Application of Complexity Theory in Representation of the City

Author(s):  
Manuela Piscitelli

The objective of this chapter is to show how chaos and complexity theory can be applied to understanding of the dynamics of a city. At first, the changes in the theoretical and practical knowledge that occurred in contemporary philosophical and scientific thought from the end of the nineteenth century, which led to the formulation of the chaos and complexity theory are discussed. The new vision of the world emerging from chaos and complexity theory allows a rapprochement between the two complementary ways of analysis and action: the analytical method, born from the Cartesian method, and the systemic approach, derived from cybernetics and systems theory. Then the characteristics of a complex system are analyzed by referring to the definitions of the main exponents of the discipline, in order to understand if a city can be identified as a complex system. A review of the main theories about complexity of the city is included in order to demonstrate that a city can be considered as a “system” defined by the elements (the various activities and urban functions) and from the interactions and relations between its various components (tangible and intangible communications) that produces hardly detectable effects on all parts of the city. Finally, the systems currently used for the description and the representation of components and relationships of a city intended as a complex system are presented.

2011 ◽  
Vol 280 ◽  
pp. 58-61
Author(s):  
Hong Xu

The lacking of holistic analysis in urban planning is urgent in China. This paper start from complexity theory to analyze and study the urban development patterns in urban planning of China cities. This paper analyzes the need of holistic analysis in the process of urban planning. This need is very important for the current process of urban modernization and the building of harmonious society in China. As discussed in this paper, we must make an effort to improve urban planning by virtue of choosing a very clear direction according to the nature of urban planning. From the perspective of different disciplines to understand the city and urban planning, we can able to make a complex system of our city and complex understanding of things deviation reduced, and finally effectively promote the development of the city.


Author(s):  
Milena A. Klenova ◽  

The relevance of the study is conditioned by the need for formation of theoretical and practical knowledge and technologies that allow to determine the structure of motivation of socio-political and protest activity. The purpose of the study is to investigate motivation of protest and socio-political activity of an individual and its potential within the system of life-purpose orientations. Presumably, the motivational structure of socio-political and protest activity reveals similarities in the manifestation of qualitative and quantitative characteristics. The study was carried out on a sample of university students (N = 153) from the city of Saratov aged from 18 to 24 years using the following psycho-diagnostic tools: a questionnaire aimed at registering various forms of social activity (R. M. Shamionov, I. V. Arendachuk, E. E. Bocharova, et.al.); the author’s questionnaire aimed at studying motivation of socio-po litical and protest activity (M. A. Klenova); Basic Beliefs Scale (developed by R. YanoffBulman and modified by M. A. Padun and A. V. Kotelnikova); Life-Purpose Orientations Test (D. A. Leontiev). We found out that socio-political and protest forms of activity are not preferable for young people. We also determined the main motives of socio-political and protest activity: interest, reputation, the need to change the world, active civic position and self-expression. We established the similarity of motives for actualization of socio-political and protest activity. The motives for socio-political activity are the interest in the benevolence of the world around and the desire for personal reputation, maintaining a positive image of the ego and controlling personal invulnerability. The motives for protest activity are the need to implement active civic position and change the world outside and the need to control life events. The obtained data can be implemented in the practice of organizing socially useful activities of young people, taking into account the motives of its actualization.


2004 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adnan Morshed

The present article concerns the early-twentieth-century avant-garde's aestheticizing of a new vision occasioned by the advent of human flight. It focuses on the project that best reflects this vision: the Futurama, an exhibit created by the American industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Futurama's status as the "number one hit show" of the fair derived largely from its theatrical technique of seeing: spectators literally gazed down on an American utopia as if they were aviators in a low-flying airplane. Conceived during the golden age of American aviation, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Futurama exemplified the common utopian belief that the perspective from an airplane would usher in new spatial dynamics that would introduce the city of the future. The enthusiasm for aerial vision evinced a remarkable affiliation between aviation and a modernist logic of looking at the world. The fact that the Futurama spectator's aerial viewing became enmeshed in broader conceptualizations of twentieth-century visuality reveals the crucial presence of what could be called an "aesthetics of ascension" in the avantgarde imagination of the future city.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-190
Author(s):  
Sang Kompiang Kurnia Yudha Putra ◽  
I Wayan Arthanaya ◽  
Luh Putu Suryani

Indonesia is well-known as a developing country being rich in tourist objects and its people who have been opening many businesses to earn more income. One of the businesses that are interrelated with the world of tourism is a laundry house service, engaged in laundry services, which makes this business attractive to a lot of residents and whose services are often used by tourism places. The laundry house industry is growing rapidly along with the increasing activity of residents. In this regard, this study examines two issues: (1) the supervision of the Environmental Agency on the laundry house industry in the disposal of waste residue and (2) the application of sanctions against perpetrators of violations of waste disposal as seen from the Regional Regulation of the City of Denpasar Number 11 of 2015. The method use to achieve these objectives is the method of empirical legal research which is carried out by conducting research examining the arising problems based on legal rules and then related to the realities in the field. The Environmental Agency of Denpasar City has enforced control of the breaking pf rules that have occurred; if there is a laundry house that violates it, a written statement is be issued but if the laundry house does not repair the waste treatment system, a warning letter is be issued. Ultimately, if the violation continues to take place, decisive repression in light criminal act is executed in collaboration with the local civil service police unit.


Author(s):  
Larry H Ludlow ◽  
Fiona Ell ◽  
Marilyn Cochran-Smith ◽  
Avery Newton ◽  
Kaitlin Trefcer ◽  
...  

Our purpose is to provide an exploratory statistical representation of initial teacher education as a complex system comprised of dynamic influential elements. More precisely, we reveal what the system looks like for differently-positioned teacher education stakeholders based on our framework for gathering, statistically analyzing, and graphically representing the results of a unique exercise wherein the participants literally mapped the system as they perceived it. Through an iterative series of inter-related studies employing cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling procedures, we demonstrate how initial teacher education may be represented as a complex system comprised of interactive agents and attributes whose perceived relationships are a function of nested stakeholder-dependent simplex systems. Furthermore, we illustrate how certain propositions of complexity theory, such as boundaries, heterogeneity, multidimensionality and emergence, may be investigated and represented quantitatively.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 126-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Avelino Barbosa

The fast urbanization in many regions of the world has generated a high competition between cities. In the race for investments and for international presence, some cities have increasingly resorting to the territorial marketing techniques like city branding. One of the strategies of recent years has been to use of creativity and / or labeling of creative city for the promotion of its destination. This phenomenon raises a question whether the city branding programs have worked in accordance with the cultural industries of the territory or if such labels influence the thought of tourists and locals. This paper begins by placing a consideration of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) and the strategies of the Territorial Marketing Program of the city of Lyon in France, Only Lyon. It also raises the question the perception of the target public to each of the current actions through semi-structured interviews which were applied between May and August 2015. Finally, I will try to open a discussion the brand positioning adopted by the city of Lyon


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-389
Author(s):  
Eduardo Oliveira

Evinç Doğan (2016). Image of Istanbul, Impact of ECoC 2010 on The City Image. London: Transnational Press London. [222 pp, RRP: £18.75, ISBN: 978-1-910781-22-7]The idea of discovering or creating a form of uniqueness to differentiate a place from others is clearly attractive. In this regard, and in line with Ashworth (2009), three urban planning instruments are widely used throughout the world as a means of boosting a city’s image: (i) personality association - where places associate themselves with a named individual from history, literature, the arts, politics, entertainment, sport or even mythology; (ii) the visual qualities of buildings and urban design, which include flagship building, signature urban design and even signature districts and (iii) event hallmarking - where places organize events, usually cultural (e.g., European Capital of Culture, henceforth referred to as ECoC) or sporting (e.g., the Olympic Games), in order to obtain worldwide recognition. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Julian Wolfreys

Writers of the early nineteenth century sought to find new ways of writing about the urban landscape when first confronted with the phenomena of London. The very nature of London's rapid growth, its unprecedented scale, and its mere difference from any other urban centre throughout the world marked it out as demanding a different register in prose and poetry. The condition of writing the city, of inventing a new writing for a new experience is explored by familiar texts of urban representation such as by Thomas De Quincey and William Wordsworth, as well as through less widely read authors such as Sarah Green, Pierce Egan, and Robert Southey, particularly his fictional Letters from England.


2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony G Picciano ◽  
Robert V. Steiner

Every child has a right to an education. In the United States, the issue is not necessarily about access to a school but access to a quality education. With strict compulsory education laws, more than 50 million students enrolled in primary and secondary schools, and billions of dollars spent annually on public and private education, American children surely have access to buildings and classrooms. However, because of a complex and competitive system of shared policymaking among national, state, and local governments, not all schools are created equal nor are equal education opportunities available for the poor, minorities, and underprivileged. One manifestation of this inequity is the lack of qualified teachers in many urban and rural schools to teach certain subjects such as science, mathematics, and technology. The purpose of this article is to describe a partnership model between two major institutions (The American Museum of Natural History and The City University of New York) and the program designed to improve the way teachers are trained and children are taught and introduced to the world of science. These two institutions have partnered on various projects over the years to expand educational opportunity especially in the teaching of science. One of the more successful projects is Seminars on Science (SoS), an online teacher education and professional development program, that connects teachers across the United States and around the world to cutting-edge research and provides them with powerful classroom resources. This article provides the institutional perspectives, the challenges and the strategies that fostered this partnership.


2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Philip Harrison

Abstract The bulk of the scholarly literature on city-regions and their governance is drawn from contexts where economic and political systems have been stable over an extended period. However, many parts of the world, including all countries in the BRICS, have experienced far-reaching national transformations in the recent past in economic and/or political systems. The national transitions are complex, with a mix of continuity and rupture, while their translation into the scale of the city-region is often indirect. But, these transitions have been significant for the city-region, providing a period of opportunity and institutional fluidity. Studies of the BRICS show that outcomes of transitions are varied but that there are junctures of productive comparison including the ways in which the nature of the transitions create new path dependencies, and way in which interests across territorial scales soon consolidate, producing new rigidities in city-region governance.


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