When Self-Organization Intersects with Urban Planning: Two Cases from Helsinki

Horelli, Liisa; Saad-Sulonen, Joanna; Wallin, Sirkku; Botero, Andrea

doi:10.1080/02697459.2015.1052941

Cited by 49 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In terms of the identified challenges of administrator power, it is important to point out that self-organization should not automatically be assumed to be horizontally constituted on the ideals of democracy, which has been suggested by social movement and urban planning scholars [34,36,37,44]. Establishing the people with the capacity to express their opinion and set the boundaries is an outcome of the negotiating capabilities of the actors involved in the network [47], and the contextual circumstances that shape the group's organizing practices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept of self-organization has its roots in biology, physics, and cybernetics, where it has been applied to describe complex living systems and computational networks [29], and how elements in complex systems aim to achieve equilibrium without an external force (Ashby 1962 and Jantsch 1980 in [30]). In more recent debates, the concept has been applied to analyze human action in complex social systems, explaining non-hierarchical and non-centralized organizing activities within digital networks [31,32] and social movements [33][34][35], More recently, it has been applied to explain human-induced spontaneous and unpredictable changes in urban environments [6] and the related self-governed participatory processes at the local community level of urban planning [30,36,37].…”

Section: Self-organization In Grassroots Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Boundary Negotiations in a Self-Organized Grassroots-Led Food Network: The Case of REKO in Finland

Ehrnström-Fuentes

Leipämaa‐Leskinen

2019

Sustainability

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Self-organization is a term that is increasingly used to describe how engaged citizens come together to create sustainable food systems at the local community level. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of what this self-organizing activity actually means. While previous literature has addressed self-organization as an outcome of building consensus and a collective intentionality shared by the members of a group, we focus on the complex social processes involved when people with a diverse set of interests and motivations interact in the food network. In this study, we analyze what kinds of boundary negotiations emerge when grassroots-led food networks scale up. Our embedded single case study focuses on a REKO (‘REjäl KOnsumtion’, meaning ‘fair consumption’ in English) network in Finland comprising distributed local food groups and three types of actors: consumers, producers, and local administrators. We examine a conflict that arose within the REKO network in May–June 2016 when a small group of actors demanded that all local groups should implement similar rules, principles, and ethical standards. Our findings illustrate how moral, geographic, market, and power boundaries emerge in a self-organized grassroots-led food network. We further explicate the challenges that may appear within a self-organized grassroots-led food network, as it grows in scale and scope.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Self-organization In Grassroots Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundary Negotiations in a Self-Organized Grassroots-Led Food Network: The Case of REKO in Finland

Ehrnström-Fuentes

Leipämaa‐Leskinen

2019

Sustainability

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“…Although being successful in reaching short term-goals, these local initiatives tend to fail at finding a way to sustain themselves and to grow into mature and flourishing communities [37]. While making an impact on city-level in their early stages [15], initiatives struggle to attract a broader local community, and find Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Join the Park!

Slingerland

Mulder

Jaśkiewicz

2019

Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Communities &Amp; Technologies - Transforming Communities

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The current work explores the participation divide that is oftentimes at play within local citizen communities. The studied case illustrates a common situation where the majority of local citizens does not participate in public space improvement and maintenance activities organised by local community activists. The presented research involved semi-structured interviews supported by interactive service design probes. It has led to two strategies for stimulating community participation, namely 1) increasing transparency around community activities, and 2) embedding community participation in citizens' daily social practices. CCS CONCEPTS• Human-centered computing → Interaction design.

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“…Luck (2003) considers that the difference between user and designer is sometimes blurred due to the major role given to end users. Horelli (2013) goes even further and suggests that participatory approaches should move towards self-organized participation instead of top-down, staged participation.…”

Section: Background: Existing Participatory Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participatory planning methods have been developed for and used in different built environment projects, whether an individual building or an urban neighbourhood (Sanoff, 2000). In Finland, the location of the current study, urban planning has become significantly more community focused in recent years, and participatory methods are widely used (Horelli, 2013).…”

Section: Background: Existing Participatory Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cuckoo’s Nest Approach for Co-Creating Business Ecosystems in Smart Cities

Artto

Kyrö

Ahola

et al. 2016

Technology Innovation Management Review

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IntroductionThe current global megatrends of rapid urbanization and digitalization are placing great pressure on the sustainability of our cities and are bringing about major changes in the living environment of city dwellers. Simultaneously, these trends also offer increased possibilities for sustainable urban development following the principles of circular economy, including the exploitation of existing infrastructure and services while taking advantage of new technology. Additionally, smart city strategies include engaging citizens and local businesses in the development of their communities. Indeed, participatory planning has been a growing trend in urban development projects in the past few decades. End users have been increasingly engaged in design processes using different collaborative methods. While this is a clear improvement compared to a designercentric approach, the existing participatory planning methods generally involve a pre-defined object of design, as well as a professional designer to lead the process.The development of business ecosystems in smart cities is currently hampered by the absence of established approaches for facilitating long-term value and sustainability. In our view, the underlying reason is the lack of collective action involving various organizations in the design process. Collective action for the good of the whole ecosystem does not take place in existing participatory practices because of the dominating role of a single customer or designer organization (in urban development projects typically the owner-developer or lead architect), who uses their bargaining and decision-making power over others. This leads to sub-optimal behaviour where the system is optimized for the goals of one strong organization instead of collectively developed system-level goals of the business ecosystem as a whole. The Cuckoo's Nest approach addresses this problem by inviting various expert organizations to design the system and assigning each organization design rights for the ecosystem and its system-level goal. The Cuckoo's Nest approach enhances collective action among the organizations by making individuals from various organizations consider the interests, goals, objectives, and value-adding elements of other organizations -not just those of their own organizations. With the Cuckoo's Nest approach, the business ecosystem comes first, and single organizations' goals or specific design features come second. This article discusses the outcomes of two workshops where the Cuckoo's Nest approach was used for the purpose of developing business ecosystems in connection with smart city development projects within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. We outline the steps involved in the Cuckoo's Nest approach and how they were applied in these two smart city projects, and we describe how it is being refined for further use in other locations and contexts.The stars up close to the moon were pale; they got brighter and braver the farther they got out of the circle of light ruled by the giant moon.

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When Self-Organization Intersects with Urban Planning: Two Cases from Helsinki

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 49 publications

References 17 publications

Boundary Negotiations in a Self-Organized Grassroots-Led Food Network: The Case of REKO in Finland

Boundary Negotiations in a Self-Organized Grassroots-Led Food Network: The Case of REKO in Finland

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The Cuckoo’s Nest Approach for Co-Creating Business Ecosystems in Smart Cities

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