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Abstract
This article presents an alternative way of thinking about how regional sustainability might be accomplished. It starts from the premise that metropolitan regions can be understood as self-organizing complex systems if they have certain characteristics. When observed through this framework, sustainability shifts from being an end state to being a continuing process of adaptation that maintains the system or even improves its performance through learning and innovation. This article explores these ideas by investigating four Collaborative Regional Initiatives (CRIs), voluntary networks of civic leaders in California. We compare them across six themes: fit to region, theory of change, role of research, leadership, network structure, and activity. We use these elements as a conceptual framework to tell each CRI's unique and interesting story, while at the same time comparing them along common dimensions. Drawing on complexity science, we use the stories of these CRIs to develop theory about how such networks can be designed and operated to play useful roles in advancing the sustainability of a region.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank David Booher, the anonymous reviewers and especially the editor for their valuable comments and suggestions for improving this paper. Karen Chapple, Karen Christensen, Judith Gruber, and AnnaLee Saxenian worked with the authors on the design of the research. Christensen, Innes, and Saxenian conducted the case studies along with graduate students Nadya Chinoy Dabby, Jane Rongerude, and Gerardo Sandoval. The research presented in this paper was supported by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.
Notes
1. Being at the edge of chaos means being neither stable nor completely disordered.
2. In science these agents could be anything from atoms or molecules to seeds, birds, or deer. Agent-based modeling in transportation is the most familiar example of this dynamic. Epstein and Axtell (Citation1996) have applied agent-based modeling to predict the location of agents with different capacities and resources in space, reproducing key patterns of urban development.
3. Some basic references on complexity theory accessible to social scientists include Mitchell, Citation2009; Capra, Citation2002; Axelrod & Cohen, Citation1999; Waldrop, Citation1992; Kelly, Citation1994. Epstein & Axtell, Citation1996. Geyer & Rihani (Citation2010) lay out an approach to public policy that relies on complexity theory and Innes & Booher (1999 and 2010) use complexity theory to understand how collaboration has impacts in planning. New work by planning scholars has begun to demonstrate how complexity theory can play a significant role in planning thought (de Roo & Silva, Citation2010; de Roo, Hillier & van Wezemael, Citation2012).
4. More information about the MacArthur Fellows Program (known as the genius awards) can be found at http://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/.
5. We use the word “disciple” to mean a follower or pupil of a teacher, leader, or philosophy.
6. In California counties have elected boards of supervisors. Counties have control of land use in all areas not incorporated as cities. They are managed by county executives and they typically have planning departments.
7. For some of the specifics see the Placer Legacy page on the Placer County website: http://www.placer.ca.gov/Departments/CommunityDevelopment/Planning/PlacerLegacy/Accomplishments.aspx
8. Sharon Huntsman conducted this research in 2004 as part of her Master's thesis at the University of California, Davis (Building Capacity for Collaborative Leadership: An Assessment of the Sierra Leadership Seminar, Citation2005).
9. For a more recent look at JV:SV see Squazzoni (Citation2009).
10. Mary Walshok identified Swedish Study Circles as a powerful example of the type of civic learning through dialogue that she hoped to develop through this work (Nelkin, Citation1977).
11. For more information about the SENTRI program, see the SENTRI page on the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection website: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/trusted_traveler/sentri/ sentri.xml. See Kada (Citation2004) for further discussion of the blurring of the cross-border boundaries.
12. During this time, the term “smart growth” applied to the goal of compact growth associated with transit infrastructure. It was typically equated with sustainability.
13. BAASC was originally called the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development.
14. This all-volunteer effort never really got off the ground.
15. We did get access to the detailed meeting minutes, however, prepared by the staff member, but these were not distributed otherwise.
16. The clean air legislation was known as AB32. The implementing law, SB375 offers cities incentives to encourage compact growth if they follow new regional “blueprints” for development around transport and other infrastructure (Barbour & Deakin, Citation2012).
17. Urban Habitat is an environmental justice-focused non-profit organization operating in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their work is focused in four areas: policy and advocacy, capacity building and technical assistance, reframing the debate, and regional coalition building. For more information about Urban Habitat, see their website, http://urbanhabitat.org/uh/newfront.
18. Many factors besides the projections contributed to the focus on transit-oriented development, which had by that time become best practice for many agencies.