ABSTRACT

This chapter argues in support of the requirement to go beyond token interdisciplinary and inter-professional collaboration and to move towards new forms and methods of education, training, research and practice. At the heart of this new skills and knowledge agenda is the realisation that sectoral, single profession thinking and action is, on its own, unlikely to be able to resolve the deep-seated problems which confront many towns, cities and regions. This realisation is hardly revolutionary; some thinkers and practitioners, such as Ebenezer Howard, advocated the adoption of an integrated comprehensive approach to placemaking during the closing years of the nineteenth century. So why has it taken so long for the wisdom of the integrated approach to placemaking to become accepted practice and what does this imply for the education, training and deployment of sustainable communities professionals? In attempting to answer this question this chapter makes reference to the origins and evolution of the sustainable communities approach in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the European Union. Specific attention is also paid to the skills and knowledge element of the sustainable communities agenda, and what this implies for the future development of professional activities in this field.