| Title | Urban transitions: scaling complex cities down to human size |
|---|---|
| ID_Doc | 41035 |
| Authors | Schiller, F |
| Title | Urban transitions: scaling complex cities down to human size |
| Year | 2016 |
| Published | |
| Abstract | Complexity science has become prominent in studying cities as concepts like "smart city" and "big data" indicate. In particular network analysis has allowed to studying various aspects of cities in new ways. As such these analyses are often disconnected and subsequent business models often remain disembedded. However, complexity science can also compare various patterns extending over different scales (scaling) if they belong to the same entity (allometry). Such relationships pertain to cities too suggesting that buildings, infrastructure and traffic amongst other things develop interdependently and, that across specific city systems scaling phenomena can be compared according to cities' population size. The article argues that while many scaling phenomena of physical and social networks can indeed inform urban transition research the proposed central role of cities' population size is highly ambivalent. This is particularly true for economic indicators like GDP, which do not reflect the need for sustainability. Still, network and scaling analysis of the built environment can contribute to transition theory if explanatory social mechanisms relating human behaviours and social institutions to existing scaling phenomena are provided. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
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