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City Planning- "Dissolving" Urban Problems. Insights from an Application of Management Cybernetics
Journal
Kybernetes
ISSN
0368-492X
ISSN-Digital
1758-7883
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2004
Author(s)
Koerner, Markus
Abstract
Urban development in fast-growing cities is one of the huge challenges of our time, and several projects of technical cooperation are dedicated to this issue. The aim of this paper is to help project managers to enhance their capability of dealing effectively with the formidable complexities inherent in this kind of project. For this purpose, we explore the potential of Organizational Cybernetics and Social Systems Theory in a relatively new area of application. We have developed a set of conceptual tools that are helpful in coping with dynamic complexity in change and development projects. These tools have in common an inherent logic deriving to a great extent from Stafford Beer's Viable System Model and the St Gall framework for systemic management. The application of the tools is illustrated by a state-of-the-art case study from the realm of Technical Co-operation - the revision of the Urban Master Plan for the City of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. However, the toolkit is in principle also applicable to any complex project of change or development.
Language
English
Keywords
City planning
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Viable System Model
HSG Classification
not classified
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Emerald
Publisher place
Bradford
Volume
33
Number
3/4
Start page
557
End page
576
Pages
20
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
8613