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Complexity theories of cities have come of age
an overview with implications to urban planning and design
Abstract
Today, our cities are an embodiment of the complex, historical evolution of knowledge, desires and technology. Our planned and designed activities co-evolve with our aspirations, mediated by the existing technologies and social structures. The city represents the accretion and accumulation of successive layers of collective activity, structuring and being structured by other, increasingly distant cities, reaching now right around the globe. This historical and structural development cannot therefore be understood or captured by any set of fixed quantitative relations. Structural changes imply that the patterns of growth, and their underlying reasons change over time, and therefore that any attempt to control the morphology of cities and their patterns of flow by means of planning and design, must be dynamical, based on the mechanisms that drive the changes occurring at a given moment. This carefully edited post-proceedings volume gathers a snapshot view by leading researchers in field, of current complexity theories of cities. In it, the achievements, criticisms and potentials yet to be realized are reviewed and the implications to planning and urban design are assessed.
Details | Table of Contents
do these concepts make sense?
pp.7-20
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_2pp.21-45
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_3achievements, criticism and potentials
pp.47-62
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_4the visible expression of co-evolving complexity
pp.67-89
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_5the question of ergodicity
pp.91-103
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_6phenomenology, complexity, science and "adjacent possible" cities
pp.105-127
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_7is it simpler than we think?
pp.129-152
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_8systems of systems of systems
pp.153-172
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_9pp.173-184
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_10pp.191-205
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_11on perspectives, behaviour and interventions in a non-linear environment
pp.207-220
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_12implications to urban planning
pp.221-244
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_13pp.269-279
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_15emerging order? a designer's curiosity about complexity theories
pp.281-309
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_16pp.327-346
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_18pp.347-368
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_19the case of Almere Hout
pp.391-412
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_21Publication details
Publisher: Springer
Place: Dordrecht
Year: 2012
Pages: 433
ISBN (hardback): 978-3-642-24543-5
ISBN (digital): 978-3-642-24544-2
Full citation:
Portugali Juval, Meyer Han, Stolk Egbert, Tan Ekim (2012) Complexity theories of cities have come of age: an overview with implications to urban planning and design. Dordrecht, Springer.