IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v42y2015i5p951-971.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Indicators for self-organization potential in urban context

Author

Listed:
  • Jenni Partanen

Abstract

Self-organization is a basic mechanism by which complex urban systems organize themselves. This mechanism emerges from individual agents’ local interactions, often with unpredictable consequences at the regional level. These emergent patterns cannot be controlled by traditional hierarchical methods, but they can be steered and encouraged towards desirable goals. Self-organization is often used as an allegory for all ‘unplanned’ activity in cities. It is important to study the actual mechanisms of self-organization in cities to link the theory of self-organization to planning praxis. This work builds on ongoing work exploring novel complex planning tools and methods. Here I explore the key features of open dynamic systems identified in the literature as indicators of self-organizing capacity. I study their applicability in urban spatial planning, and propose three measurable characteristics for estimating the self-organization potential of urban activities. Flow reflects generic accessibility, and is measured using space syntax. Internal order refers to autonomously organizing entities, in this case the clustering tendencies of activities. Enriching rests upon increasing complexity and is measured as changes in degrees of entropy over time. The results indicate that (1) the study area meets the criteria for self-organization, and (2) these characteristics can be applied to discover nodes of higher potential for self-organization in a city.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenni Partanen, 2015. "Indicators for self-organization potential in urban context," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 42(5), pages 951-971, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:42:y:2015:i:5:p:951-971
    DOI: 10.1068/b140064p
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/b140064p
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/b140064p?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lisa De Propris, 2005. "Mapping local production systems in the UK: Methodology and application," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 197-211.
    2. Picone, Gabriel A. & Ridley, David B. & Zandbergen, Paul A., 2009. "Distance decreases with differentiation: Strategic agglomeration by retailers," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 463-473, May.
    3. Moshe Levy & Sorin Solomon, 1996. "Power Laws Are Logarithmic Boltzmann Laws," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(04), pages 595-601.
    4. Fujita, Masahisa, 2007. "Towards the new economic geography in the brain power society," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 482-490, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Saiz, A., 2010. "Boltzmann power laws," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(2), pages 225-236.
    2. Isabelle M. Nilsson & Oleg A. Smirnov, 2017. "Clustering vs. relative location: Measuring spatial interaction between retail outlets," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(4), pages 721-741, November.
    3. Venkatasubramanian, Venkat & Luo, Yu & Sethuraman, Jay, 2015. "How much inequality in income is fair? A microeconomic game theoretic perspective," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 435(C), pages 120-138.
    4. E. Samanidou & E. Zschischang & D. Stauffer & T. Lux, 2001. "Microscopic Models of Financial Markets," Papers cond-mat/0110354, arXiv.org.
    5. Eun Yeong Seong & Youngjae Lim & Chang Gyu Choi, 2022. "Why are convenience stores clustered? The reasons behind the clustering of similar shops and the effect of increased competition," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(3), pages 834-846, March.
    6. Caiani, Alessandro & Godin, Antoine & Caverzasi, Eugenio & Gallegati, Mauro & Kinsella, Stephen & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2016. "Agent based-stock flow consistent macroeconomics: Towards a benchmark model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 375-408.
    7. Lampiris, Georgios & Karelakis, Christos & Loizou, Efstratios, 2018. "Evaluation of the impacts of CAP policy measures on a local economy: The case of a Greek region," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 745-751.
    8. Éric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2023. "Mapping distributions in non-homogeneous space with distance-based methods [Cartographie des distributions dans un espace non homogène à l'aide de méthodes basées sur la distance]," Post-Print hal-04345149, HAL.
    9. Heijnen, Pim & Soetevent, Adriaan R., 2018. "Price competition on graphs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 161-179.
    10. J. Emeterio Navarro-Barrientos & Frank E. Walter & Frank Schweitzer, 2008. "Risk-Seeking Versus Risk-Avoiding Investments In Noisy Periodic Environments," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(06), pages 971-994.
    11. Gianluca Carnabuci, 2013. "The distribution of technological progress," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 1143-1154, June.
    12. Geoff Willis & Juergen Mimkes, 2004. "Evidence for the Independence of Waged and Unwaged Income, Evidence for Boltzmann Distributions in Waged Income, and the Outlines of a Coherent Theory of Income Distribution," Microeconomics 0408001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Karyn Morrissey, 2016. "A location quotient approach to producing regional production multipliers for the Irish economy," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(3), pages 491-506, August.
    14. Xu, Xilei & Dong, Xuebing & Chi, Ruonan & Li, Jixia, 2022. "How does heterogeneous spillover of knowledge affect economic geography? ——An extended local spillover model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Kuangnen Cheng & Hui-Ping Chen & Jason Lee, 2015. "Competition behavior in service frequency for U.S. airlines," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, March.
    16. Solomon, Sorin & Richmond, Peter, 2001. "Power laws of wealth, market order volumes and market returns," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 299(1), pages 188-197.
    17. Richard G Funderburg & Xiaoxue Zhou, 2013. "Trading Industry Clusters amid the Legacy of Industrial Land-Use Planning in Southern California," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(11), pages 2752-2770, November.
    18. Tomohiro MACHIKITA & Masatsugu TSUJI & Yasushi UEKI, 2010. "How ICTs Raise Manufacturing Performance: Firm-level Evidence in Southeast Asia," Working Papers DP-2010-07, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    19. Jose M Barrutia & Carmen Echebarria & Ainhize Gilsanz, 2011. "Social capital and innovation: an empirical analysis in the context of European regions," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1347, European Regional Science Association.
    20. Sergio Garate & Anthony Pennington-Cross, 2014. "Measuring the Impact of Agglomeration on Productivity: Evidence from Chilean Retailers," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(8), pages 1653-1671, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:42:y:2015:i:5:p:951-971. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.