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XPS 101

Reclaiming Communities: Practice in Applying Humanistic Design to Systemic Bias in Community Development

Department
Instruction Mode Live, On-line
Course Start Date Summer 2024
Majora Carte with her book: Reclaiming Communities
Majora Carter
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Majora Carte with her book: Reclaiming Communities
Majora Carter
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Description

 

We are pleased to offer this limited opportunity to learn directly from Majora Carter. In this live on-line course, class size is limited to 16 to allow for an engaging and thought provoking educational experience. 

Majora Carter is a real estate developer, urban revitalization strategy consultant, MacArthur Fellow and Peabody Award winning broadcaster. She's responsible for the creation of numerous economic developments, technology inclusion and green infrastructure projects, policies and job training placement systems. She is also a lecturer at Princeton University's Keller Center. Majora is quoted on the walls of the Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture in DC: "Nobody should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one” - which is also the subtitle of her 2022 book, Reclaiming Your Community. 

Reclaiming Communities explores the humanistic design practices applied by social entrepreneurs from low-status communities near Princeton (our “clients”) that counteract that history of systemic bias with innovative development projects designed to retain the talent from within their communities. Students will have the opportunity to learn from and contribute to their efforts. 

Program

 

Weitzman Professional Series

Cost

 

$999 

Duration

 

5 weeks (Course meets every Thursday 11AM-1PM Start on July 13th)

Effort

 

6-10 hours per week to complete all aspects of the course.

CEUs

  

8 AIA Learning Units 

Location &
Delivery 

 

Live, Online (Live courses will be recorded and posted for student review)

Who should attend? 

   Professionals with a Bachelor's Degree working in any of the following fields: Urban Designers + Planners, Landscape Architects + Architects, Entrepreneurs, Community Activists, CDC Leaders, Small Business Owners, Social Entrepreneurs, Developers

Level of Instruction

 

This is a non-credit course for working professionals taught at the graduate level.

Class Size

  

Minimum Class Size: 8
Maximum Class Size: 16

Software 

 

Microsoft Office


Course Schedule and Learning Objectives

Week 1

Thursday July 13, 2023
11:00 am - 1:00pm EST. 

  

Introduction: Why consider talent retention as a community development strategy?

  • What is “talent retention" within business and community development contexts?
  • What are the typical types of real estate development in low status communities?

Additional Information

Class will discuss various forms of community development in low status communities, and include an interactive role playing activity. Students will improvise assumptions of community/real estate development narratives, from perspectives of community members, developers, government officials and more. They will be given character motivations to act out.

Week 2

Thursday July 20, 2023
11:00 am - 1:00 pm EST

  

Acknowledging, Challenging and Overcoming Assumptions, Part 1

  • Economic stagnation in low status communities despite decades of increasing philanthropic and government spending.

Additional Information

Learning the roles played by established institutions and culture from government to education to media and beyond with regard to community development. Referring back to the “roles” students improvised from last week’s lab, we will examine what assumptions were embodied in their assessments. As a class, students will engage in their first studio work by discussing client brief and ideating strategies for project development. Students will be assembled into their final project teams.

Week 3

Thursday July 27, 2023
11:00 am - 1:00pm EST. 

  

Acknowledging, Challenging and Overcoming Assumptions, Part 2

  • Inequality of all kinds, steadfastly exists, but what has led to this long-term economic stagnation in low status communities? Policy? Culture? Fear of change? Some, none or all of the above?  Who defines it?

Additional Information

Students will be assembled into their respective teams in virtual rooms and will engage in their first studio work. Their in-class project will be to analyze and critique the project design in the client brief. At the end of class, teams will share key findings.

Week 4

Thursday
August 3, 2023
11:00 am - 1:00pm EST. 

 

Thinking Outside the Box: Analyzing Potential Clients

  • Discussing strategies deployed by potential clients will determine if their work supports talent retention community development.

Additional Information

Teams will assemble in virtual breakout rooms and will apply their developing lens to search for trends and create a design solution that could support hypothetical the social entrepreneur client.

Week 5

Thursday
August 10, 2023
11:00 am - 1:00pm EST. 

 

Final Presentations

  • On the last day of class, all teams will present their final project.

 

 

Full Course Description

Reclaiming Communities: Applying Humanistic Design to Systemic Bias in Community Development
Assumptions and practices by the nonprofit industrial complex, government agencies and affordable housing developers treat poor communities, especially poor communities of color as problems to be managed by those from outside these communities. 

The Reclamation Studio explores the humanistic design practices applied by a hypothetical social entrepreneur from a low-status community (our “client”) that counteracts historic systemic bias with innovative development projects designed to retain local talent.  Students will have the opportunity to act as a consultant to design a project, learn from and contribute to their efforts. 

This class will challenge students interested in real estate and community development, design and planning as well as social justice to consider the ways in which real estate and community development and planning have happened in the US, and how they have entrenched racial, environmental and economic inequality in the US.

Students of Reclaiming Communities will also investigate how our “client” and other real-world examples: 

  1. counteract legacy policies and approaches with innovative development projects that draw upon and work to retain the talent from within their community.
  2. allow students the opportunity to learn from and contribute to their efforts.

 

 

Refer to Penn Course Search for the official roster and details of courses offered in a particular term.