- Email: [email protected]
Self-Organization and the City
Book review / Political Geography 23 (2004) 1055–1067
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approaches to the study of regional development and innovation. Most critically in this regard, the volume lacks a more thorough assessment of the role of lessquantifiable contextual variables (e.g., cultural traits, social capital, or labor mobility) in shaping the geography of innovation and a more place-bound or embedded analysis of the political economies influencing the quality and diversity of the National Systems of Innovation found in Western Europe or North America. James T. Murphy University of Richmond Department of Geography and International Studies Richmond, VA 23173, USA E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2004.05.005
Self-Organization and the City J. Portugali; Springer-Verlag, Berlin. Foreword by Hermann Haken. Chapters with I. Benenson, I. Omer and N. Alfasi. Two special chapters on ‘‘Synergetic Cities’’ with Hermann Haken, 2001, 120 figures, 352 pages, ISBN 3-540-65483-6
The author is one of those brave souls who studies the evolution of cites by attempting to span the conceptual and methodological divide between qualitative sociotheoretic approaches and quantitative analysis stemming from regional science. The author contends that this gap may be bridged by treating the spatial evolution of cities as an example of self-organization. He invests a mathematic theory of selforganization in computational methodsdagent-based modeling and cellular modelingdand draws on sociocultural theories as a conceptual backdrop. This volume of five parts combines new research with reflections on previously published work dating back a decade. Part I (On Cities and Urbanism) gives a history of how cities have been viewed. This section is useful to readers not familiar with the gamut of theories ranging from Aristotelian geometrics through idealized spatial Weberian structures and modernist planning through to recent excursions into postmodern cities. This exposition is used to support the argument that a common thread running through many of these perspectives is that the story of city evolution is one of self-organization. Selforganization is a key concept in complexity theory (for review, see Manson, 2001) but the book employs a particular variant derived from the physical sciences and codified by Haken (who happens to be the editor of the ‘‘Springer Series in Synergetics,’’ of which this volume is the first). This formulation is instilled in a computational framework, Free Agents on a Cellular Space (FACS), that undergirds the research described in the remainder of the work.
1064
Book review / Political Geography 23 (2004) 1055–1067
Part II (City Games) constitutes almost half of the book over the course of seven chapters. Cities are defined and modeled in terms of: the relationships between their constituent entities (e.g., inhabitants and infrastructure); internal structure with respect to their surrounding environment (e.g., immigration); and how their form and function emerge or evolve due to self-organization. The models are interpreted through sociotheoretic concepts such as sociospatial segregation, individual decision making, cognitive dissonance, and culture. This mix is leavened throughout by facets of complexity theory, including emergence, variable slaving and resonance, stability and resilience, predictability versus chaos, and bifurcation. Although this part addresses many concepts, it underscores the key concept that urban evolution is in many senses unpredictable but amenable to being understood as exemplifying complexity defined by self-organization. Part III (Self-Organizing Planning) considers how self-organization affects urban planning. Echoing earlier thoughts on the effects on planning of chaos and catastrophe theories (Cartwright, 1991), this part deems the modern planning enterprise lacking in the face of cities that are self-organizing. In essence, urban planning must adopt a ‘‘just-in-time’’ ethos where any action must be bounded in both space and time and be accompanied by constant reassessment of the bigger picture, preferably aided by computer models of the sort espoused throughout the book. Part IV (Synergetic Cities) applies Haken’s theories of self-organization (or synergetics) to complex spatial patterning. In simplest terms, prototypical concepts of how systems are organized (e.g., bottom–up, top–down) can be expressed mathematically and applied to understanding the spatial patterning of urban evolution. In particular, this part of the volume recasts the broad synergetics framework in terms of the relationships among cognition, pattern recognition, and human decision making that guides the growth of cities. The two chapters that constitute this section are interesting but verge on being too abstract to be anything more than suggestive. Part V (Self-Organization and Urban Revolutions) is a brief exploration of urban evolution over the course of human history with respect to self-organization and theories on urbanization. Like the previous section, this one is intriguing but somewhat abstract because it draws on material from earlier chapters to create a weak isomorphism between self-organization and urban evolution. Part V ultimately serves as an expanded conclusion that supplants the book’s two-page ‘‘Concluding Notes,’’ although these do make clear the author’s sense that while selforganization and its corollaries may preclude urban planning as such, they do offer an entry point to integrating social theory and quantitative modeling as an essential means of understanding urban evolution. In sum, this volume is challenging and rewarding. It brings together different, and potentially conflicting, conceptual and methodological foci. Its strength lies in its willingness to grapple with a large number of fields, ranging from mathematics and computer modeling through urban planning and geography to the humanities. Joining these disparate bodies of work is a monumental task that challenges both the author and reader. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in selforganization and the evolution of cities, in particular, and more generally in ways in
Book review / Political Geography 23 (2004) 1055–1067
1065
which qualitative and quantitative approaches to human–environment systems may be reconciled. References Cartwright, T.J. (1991). Planning and chaos theory. Journal of the American Planning Association, 57, 44–56. Manson, S.M. (2001). Simplifying complexity: a review of complexity theory. Geoforum, 32(3), 405–414.
Steven M. Manson Department of Geography University of Minnesota 414 Social Sciences 267, 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2004.05.006
Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World (New Edition) Noam Chomsky, South End Press, Cambridge, 2002, 233 pp., ISBN 0-89608-685-2 (paperback) and 0-89608-686-0 (cloth)
It is only in folk-tales, children’s stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful ignorance to fail to perceive them (p. 144). In Pirates and Emperors, Old and New, Noam Chomsky offers an interpretation of the ‘wars on terrorism’ waged by U.S. administrations, radically different from conventional analyses found in the mainstream media and academic journals. The book is one of many by Chomsky to have been reedited after 9-11, with substantial additional material. The book contains chapters written from 1986 to 2002. Chomsky’s approach to the analysis of human affairs is multidisciplinary and relies on facts and clearly presented arguments. The result is a compelling book, certain to provoke debate among political geographers and other scholars. The perspective offered by Chomskydthat of a ‘literal approach’ to the study of terrorismdfinds its clearest expression in a passage on methodology, where he writes: There are two ways to approach the study of terrorism. One may adopt a literal approach. or a propagandistic approach. In each case it is clear
1063
approaches to the study of regional development and innovation. Most critically in this regard, the volume lacks a more thorough assessment of the role of lessquantifiable contextual variables (e.g., cultural traits, social capital, or labor mobility) in shaping the geography of innovation and a more place-bound or embedded analysis of the political economies influencing the quality and diversity of the National Systems of Innovation found in Western Europe or North America. James T. Murphy University of Richmond Department of Geography and International Studies Richmond, VA 23173, USA E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2004.05.005
Self-Organization and the City J. Portugali; Springer-Verlag, Berlin. Foreword by Hermann Haken. Chapters with I. Benenson, I. Omer and N. Alfasi. Two special chapters on ‘‘Synergetic Cities’’ with Hermann Haken, 2001, 120 figures, 352 pages, ISBN 3-540-65483-6
The author is one of those brave souls who studies the evolution of cites by attempting to span the conceptual and methodological divide between qualitative sociotheoretic approaches and quantitative analysis stemming from regional science. The author contends that this gap may be bridged by treating the spatial evolution of cities as an example of self-organization. He invests a mathematic theory of selforganization in computational methodsdagent-based modeling and cellular modelingdand draws on sociocultural theories as a conceptual backdrop. This volume of five parts combines new research with reflections on previously published work dating back a decade. Part I (On Cities and Urbanism) gives a history of how cities have been viewed. This section is useful to readers not familiar with the gamut of theories ranging from Aristotelian geometrics through idealized spatial Weberian structures and modernist planning through to recent excursions into postmodern cities. This exposition is used to support the argument that a common thread running through many of these perspectives is that the story of city evolution is one of self-organization. Selforganization is a key concept in complexity theory (for review, see Manson, 2001) but the book employs a particular variant derived from the physical sciences and codified by Haken (who happens to be the editor of the ‘‘Springer Series in Synergetics,’’ of which this volume is the first). This formulation is instilled in a computational framework, Free Agents on a Cellular Space (FACS), that undergirds the research described in the remainder of the work.
1064
Book review / Political Geography 23 (2004) 1055–1067
Part II (City Games) constitutes almost half of the book over the course of seven chapters. Cities are defined and modeled in terms of: the relationships between their constituent entities (e.g., inhabitants and infrastructure); internal structure with respect to their surrounding environment (e.g., immigration); and how their form and function emerge or evolve due to self-organization. The models are interpreted through sociotheoretic concepts such as sociospatial segregation, individual decision making, cognitive dissonance, and culture. This mix is leavened throughout by facets of complexity theory, including emergence, variable slaving and resonance, stability and resilience, predictability versus chaos, and bifurcation. Although this part addresses many concepts, it underscores the key concept that urban evolution is in many senses unpredictable but amenable to being understood as exemplifying complexity defined by self-organization. Part III (Self-Organizing Planning) considers how self-organization affects urban planning. Echoing earlier thoughts on the effects on planning of chaos and catastrophe theories (Cartwright, 1991), this part deems the modern planning enterprise lacking in the face of cities that are self-organizing. In essence, urban planning must adopt a ‘‘just-in-time’’ ethos where any action must be bounded in both space and time and be accompanied by constant reassessment of the bigger picture, preferably aided by computer models of the sort espoused throughout the book. Part IV (Synergetic Cities) applies Haken’s theories of self-organization (or synergetics) to complex spatial patterning. In simplest terms, prototypical concepts of how systems are organized (e.g., bottom–up, top–down) can be expressed mathematically and applied to understanding the spatial patterning of urban evolution. In particular, this part of the volume recasts the broad synergetics framework in terms of the relationships among cognition, pattern recognition, and human decision making that guides the growth of cities. The two chapters that constitute this section are interesting but verge on being too abstract to be anything more than suggestive. Part V (Self-Organization and Urban Revolutions) is a brief exploration of urban evolution over the course of human history with respect to self-organization and theories on urbanization. Like the previous section, this one is intriguing but somewhat abstract because it draws on material from earlier chapters to create a weak isomorphism between self-organization and urban evolution. Part V ultimately serves as an expanded conclusion that supplants the book’s two-page ‘‘Concluding Notes,’’ although these do make clear the author’s sense that while selforganization and its corollaries may preclude urban planning as such, they do offer an entry point to integrating social theory and quantitative modeling as an essential means of understanding urban evolution. In sum, this volume is challenging and rewarding. It brings together different, and potentially conflicting, conceptual and methodological foci. Its strength lies in its willingness to grapple with a large number of fields, ranging from mathematics and computer modeling through urban planning and geography to the humanities. Joining these disparate bodies of work is a monumental task that challenges both the author and reader. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in selforganization and the evolution of cities, in particular, and more generally in ways in
Book review / Political Geography 23 (2004) 1055–1067
1065
which qualitative and quantitative approaches to human–environment systems may be reconciled. References Cartwright, T.J. (1991). Planning and chaos theory. Journal of the American Planning Association, 57, 44–56. Manson, S.M. (2001). Simplifying complexity: a review of complexity theory. Geoforum, 32(3), 405–414.
Steven M. Manson Department of Geography University of Minnesota 414 Social Sciences 267, 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2004.05.006
Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World (New Edition) Noam Chomsky, South End Press, Cambridge, 2002, 233 pp., ISBN 0-89608-685-2 (paperback) and 0-89608-686-0 (cloth)
It is only in folk-tales, children’s stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil. The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful ignorance to fail to perceive them (p. 144). In Pirates and Emperors, Old and New, Noam Chomsky offers an interpretation of the ‘wars on terrorism’ waged by U.S. administrations, radically different from conventional analyses found in the mainstream media and academic journals. The book is one of many by Chomsky to have been reedited after 9-11, with substantial additional material. The book contains chapters written from 1986 to 2002. Chomsky’s approach to the analysis of human affairs is multidisciplinary and relies on facts and clearly presented arguments. The result is a compelling book, certain to provoke debate among political geographers and other scholars. The perspective offered by Chomskydthat of a ‘literal approach’ to the study of terrorismdfinds its clearest expression in a passage on methodology, where he writes: There are two ways to approach the study of terrorism. One may adopt a literal approach. or a propagandistic approach. In each case it is clear