University of Southern California
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
PPD 613: International Planning and Development Laboratory Workshop
Instructors
Peter J. Robertson, PhD
Jonathan Van Speier, PhD
SPPD Overseas Laboratories
This is one of several courses offered as an SPPD Overseas Professional Laboratory by the School of Policy, Planning, and Development at the University of Southern California. All such courses are designed to provide participants with consulting-type experience, applying classroom knowledge in a real world professional context outside the United States. Lab participants work in teams to address a particular project in the host country that is identified in consultation with the project client. They are expected to analyze information pertinent to this project and its context, and then to produce a set of recommendations regarding how to accomplish project objectives. While some background research and preparation is necessary prior to leaving the US, the bulk of the assignment is undertaken on an intensive basis in the field. This on-site work culminates in a presentation to the client.
The SPPD Overseas Labs are designed for graduate students in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development, although in principle they are open to graduate students from other disciplines as well (with permission of the instructor). Furthermore, they are intended to draw students from each of SPPD’s core Masters Degree programs: Public Administration, Planning, Public Policy, Real Estate Development, and Health Administration. The overall mix of students from these programs will vary from one Lab to the next depending upon location, instructor, client, project, and other considerations. While SPPD students form the core of the Lab work teams, they may also include SPPD alumni and/or student counterparts from collaborating institutions overseas.
The SPPD Overseas Laboratories are run as intensive field-based educational experiences. Students are expected to operate in a professional capacity while in the field. There will be a series of background presentations and lectures given by local and international experts during the Lab, and students are expected to draw effectively upon this resource material. Questions asked of these experts should be on point and clearly articulated, and should demonstrate a solid grounding in the relevant subject matter. More generally, students are expected to orient themselves promptly to their new surroundings and to adapt wherever appropriate to local customs (including banquets and social events).
SPPD Brasil Laboratory
The Lab will take place in Rio de Janeiro, from June 3 to June 15. Dr. Jonathan (Van) Speier will be serving as an instructor and will be involved in Lab activities during the two weeks in Rio.
Our academic partner in Rio will be the Brasilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE) at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). FGV is a leading private university in Brasil, with EBAPE offering masters and doctoral degrees in business and public administration. The Dean of EBAPE, Professor Bianor Cavalcanti, received his Masters in Public Administration from USC. Throughout the Lab, students will have access to FGV’s classrooms, library, and computer/internet facilities, and some FGV students are likely to participate in the Lab as well.
Context
Rio de Janeiro is a city (and state) of numerous complexities, contradictions, and challenges. Over the past four centuries, it has experienced the excitement of being a political, social, cultural, financial, and economic center, while undergoing a transition from capital of the Portuguese empire, to capital of the Brasilian nation, to capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The city incorporates an extensive manufacturing-based economy functioning alongside a complex service industry embedded in a vibrant tourist sea-side resort, world-renowned as “the marvelous city” for its natural beauty, charm, and excitement. Rio is socially and culturally diverse, sophisticated, and creative, blending its indigenous people with those from European, African, Middle Eastern, and Asian origins.
Rio is also a city facing many challenges. Its economic performance has yet to fully recover from the blow it suffered as a result of the move of the nation’s capital from Rio to Brasília starting in the 1960s. The city appears to have stagnated as Brasil’s industrial, financial, and agricultural centers moved to other parts of the country. It faces the social challenges brought about by the fact that as much as one fourth of its population lives in slums or “favelas.” Its political leaders are confronted with these challenges that demand great imagination, initiative, and determination. At times, either local governments or organizations representing private interests have proposed new plans and ideas to help in the development of the city. However, little has ensued from those proposals.
Project
The project for the Brasil Lab focuses on the Complexo Lagunar de Jacarepaguá, a system of three interconnected lakes in Barra da Tijuca, a growing suburban region in Rio de Janeiro. The project will investigate how the quality of water in these lakes can be improved in the near term, while also considering how the long-run development of this area can be conducted so as to insure that the lakes serve as a useful resource to local inhabitants and tourists visiting the area. Lab participants will address four primary themes:
1. Restoring the lakes
The primary focus here is on the approaches that can be taken to reduce the level of pollution in the lakes, including potential use of innovative “technologies” that might be applicable to this situation. In addition to remedial efforts intended to improve existing water quality, it will also be important to identify steps to take to reduce the amount of pollution deposited into the lakes and the streams that feed it.
2. Regional development
The key question here is how future development of this area will unfold, including the extent to which the process follows an existing plan, whether existing plans need to be modified or new plans created, and how any such plans can be regulated and enforced. Concepts and ideas regarding “smart growth” and “sustainable development” are relevant here as they provide guidelines regarding land use, environmental protection, stakeholder participation, etc. Decisions regarding future patterns of development obviously have implications in terms of the possibility of improving and maintaining the quality of the water in the lake system.
3. Organization and governance
One issue here has to do with the restructuring of the Ministry of Environment to better integrate the three organizational units directly involved in the effort to restore the lake system. More generally, there are a number of stakeholders who have some kind of interest in the quality of the lakes such that effective governance of this “common pool resource” may require the development of effective inter-organizational, cross-sectoral governance mechanisms. In this context, the question of if and how to promote citizen participation in the governance process can also be addressed.
4. Recreation and tourism
The main concern here is whether a concerted effort should be made to attract more tourists to this area and, if so, how to insure that the expansion of tourist activity contributes to rather than detracts from the overall quality of life in this area and, more generally, is compatible with the principles of sustainable development. In this context, a particular question is whether and how the lake system can be used for a broader range of recreational activities that could serve as a draw for higher levels of tourist activity. Another question focuses on how local residents can be induced to take “ownership” of the lakes and thus be motivated to help protect them.
Client
The client for the Lab is Dr. Marilene de Oliveira Ramos Múrias dos Santos (Dr. Marilene Ramos). She is the President of SERLA – Órgão Gestor de Recursos Hídricos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (the Managing Organ of Water Resources of the State of Rio de Janeiro). SERLA is an agency created by the government to be responsible for projects intended to protect the state’s rivers, canals, and lakes. It operates through private/public committees with stakeholders from civil society, individuals, companies, and municipal and state governments. The SERLA website (in Portuguese only) is http://www.serla.rj.gov.br/index.asp. Dr. Ramos is an engineer by training, and her primary area of expertise is water resource management with an interest in sustainable development. Dr. Ramos is also a professor at EBAPE, and her FGV website is http://www.ebape.fgv.br/english/academic/asp/dsp_professor.asp?cd_pro=1170.
Course Objectives
The learning objectives of the class are as follows:
· Integration and application of classroom knowledge to a specified problem context. Relevant subjects include cost-benefit analysis, project management and evaluation, regional economic development, infrastructure and urban planning, institutional assessment, policy analysis and evaluation, etc.;
· Translation of professional practice in a cross-cultural setting. Professional practice as developed in the United States is embedded in a particular social, institutional, economic and cultural context. A key objective of the course is for participants to gain a better understanding of how to adapt their professional practice to suit contexts that are often quite different from those in the U.S.;
· Affirmation of professional norms of conduct. Punctuality, thoroughness, reliability, communication skills, professional appearance, integrity and ability to work well in multi-cultural teams are examples of the professional norms promoted in this class.
Course Requirements
Background Reading
You are required to read one of the two following books, which are available in the USC bookstore:
Castor, B. V. J. (2003). Brazil is Not for Amateurs. Xlibris Corporation.
Novinger, T. (2004). Communicating with Brazilians: When “Yes” Means “No”. Austin: University of Texas Press.
You are also required to read the following summary of Agenda 21, an action plan for sustainable development that resulted from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which is posted in the Course Documents section on Blackboard:
United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1993). The Global Partnership for Environment and Development: A Guide to Agenda 21 (Post Rio Edition). New York: United Nations.
A number of other readings that discuss various issues with some relevance to this project have been posted on Blackboard and are identified below. These articles and chapters are not required, but are available as sources of information, ideas, and additional references regarding these topics. At best, this material is just a starting point for your background research. You are expected to do a more thorough scanning of relevant literature to identify, for example, baseline data, analytic frameworks, insightful ideas, innovative solutions, and best practices pertinent to the particular circumstances and concerns confronted by project stakeholders. This background material should help you develop a solid understanding of the problems and potential solutions and thus provide the basis for a thoughtful, creative set of recommendations regarding how to ensure the sustainable development of Barra da Tijuca.
Additional readings:
“Brazilian Macroeconomy,” 2004. (This Deloitte report addresses the economy of Brazil and the state of Rio de Janeiro.)
“Urban and Regional Planning in Brazil: The Role of the Federal Government,” by Ricardo Farret, 2001.
“History Counts: A Comparative Analysis of Racial/Color Categorization in US and Brazilian Censuses,” by Melissa Nobles, 2000.
“Urban Slums Reports: The Case of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,” by Helia Nacif Xavier and Fernanda Magalhães, n.d.
“The Myth of Marginality Revisited: The Case of Favelas in Rio de Janeiro, 1969-2003,” by Janice E. Perlman, 2005.
“Reducing Poverty in Brazil: Lessons Learned and Challenges for the Future,” by Samuel A. Morley, 2003.
“Living Cities: A Special Report on Community Regeneration,” 1999. (This report discusses a number of cities including Rio.)
“Proposal of Indicators to Assess Urban Sustainability in Brazil,” by M. Fehr, K. A. Sousa, A. F. N. Pereira, and L. C. Peliver, 2004.
“The Citizens of Porto Alegre,” by Gianpaolo Baiocchi, 2006. (This article discusses the participatory budgeting process that was developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil.)
“Mainstreaming Environmental Sustainability into South Africa’s Integrated Development Planning Process,” by Merle Sowman and A. L. Brown, 2006.
“Participatory Evaluation of Collaborative and Water Management: Insights from the Field,” by Cecilia Ferreyra and Phil Beard, 2007. (This discussion is based on experiences in Ontario, Canada.)
“Sustainable Development and Tourism,” by Jonathan Van Speier, 2006. (This is a summary of his dissertation, which evaluated sixty cases of sustainable tourism in terms of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators.)
“The Challenge of Sustainable Tourism,” by Stuart McMinn, 1997.
“Is Ecotourism Sustainable?,” by Geoffrey Wall, 1997.
“Community Participation in the Real World: Opportunities and Pitfalls in New Governance Spaces,” by Marilyn Taylor, 2007.
“Right Answers, Wrong Questions: Environmental Justice as Urban Research,” by Lisa Schweitzer and Max Stephenson Jr., 2007.
Assignments
Book summary. Each student is required to write a 1-2 page (single-spaced) summary of the book you read in which you clarify the key lessons you learned from the book regarding Brasilian culture and the challenges of or requirements for getting things done in Brasil. This summary is due by 8 PM on Sunday, June 3, when we meet for the first time at the Hotel Novo Mundo.
Background reports. Each student is required to write a 2-3 page (single-spaced) report summarizing the background research you did in preparation for the on-site analysis of the project. This report should clarify the topic(s) you investigated, the materials you examined, and the findings or conclusions that you think are most relevant to or important for the project.
In addition to these individual reports, the information generated through your separate research activities should be integrated into a single background report that lays the foundation for the subsequent on-site analysis. This report should aim to do the following:
1) summarize the key relevant characteristics of the Brasilian context and the local realities and conditions;
2) briefly describe the project and clarify the basic objectives to be accomplished;
3) propose frameworks, tools, or methods that could be used to help analyze the situation and derive recommendations; and
4) identify approaches, solutions, best practices, etc. that have been used elsewhere to deal with similar issues and concerns;
5) specify additional questions that need to be explored further while in Rio.
The report should address these issues with regards to the four primary project themes identified above. Your individual reports and the integrated report are due (via email or posted on Blackboard) by 5 PM (PDT) on Friday, June1.
Presentation to client. The primary output of the Lab is a professional presentation to the client and a panel of experts that summarizes the results of your analysis and assessment and identifies your recommendations regarding the action steps needed to accomplish project objectives. Building on your background report, this presentation should aim to incorporate the following elements: