Self-organizing orders, urban studies and planning theory

Abstract

The notion of ‘order’ has been central in 20th-century attempts to explain complex phenomena. The notion of order in the case of complex phenomena has been generally associated with the idea of ‘selforganization’; that is, the spontaneous emergence of coordinating patterns in complex systems. In briefly re-considering the idea of order, this article focuses on ‘self-organizing orders’ and the implication of this issue not only for a theory of the city but also for a theory of intervention on the city (i.e. a theory of planning).