Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Finally, it is worth adding an additional two-pronged element to Campbell's list,
which might best be called a
problem recognition and willingness to act
element.
This means that that the leaders in a city, from local politicians, businesses and
various organizations, not only accept that their city or urban place has some major
problem that needs to be solved, but also develop a willingness to act to solve the
difficulty. Hopefully this leads to the cooperative process to develop some vision
and subsequently policies to solve the issue, which has been seen especially in the
citizen-led Transition Town movement, and in cities that have pursued Safe, Knowl-
edge and Slow City agendas in particular. This recognition of both the need and
also the necessity to resolve the perceived problem through deliberate management
strategies and supported by major stakeholders is often the first step in the learning
process that leads to a problem resolution, and with its success the identification of
other issues and problems that reduce the liveability and sustainability of cities. In
democracies it either takes some far-sighted and often charismatic leadership, as
displayed by some mayors, to achieve such progress, or some catastrophic event to
stimulate consensus to embark on such action. In many cases, however, there may
be little consensus about particular strategies. What is then needed are a series of
initially small steps that will produce improvements and advantages that all can see
and get used to, thereby building support for more widespread progress. This is the
type of step-by-step actions recommended for expanding pedestrianization (Gehl
2010) or San Francisco's waste management strategy. It is not new. The idea can be
traced back to Alinsky's action approach to community development in seriously
disadvantaged inner city neighbourhoods that he began practicing in the late 1930s
but only formalized decades later (Alinsky 1972). However it must be recognized
that not all actions have the capability of beginning with small steps.
In reality few cities in the world have developed the capacity to learn by adopting
all these elements. Campbell (2012, 56) created a city-learning classification, iden-
tifying five types based on the degree to which a city organizes its effort to finding
and using information to make it a better place, or to solve particular problems. He
then provided examples of cities that fall into these categories. His first category
consists of the most active cities that deliberately organize learning missions to a
range of other places, managed by a dedicated agency that encourages the building
of social capital among those travelling to other places, and subsequently tries to
find ways of building upon this information to improve aspects of their own city.
A second type consists of cities that engage in episodic visits or exchanges to other
centres, best illustrated by the Sister Cities network where one-on-one linkages oc-
cur, although some of these cities have more than one sister city or twin town.
But the type rarely has any agencies to control the learning process. A third group
consists of those centres that are part of clusters of cities in a network that shares
common program objectives or campaigns, such as the World Heritage group that
exchange ideas about historical conservation, or Agenda 21 centres that promote
sustainable principles. In this type a central role is played by the organization and
its secretariat, such as UNESCO in the Heritage City case, rather than any delib-
erate learning by the city itself from other cities. The fourth type describes those
involved in networks of common interest. The objective is not learning itself but the
