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A R T I C L E I N F O: ABSTRACT
Article history: The study exploits development of a new field of research with the aim of
Received 08 January 2018 reading uncertainty and transformation at cities by revealing resilience
Accepted 23 February 2018
Available online 20 June 2018 systems thinking theory for urban studies. The paper first generates
understanding the resilience framework and its critical identities. Secondly the
Keywords: city is introduced as a complex living organicism. Here the complexity of
Resilience; cities is conducted in the context of a self-organizing organism while conserve
Adaptive Cycle; their spatial structure, function and identity. At this juncture; cities and their
City;
built environment are proposed in the framework of ‘being able to absorb
Living Organism;
Self-Organizing System. uncertain perturbation and adapt itself through an adaptive cycle; of which
key attributes of resilience is figured out a novel method for urban studies to
be used to detain the taxonomies of uncertainty at identity of built
environment. The study is concluded by impelling resilience as novel frontier
thinking for postulating the ways of assessing a self-organizing city thinking
towards uncertainty of change.
CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2019), 3(1), 92-103.
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end states) of resilience that underpin our interactions between system components that
approach are resistance, absorption, and guide the system to return in time to a
restoration” (Kahan et al. 2009). Gilbert (2010) controlled equilibrium after an attractor-
“resilience is defined as the ability to minimize disturbance-shock. Therefore, a stable
the costs of a disaster, to return to a state as equilibrium in a system adjusts stability,
good as or better than the status quo ante, robustness, rapidity and constancy, of which a
and to do so in the shortest feasible time… system is efficient to return a stable equilibrium
Resistance is used to mean the ability to state after a perturbation. Different than
withstand a hazard without suffering much engineering resilience perspective in ecology;
harm. Resilience in this paper will include the resilience is considered more as a capacity
resistance but will also include the ability to measure for absorbing disturbance. In this
recover after suffering harm from a hazard” mean, ecological resilience regards to ability of
(Gilbert, 2010). As the review of the literature anything to accord a disturbance (Folke, 2006).
presented here clearly demonstrates, there is Therefore, ecological resilience fundamentally
considerable variation in how different authors admits the amount of change and a system’s
from different fields have defined resilience absorbing ability which is preventing system’s
(Carlson et.al., 2012). In consequence, diversity initial state to enter in other state. As a main
in definitions accumulates a danger for attempt in this direction, resilience is suggested
resilience becoming another buzzy concept in as an ability of absorbing change and
rhetoric theory and application (Davoudi, remaining the system in persistence, in which
2012). Perhaps the most fundamental divide same relationships between system’s
lies in identifying which definitions of resilience components are preserved (Holling, 1973). In
indicate a system thinking in “ability of contrast to single state equilibrium of
adaptation towards dwelling with change”, engineering resilience, ecological resilience
and which are not. Three overarching indicates multiple equilibrium states an
frameworks of resilience are provoked; understanding. Ever last, multiple equilibrium
engineering, ecological and socio-ecological states promote characteristics of persistence,
resilience; in which resilience is conceptualized redundancy and resourcefulness in function,
as a quality, as a state or as a process structure and identity of a system. In social
(Weichselgartner and Kelman, 2015). Within sciences, the term is re-viewed in form of a
engineering resilience, the resilience is modestly novel revelation where resilience is
evolved in mean of bounce- back, which refers approached within notion of adaptation-
to the time it takes to return to a state of adaptability. Though in socio-ecological
dynamic equilibrium after a disturbance hits a systems, the mean of resilience is critically
system. The resilience term is significantly distinguished from ‘absorbing
envisioned as a condition that demonstrates disturbance/stressor/threshold’ to ‘moving
the ability to return a particular situation of disturbance/stressor/threshold away’ by
something to its original state after a promoting transformability with an adaptive
disturbance/ crisis/shock. A stable state self-organizing attribute (Walker et. al., 2004)
ideology is asserted as a resultant of dynamic (Table 1).
Table 1. Resilience framework development path
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model of adaptive cycle. Adaptive cycle is the of accumulation of capital, slow incremental
accumulation of a series of phases that fortify a growth predictability and stability (Garcia,
metaphor of continues change (Scheffer, et. 2013). Furthermore, the other two phases are
al. 2002). These series of phases regards called back loop of cycle that involves the
adaptation in structure/function/identity of a rapid phases of reorganization leading the
system under uncertainty (Gunderson, 2009). renewal. As a consequence, adaptive cycle
The cycle describes a metaphorical sequence mainstreams the empirical visualization of
how an organizational order is experienced metaphoric change at a rich framework to
under change (Li, 2013). The adaptive cycle is understand the persistence and renewal of the
a model of natural patterns of change in complex dynamic systems.
ecological and socio-ecological (Gunderson
and Holling, 2002 ). It consists of four distinct 3. City as a Complex Living Organicism
phases; growth or exploitation (r), conservation An organism is an autonomous individual form
(K), collapse or release (Ω) and reorganization of life considered as an complex and
(α) - (Figure X). Growth or Exploitation (r): is the organized system analogous to a living being,
process of rapidly initiating the exploitation of where a composed of mutually
the resources through expanding new interdependent parts functioning together
opportunities on the collapsed old systems. The (Random House Kernerman Webster's College
(r) phase is transitory phase of the systems after Dictionary, 2010). Any organism has distinct
collapse. Thus the system does not emphasize physical and behavioral characteristics, a
high stability. But system structure becomes specific size and boundary of which contains
more diverse due to accumulation and more differentiated parts, but form and function are
new connections between networks are always linked (Collins English Dictionary –2014).
accomplished. Thus, the system has high The physical morphologies of living organisms
resilience. Conservation (K): is the phase where define the specific traits of organisms and they
the systems get mature. Therefore, the systems are generated by processes in which a given
demonstrates slower growing, entities are species evolves as the product of many small
entered the system. Thus, the system goes into changes at the most elemental level (Darwin,
maintaining process of existing matured 1859). These changes are embodied in an
structure. The networks in system are inherent code that dictates the way the
progressively connected. Thus, the system is in organism mimic itself (Batty and Marshall, 2009).
the locked-on condition and does not build a However, cities are the form of life. Likewise, as
novel structure. It demonstrates less flexibility, an organism they demonstrate a distinct
more vulnerability and more stability. Collapse physical and behavioral characteristic within a
or Release (Ω): is the phase where external specific size and boundaries. Since the cities
environment pose stress on system and involve dynamics of social, economical and
enforces the systems to perturb. In this the environmental impacts; they contain different,
connectivity between networks decreases due but interdependent parts processing together.
to release of accumulated-stored resources. The process between parts is complex and
The system enters to the level of creative dynamic, but organizational. Therefore, it is
destruction with the potential in short period of possible to realize common analogies of living
time. Thus, revolution can occur in system. organisms into cities ( Geddes ,1913; 1915; Le
Reorganization (α): is the phase after systems corbusier, 1933; 1964; Mumford, 1961) and
collapse due to perturbation. The system state many other scientists, scholars, professions etc.
enters to a new stability state through envision the city in analogy to ecological term-
reorganization (beginning) process. The system living organism and uses tools from the biology
in reorganization phase leads the system (Decker et al. 2007). In a broader sense; the
towards growing phase upon novel cycle. “living organism” term is widely been used in
The process in adaptive cycle is asserted on diverse means (as a method or a
the three disguised types of change; methodology) to describe the cities and
incremental change in r and K phases, abrupt architecture in the context of dynamic
change in the transitional phase from K through changes (Mumford, 1961; Miller 1989;
Ώ and and meaning change through Samaniego & Moses, 2008; Carroll, 2009).
interaction between different scales (Holling, Ever since, the views related organicism
and Gunderson. 2002). Therefore, it is probable conception in relation to cities and
to determine the first two phases are the architecture have attempted to form an
phases of system maturation and they are analogous to nature and its laws and
called forward loop of cycle. They are in need processes. In history; the conceptual enterprise
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surrounding the town as living organisms (Unwin indicate potential relationships of city with
and Parker, 1904). However, with the entire metabolism of the development with
publication of Zevi, Towards Organic ecosystem based, that concerns the long-term
Arhitecrture; the organisicim conception is social, economical and ecological wellbeing
removed from its traditional provokes that of cities, town, villages etc. (Wheeler, 2004).
nature and its processes/laws are perfect tool Thus, sustainable development phenomena
for imitation. Zevi induced the notion of organic intended to put the dogma of ecosystem
into a social conception, where city embody based relations between living organism-living
an organic spatial organization for social environment- nature in cities etc.. However, the
contentment (Zevi,1950).The humanized eco-centric planning approaches of
urbanity of organicism is also recognized by sustainable development has resided into a
Mumford. Mumford a difference from Zevi chaotic transition, and attained an ordinary
utilizes the functional, physical and social molds meaning - from a popular form to darkness of
of organicism notion in organic form. failure/fuzziness. Thus, ecological organicisist
According to him, the city in an organic form is metaphors of sustainable era remained
a symbolic image of an organism, which can rhetoric and partial. The organic analogies to
stand in natural environment as an city and architecture have been unspoken
interconnected and of itself as a symbol of and unexploited. Many suggestions also left
organic form and function (Mumford 1961). fragile. Their consequences have not been
However, with the alert of 21th century crises of fully worked through. They are blurred in many
rapid population and urban development and impacts, and bounded to uncertainty (Batty &
unsustainable nature of modern cities; Marshall, 2009), where dynamic interactions in
organicism notion in planning is reintroduced structuring processes at different spatio-
with ecological footprints (Owiti A. K'Akumu, temporal scales are pulsed in. In this case,
2007). The contemporary organicism following many scholars argued the lack of
this ‘sustainable concept’ is developed for understanding the dynamic interactions in
assessing balance with nature. To model the actual development within a zoned area
fast changing environmental, social and posed a shift in thinking organicism not a
economical conditions; the new era of source to balance nature, but a self-sufficient
planning embodied the discourse of thinking process evolved organism ( Bogunovich, 2014)
city as a living organism; that also appealed in (Table 2).
the context of many movements such as new
urbanism, intelligent urbanism, smart growth,
biomimicry etc. The living organ is paradigm to
Contemporary Era
20-21st century Process Organicism Flexible Planning for Gradually Growing Cities
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4. Revealing two Scale in Adaptive Cycle: city interconnected parts (Batty, 2008). They
and architecture accomplish a large-scale complex artifact. The
Cities are complex and heterogonous living integrity of bottom-up is not controlling, or
systems. Cities impel a stream of inter-reliant stopping the growth towards uncertainty of
duality between its subsystems. However, many change; but predicting the behavior of
invalid paths have been projected on how development or transformation by focusing
cities grow and develop as a system in linkage smaller scales. In fact; the bottom- up thinking
of dynamic processes and interlinked variables. infers the processes of cities that are organized
Such misinterpretations challenged admiring at the bottom scales and reached to the
social, built environment, economical flows whole. However, ‘organicsim conceptions up
and the other inputs making a city as a system till now would seem to suggest a
that progresses inter-reliant duality for comprehensive urban development is crucial
resilience. Several questions arise from here to of top-down planning. The top-down planning
understand in theory and practice cities as self- vision stayed limited in its unified form and did
organizing resilient systems at the stipulation of not allow meeting with processes at smaller
possible (Chelleri, 2012). In thinking of ‘city as a scales. As Batty (2008) mentions “the city is not
system of organism’; all social, economical and conceived of as a unified whole following a
environmental variables append the process of developmental programme, but is more
operating the transition of cities toward more usefully seen as a collection of interdependent,
resilient and self-organizing paths (Holling and co-evolving parts (Batty, 2008). The parts of city
Goldberg 1971). Yet, uncertainty and must be seen in the role of which operate
discontinuities are inherent characterization of organizational structuring processes for a self-
cities. With the potentiality of diverse and inter- sufficient whole. A self-sufficient city reveals
reliant variables at subsystems; a city easily ability of persistency in its function/identity/
could process an internal resilience by assorting structure through fast changes of urban
multiple stabilities, which are organized at growth. In order to attain persistency; the
different scales and time (Batty, 2005). As Zhao processes infer the interdependent scale-
et.al (2013) defines ‘city as a whole is far from relations. That means, in a city as a self-
equilibrium and is more than the sum of its sufficient organism is not scale-free. It is in the
subsystems.’ (Zhao et.al , 2013). A complex high level of multilevel hierarchical interactions,
system mode of interconnected networks is where high–degree of connectivity interplay
coherent and patent. Into this, a certain between scales of parts. In fact, that implies
development is interconnected to historical the holistic systems thinking utilized the two-way
experiences of the system and nonlinear events interactional connectivity between different
of ongoing change. A system when begins to spatio-temporal scales- from bottom-up and
get mature; it becomes over connected fixed top-down: cross scale interaction (Levin 1999.).
and rigid through ordered patterns of Into this, small scale observations provide an
interactions increases, where a system could important route to explore dynamics
be more sensitive to a breakpoint to a interactions across-scales. The observation in
disturbance (Wahl, 2017). Indeed, the matured smaller scales is critical to understand the
old patterns in case of a disturbance get patterns and processes operated at larger
affected more and impose the system to the scale. Likewise, it is important to understand
chaos. In fact, the cities as complex and living how the processes at large-scales
systems becomes more creative while a chaos communicate with smaller scales (Nash et. al,
hits inter-reliant stability of the city. It should be 2014). In the sequence of this two-way
notified that cities are drastically in episodic interactions, the smaller scales of parts are in
correlation between persistence and growth; the role of determining the data about the
order and chaos; between stability and generated processes for self-sufficiency/ or the
transformation as the fundamental stream of shift from a persistent to non-persistent
self-organizing character (Wahl, 2017). structure. Hence, the abrupt changes at
To think, cities as a self-organizing living smaller scales ensue frequently in a short time
organism conferring resilience at urban period, due to fast variables are dominant then
systems, understanding how a city starts to the slow variables in the system structure. That
grow and acts more creative during a chaos means at smaller scale the change is faster
could be a causal obstacle. This aspect than larger scales. At large scales the slow
endorses a scale tenet in thinking. Yet, cities variables are dominant towards fast variables.
fundamentally grow from the bottom to up Therefore, change appears more slow in a long
through an organizational order between time period. In the structure of a city top-down
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planning control emerges when several between the function and structure into a
bottom-up fragile occurs- smaller variables cycling model. This thinking provides potential
appear to control the system for periods of time to estimate cities as a creative self-organizing
(Gunderson 2009). Thus at large scale organisms responding to disruptions and
disturbance is the result of cascading change whereas resilience theory reveals upon
phenomenon of the fast changes (non- same core. At this point, the architecture could
persistence structuring processes) in smaller be linked as the domain part of the urban
scales (Holling, 1996). Therefore, small-scale design. Only when architecture is diagnosed to
observations provide an important route to as part of the urban space, the city as a system
explore urban growth and development of multi-layers could be defined within the
dynamics. metaphoric sequence of self-organization.
Yet, cities are artificial environments composed Such a correlation does not only combine the
of smaller scale artifacts as a result of human architecture and urban towards to understand
interactions with their environment However, the city with architectural concerns, also makes
considering the city as an organizational a critical criticism towards relationships
progress does not only questions space and contextual essences and physical aspects of
time together with the human spirit and architecture in the traces of urban space.
metaphor of change into new tools, terms and While this relationship is transmitted to the view
images; it also raised varied questions such as of adaptive cycle; architecture endorses
re-thinking the landscape and city expansion internal regeneration in the system and leads
relations, unplanned urban sprawl though the urban spaces to exploit external growth within a
essence and power of architecture which is certain domain of stability. During graining
endorsing essential flexibility to cope with internal regeneration; transiently acting an
interference/disturbance. Here, the self- architectural system is crucial in thinking. In fact,
organizing thinking infuses to conduct with the architecture could be thought as a
architecture as the smaller scale artifact of the regenerative magnet to convey an internal
biggest artifact which is the city. And the urban resilience. Transient characterization
space is seen at the larger scale domain. The accomplishes a nested set of hierarchal
organizational order is polarized through interaction and a higher level of adaptation by
declaring urban spaces as larger-macro scale defeating flexibility. This allies a bond for city to
and architecture as smaller-micro scale adaptively polarize a permanent urban
elements of a city. in fact; the first trial of the clustering. Into this, urban spaces demonstrate
idealization of urban and its architectural a slower growing. The urban space is mature
extension in an adaptive cycle is adjusted in and all other networks are connected,
architectural studio of Kenzo Tange, in 1960. In conserved and locked-on mode. The system
the studio project of Tange (1960) at MIT, the stability is significantly infused by permanent
growth and change aspects are urban clustering.
amalgamated to external growth- internal
regeneration affiliation. Here, the main goal of Conclusion
Tange is to formulate a new relationship Approaching to a city should be intensive for
between the part (architecture) and whole identifying change- transformation-
(city). Two particular quadrants are adaptability through varied interfaces of urban
maintained for parts- transient elements and for space. This devises an integrative design
whole -permanent element (Lin, 2010).The understanding between architecture and
shorter cycles are the fast changes appearing urban design critically essential. Here, the
at the smaller scales of urban clusters. They are fundamental contradiction is to re-think the
the parts forming the whole. And, the long nature of growth-transformation-city relation
cycles are the slow changes structured at adaptive, rather than a new episode of
larger scales (urban clusters) to be inherent in destruction. Since, current cities came into a
long-life duration (Tange, 1960). In ‘Emerging parallel catastrophic trunk; the study infuses to
Complexities’ symposium which held at adjust (re)thinking the urbanism and
Colombia, Asada (1997) ensures the architecture as an integrated whole, a
complexity of a city as a living organism has restrained coordination resiliently coping with
been demarcated as a simple system of collision of urban growth. Thus, the study opens
hierarchical cycle between transient and a new argument that consolidate cities as a
permanent elements. In the detail, the self–organizing system; in which change is
hierarchical inclusion between parts and whole dependent on, and human-environment
have been demarcated as a narration relation is operated towards change in an