Qualifications for Spatial Planning

Ideas from the diploma course in geography at the J. W. Goethe University of frankfurt am main

Abstract

The course leading to the Diploma in Geography at the University of Frankfurt am Main is predicated upon a spatial evaluation of the relationship linking man with his environment. During the foundation phase of the course students are familiarised with the various methods of analysis and evaluation relevant to the field; during the subsequent main section of the course the focus is to a much greater extent on project work, in which students practise working on authentic situations from the professional fields they are expected to enter. In terms of content, individual courses concentrate on four fields, all of which can be subsumed under the watchword of “sustainable spatial development”: the geography of the natural landscape (landscape balance, exploration and analysis of the subsoil), the geography of the everyday world (the individual and housing, leisure, identity), business and logistics, and structures in the third world.