Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:45:13.436Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Establishing principles for value-driven policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

Catherine Durose
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Liz Richardson
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Get access

Summary

This contribution from New Mexico-based planners and researchers – working as part of a broader collective involving students and traditional communities – demonstrates how the explicit statement of principles informs value-driven practice and contributions to policy. Coupled with the intent to make strategic interventions in the policy process, the Resource Center for Raza Planning (RCRP)1 was able not only to influence policy decisions, but to challenge those decisions which may prove problematic for traditional communities and provide a platform and method to propose more inclusive, progressive alternatives. Starting from a position informed by identity and emotional connection to place, the RCRP drew together different forms of expertise: an understanding of the rhythms and dynamics of policy making, technical planning expertise, skills in participatory resources and experiential knowledge. This expertise, guided by clarity of purpose, was then mobilised in order to make successive and sustained interventions in place-shaping.

Over the span of the Resource Center for Raza Planning’s (RCRP) nearly 20-year history, students have worked alongside researchers, professionals and community residents on projects and programmes related to land use and zoning, economic development, the provision of infrastructure, urban design, water quality and availability, transportation, employment, cultural preservation, youth development, agriculture and neighbourhood change. This contribution is a brief description of some of those activities and how a set of values and principles were employed to influence the outcome of planning and policy decisions and their impacts on the shaping of place.

Statements of purpose and principles

A deep-seated love of place and concern for its future was the basis for commitment to the work of Raza Planning. Students understood growth policies as a continuation of historical patterns that exacerbated economic, social and cultural inequalities. They believed that the field of community and regional planning offered a vehicle to both challenge problematic development decisions and propose better alternatives. Thus, RCRP exists to contribute to the efforts towards wise development decisions. Such a statement was a call for engagement and insertion into planning and policy making. This decision to engage was accompanied by a conscious and explicitly stated mission and principles that provided the beacon to guide the purpose and direction for action:

Resource Center for Raza Planning was formed to contribute to the community development efforts of traditional communities in New Mexico.

Type
Chapter
Information
Designing Public Policy for Co-production
Theory, Practice and Change
, pp. 103 - 114
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×