The purpose of this course is to expose students to various perspectives on state and local policy in the U.S. through the lens of one especially topical policy area: development policy. The course begins with a survey of current federal, state, and local policies in the inter-connected areas of economic development, growth management, land use, housing, and resource management. The course exposes students to several theoretical perspectives on development policy, including economic, legal, political, sociological, environmental, and planning perspectives. These theoretical perspectives serve as lenses through which to study and understand current policy problems and debates related to development policy. These perspectives provide students with the analytic tools to complete the course's main project, which will be a group research project on a topic currently being considered by policy makers in the Ann Arbor area.
