Abstract
Cities are systems of systems of systems. These are often viewed through their subsystems, e.g. transportation, retail, health, welfare, crime, finance, water, political, refuse disposal, and so on. Any of these subsystems has its own subsystems, without clear boundaries, but they impact on and are impacted on by other subsystems. Some things are at discernable micro-, meso- and macro-levels, with surprising interactions between those levels. They have multilevel dynamics, and new self-organised subsystems can emerge while existing subsystems can disappear, e.g. ghettos can emerge, bus routes can disappear. There can be problems from unexpected interactions between systems through overlooked connectivities, and problems can occur due to a lack of joined up government. New ways of understanding cities and their multilevel dynamics are needed. The theory of hypernetworks will be introduced as a necessary, if not sufficient, approach to providing practical policy-oriented ways of representing the bewildering complexity of cities as ever-changing systems of dynamic multilevel systems. The theory will be illustrated by plans to expand the new Dutch city of Almere.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
References
Alexander, C.: A city is not a tree. Archit. Forum. 122(1), 58–62 (1965) (Part I), 122(2), 58–62 (Part II). See also in Design. 206, 46–55 (1966); and in: Kaplan, S., Kaplan, R.: Humanscape–environments for people. Ulrich’s Books, Ann Arbor (1982)
Atkin, R.H.: Mathematical Structure in Human Affairs. Heinemann Education Books, London (1974)
Atkin, R.H.: Combinatorial Connectivities in Social Systems. Birkhäuaer, Basel (1977)
Atkin, R.H.: Multidimensional Man. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth (1981)
Gould, P., Johnson, J., Chapman, G.: The Structure of Television. Pion, London (1984)
Johnson, J.H.: The future of the social sciences and humanities in the science of complex systems. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research 23(2), 115–134 (2010)
Simon, H.A.: The Sciences of the Artificial. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1965/1999)
Johnson, J.H.: The Q-analysis of road traffic systems. Environ. Plann. B 8(2), 141–189 (1981)
Johnson, J.H.: Hypernetworks in the Science of Complex Systems. Imperial College Press, London (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, J. (2012). Cities: Systems of Systems of Systems. In: Portugali, J., Meyer, H., Stolk, E., Tan, E. (eds) Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-24543-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-24544-2
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)