"What Do Planners Need to Know?" a Zube Lecture Presented by Camille Barchers & Henry Renski

City and Regional Planning seems to perennially suffer from an identity crisis.  Answering basic questions such as “what is a planner?” or “what does a planner do?” can be a challenge.  Yet, fostering a strong and coherent sense of identity is critical to attracting new talent and ensuring the continued health and survival of the profession. 

In this presentation, UMass LARP Professor Camille Barchers and Professor Henry Renski take a “planner is what planner does” perspective, by using a large database of online job postings to study the types of skills and knowledge that planning employers look for in new hires.  They find a small set of skills—organizational and personnel management, research, writing, public speaking, initiative and leadership—that comprise the core of planning knowledge, regardless of specialization.  

Barchers and Renski conclude that planning is not necessarily defined by a discrete set of specialized skills or knowledge.  Rather it is the unique combination of managerial, analytical, technical, and communicative skills combined with a broad understanding of the social, built, and policy environment that truly makes planning unique.  

Henry Renski is a Professor of Regional Planning and Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP) at UMass Amherst. His research examines regional influences on entrepreneurship; changing patterns of commercial development in the internet age; industrial cluster analysis and cluster-based development strategies; and the application of spatial-analytical techniques to local economic policy decision-making. Renski also serves as the Director of the UMass Center for Economic Development.

Camille Barchers, AICP, is an Assistant Professor of Regional Planning at UMass LARP.  She has practiced as a regional planner throughout Florida, the Southeast and mid-Atlantic. Her research interests include community engagement via information & communication technology, big data applications for equitable long-range planning, and the interaction between land use & transportation planning. She serves on the School of Earth and Sustainability Steering Committee and the Northeast Center for Coastal Resilience Executive Team.