Forms of self-organization: Urban complexity and planning implications

Abstract

The implications of self-organizing phenomena for planning strategies and interventions are a relatively new topic of research that is gaining increasing traction with urban planners and the emerging literature. The problem is that the concept of self-organization is at present applied in a variety of different ways in the contemporary planning debate, a fact that has generated misunderstandings, dubious definitions, and questionable practical suggestions. The aim of this article is to (1) unravel this complex issue by differentiating urban phenomena that are usually all labeled as self-organizing; (2) identify which of them is the most challenging for planning theory and practice, and (3) discuss how planning can productively relate to this form of self-organization.

Fractal Characteristic Analysis of Urban Land-Cover Spatial Patterns with Spatiotemporal Remote Sensing Images in Shenzhen City (1988–2015)

“…The increase in the fractal dimension indicates urban sprawl [59]. Urban sprawl is generally related to population size and economic development factors [60].…”

Wastewater management by citizens: mismatch between legal rules and self-organisation in Oosterwold

“…Mattijssen et al 2018). The increasing role of citizens in environmental services delivery fits within the broader context of the growing importance of self-organisation for urban development (Boonstra and Boelens 2011;Nederhand, Bekkers, and Voorberg 2016;Savini 2016aSavini , 2016bNederhand and Van Meerkerk 2018;Moroni, Rauws, and Cozzolino 2020). There is a widespread belief that self-organisation can be a potential solution to the "decreased legitimacy" of the government (Nederhand and Van Meerkerk 2018, 533), strengthens localism and liberal individualism (Davoudi and Madanipour 2015;Savini 2016aSavini , 2016b, features better responsiveness to changing citizen needs and preferences (Gofen 2015), and addresses the pitfalls of neoliberal service delivery that "dehumanised" society (Verhoeven and Tonkens 2013, 416).…”

“…While scholars often acknowledge this changing relationship (e.g. Gofen 2015;Savini 2016aSavini , 2016bNederhand and Van Meerkerk 2018;Moroni, Rauws, and Cozzolino 2020), less attention has been paid to whether the consequences of this renewed relationship in environmental service delivery satisfies relevant environmental legislation. In many welfare states, there is a long tradition of environmental legislation that provides legal certainty in the protection of the environment and human health (Van Rijswick and Salet 2012; Dembski 2020).…”

Complexity of Functional Urban Spaces Evolution in Different Aspects: Based on Urban Land Use Conversion

“…e fields involved in the urban system are extensive. It is challenging to comprehensively understand the urban system from a single field of study [7,8]. Geography, urban planning, economics, sociology, and other disciplines analyze urban complexity from different perspectives [9].…”

“…Research on the complexity of urban space has attracted the attention of scholars. Complex methods, such as urban fractal theory [10][11][12], cellular automata [13][14][15][16], and selforganization theory [7,17,18], are used to analyze the complexity of urban land use changes or urban spatial evolution [19,20].…”