This course is an introduction to law and the legal system in South Africa, and focusses on key pieces of national and provincial legislation that are related to urban and regional planning. This may include legislation dealing with spatial development, environmental management, housing, local government, and land reform.The course provides candidates with an understanding of the legal system in South Africa, and those key pieces of legislation that affect planning. It includes discussion of the South African constitution and its implications for planning, national legislation around planning, provincial and local government legislation and planning, as well as sectoral legislation and planning.

This course addresses the historical development of the planning profession, debates around the concept of professionalism, professional bodies, professional ethics and forms of practice (in public and private sectors).

In this integrative project based course, students are required to do a project consolidating an understanding of the aspects of planning they have been introduced to. The preparation of a spatial framework should co-ordinate development across sectors, promote sustainable development within a locality or region, and may cut across a range of spatial scales.

The course identifies and explains the principles in formulating a planning research problem or issue. It exposes candidates to a range of methodological approaches and identifies the research methods appropriate to their own research, the process of fieldwork and the formulation of proposals and conclusions. Candidates are required to develop and write a proposal which will form the basis for their research report, by generating clear research aims and questions and formulating a conceptual framework based on planning theories and concepts.

Students produce an individual research report of 15,000-20,0000 words based on the research proposal developed in the Research Design for Planners course.