collaborative

• Methods of Inquiry and Subject Matter Electives (2 units)

• Research

• SSJ 30291 - Qualitative Research Methods

• Human Rights and Mobility’s Inquiry

• SSJ 347 - Human Rights Strategy, Tactics, and Practice
• SSJ 330 - Theory and Methods in Genocide and Human Rights Studies
• SSJ 30108 - Research Methods for Forced Migration

• Independent Research Options

• SSJ 30213 - Master’s Final Research Paper
• SSJ 397 - Master’s Thesis
• SSJ 399 - Directed Study

• Development

• SSJ 395 - Culture, Environment, and Development
• SSJ 333 - Development Mgmt in Developing Countries
• SSJ 329 - Property and Community
• SSJ 30204 - Advanced Community Development Finance and Research
• SSJ 30112 - Housing Policy and Practice
• SSJ 360 - History and Practice of Development for non-ID students
• SSJ 344 - Going Local: Community Development and Planning for non-CDP students

• Global and Community Health

• SSJ 377 - Approaches to Global Health
• SSJ 308 - Health (in)Equity: Social Determinants and Policy Solutions

• Refugees, Immigrants, and Human Rights

• SSJ 30235 - Trafficking: Globalization and Its Illicit Commodities
• SSJ 30231 - Humanitarian Assistances in Complex Emergencies/Disasters
• SSJ 30107 - Forced Migration and the City

• Education, Youth and Development

• SSJ 314 - Education and Youth in a Global Context
• SSJ 340 - Fundamentals of Youth Work
• SSJ 30365 - Global Issues in Education

• Food

• SSJ 30130 - Comparative Food Systems of the Caribbean and Central America
• SSJ 30152 - Plants, People, and Fungi

• Fundamental Skills (2 units)

• Project Management

• SSJ 361 - Project Management for Social Change
• MSPM 3840 - Project Management Fundamentals
• MSPM 3850 - Project Leadership and Organization
• MSPM 3770 - Project and Portfolio Economics, Financial and Procurement

• Monitoring and Evaluation

• SSJ 30281 - Community Needs and Resource Analysis
• SSJ 319 - Quantitative Methods and Statistics For Evaluators
• SSJ 30229 - Program Monitoring and Evaluation Fundamentals
• SSJ 30203 - Program Evaluation for Youth and Community Development Initiatives

• Spatial Analysis

• SSJ 310 - Intro to Geographic Information Science
• SSJ 388 - Advanced Vector GIS
• SSJ 30393 - Social Applications of GIS
• SSJ 30306 - GIS for International Development
• SSJ 30360 - Spatial Analysis for Health
• GEOG 371 - Computer Programming for GIS
• GEOG 307 - Web Mapping and Open Source GIS
• GEOG 303 - Python Programming
• GEOG 319 - Spatial Database Development in Practice
• GEOG 397 - Advanced Raster GIS
• GEOG 383 - Introduction to Remote Sensing

• Organizational Change and Leadership

• SSJ 30289 - Community Development Finance for non-CDP students
• SSJ 335 - Strategies for Community Organizing
• SSJ 345 - CDP Practice: Reflection and Deliberate Practice
• SSJ 31118 - Non Profit Resource Development
• SSJ 30296 - Nonprofit Management

12 Unit MA/MS Degree - Research or Practice Track Requirements

 For the master’s degree with the Research Option (selected at the time of admission; fall start only), students will take 12 course units in the following categories:

1. Two required core courses
2. One course each in Sustainability Studies, Social Change and Institutional Transformation, Fundamental Skills, Intersectional Analysis, Principles and Ethics in Community Engagement, and Experiential Learning
3. Three courses in Methods of Inquiry & Subject Matter Electives
4. Two units of substantive research: one directed study (SSJ 399 ) and either the master’s thesis ( SSJ 397 ), or the master’s final research paper (SSJ 30213 ) with an emphasis on producing an article for publication.

For the master’s degree with the Practice Option (selected at any time during the program), students will take 12 course units in the following categories:

1. Two required core courses
2. One course each in Sustainability Studies, Social Change and Institutional Transformation, Intersectional Analysis, and Principles and Ethics in Community Engagement
3. Two courses in Methods of Inquiry & Subject Matter Electives
4. Three courses in Fundamental Skills
5. Two units of Experiential Learning

Sustainability and Social Justice Program Faculty

David Bell, Ed.D.

Ramón Borges-Méndez, Ph.D

Nigel Brissett, Ph.D.

Cynthia Caron, Ph.D.

Timothy Downs, D.Env.

Anita Fábos, Ph.D.

Jude Fernando, Ph.D.

Ellen Foley, Ph.D.

Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Ph.D.

Eman Lasheen, Ph.D.

Ken MacLean, Ph.D.

Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Ph.D.

Margaret Post, Ph.D.

Laurie Ross, Ph.D.

Morgan Ruelle, Ph.D.

Department Instructors

Jennifer Safford-Farquharson M.Ed

Dodi Swope M.Ed

Frank Kartheiser, M.A.

Kelly Lynema, M.A., AICP

Nastasia Lawton-Sticklor, PhD