What is the Role of Cities and Regions in Confict Resolution?

There is an increasing role of cities and regions in conflict resolution. Sub-units of national governments or other entities involvement in diplomacy has been termed para-diplomacy. Are regional and urban governmental units involved in international diplomacy enhancing or distracting from conflict resolution. I was researching this topic and found this interesting article from the Bologna Center Journal of International Affairs : http://bcjournal.org/2007/paradiplomacy/

I will be exploring this concept as related to some of my forthcoming research.

Requests for Manuscirpts for Upcoming Volume of Urbana

Announcement
The online journal Urbana: Urban Affairs and Public Policy (ISSN 2151-1896) located
at http://www.tamuk.edu/geo/Urbana/ is interested in receiving manuscripts
for it upcoming volume. This is a peer reviewed journal concerning urban policy,
urban affairs, urbanism, urban planning and urban theory. Of particular interest would be those that are related to urbanism in Latin American.
Please send your manuscripts to Dr. Jesús A. Treviño C . at jtrevino41@hotmail.com
or Dr. Michael A. McAdams at michaelamcadams@yahoo.com

Importance of Leadership in “Disturbing the Vortex” and Relational Planning

Many urban areas seem to be “churning in the vortex” of chronic problems of underemployment, deindustrialization, and population decline. The lack of coordination between different levels of government, the business community, non-profit organizations and citizens are at the root of these problems. Long range plans can be developed, but are useless without a consensus among decision-makers. It would appear that what makes successful cities is a leader with a vision and who has the ability to form coalitions across many diverse groups. These ideas are founded on those of Patsy Healey (Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle (UK)) and Jaime Learner (urban planner, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, and consultant). The notion is that successful changes in urban environment must “disturb the vortex” that is upset the present way of doing things in an urban area. Disturbing the vortex consists of seemingly “radical” actions that put an urban area on a new path. This may be such actions as: “urban farming”-turning vacant land into gardens or farms, retraining and entrepreneurial ventures to encourage post-industrial firms to relocate or to form such as those devoted to software developers, Internet commerce, high precision instrument manufacturing, green technology, and consulting; and encouraging public transit friendly development. A regional focus must be encouraged. However, key is one leader or a dedicated group that can forms a consensus and commitment for long term change. While this is a proven path for change, the obstacles preening them are substantial, particularly in a time of limited funding and a retreat attitude in urban areas. Yet once a coalition is made and changes start, they take on their own energy. The real problem is the initiation of these changes. This is also inherent in the concept of “fractal planning” as expressed in earlier blogs. Fractals are generated by the initiation of a set of “rules”. The complex formation of a fractal initiates from simple rules, one stating action and the iteration of the rules. In urban planning, this would be consist to the development of a working group, development of policy and the implementation of the policy. While physical land use plans are important tools, they are nothing without commuted leadership, guiding policy and implementation.

Accomodating Bicycles and Pedestrians: A Parisian example

BRT in Curitiba

Interesting lecture on complexity

David Korowicz - Complexity, Economy, Civilisation & Collapse from Feasta on Vimeo.

urban street transformation in Curitiba, Brazil

Urban Shaman

In tribal societies, the shaman would cover him/herself with animal clothing to symbolism transformation from a human form to an animal one. This was to change the perceptions of the participants of rituals to think in different realities. In shamanistic societies, animal spirits take on the role of transformer and dispenser of wisdom. In modern day societies, we have individuals that provide urban residents with transforming visions to go from the present to a future reality. The first step for urban transformation, is to make citizens and decision-makers dream. It is unfortunate that these leaders are not as prevalent as would be desired. Elected and non-elected officials (such as urban planners) confuse and keep obsololete ideas and actions churning interrelated vortexes which are losing their energy. Such is the case with many urban issues including energy, the environment and social justice in urbanized areas. There is a need for “urban shamans” who “dance” the visions of a new reality so that cities can again be dynamic places and the engines of social, economic, and political change.

The Embedded Mind: A Footnote

The above video is that of the Third Movement of the Second Piano Concerto by Beethoven preformed by well-known pianist Claudio Abbado with the conductor Mikhail Pletnev. The date and location is unknown How does the embedded mind go from the implanted RAM to produce music such as this that transcends one to another level of consciousness? Yet, the embedded mind in humans can cause war, destruction, poverty, murder, and despair. It can emerge in an individual such as the Dalia Lama to bring messages of hope, joy and laughter for mankind and likewise manifest itself in scores of horrific individuals such as Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin, and others whose primary purpose to plunge whole societies into collective destruction. Attempting to uncover the reasons is an exercise in futility. To prevent such individuals from taking over the collective consciousness of whole societies is a worthy idealistic goal that should never be relinquished. In the present we must revel in the sublime creations of those such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and others to remind ourselves that we can rise above the mundane to great heights.

The Disenfranchisement of Local Citizens

While viewing some of the on-line editorials of the local newspaper here, Corpus Christi Caller Times, I came across this editorial comments by a local citizen, a Mr. Johnson, titled “ Failed Resolutions”.

Failed resolutions

Here it is, just a few days into the new year, and already my resolutions are circling the toilet. No matter what I did to distract myself, I could not manage to fulfill these goals:

1. Be tolerant of an ineffective, unfocused and downright embarrassing Corpus Christi City Council.

2. Remain calm as Corpus Christi continues its slide ever farther down the slippery slope to nowhere.

3. Stop thinking that a little outburst of oligarchy might not be a bad thing if it helps the citizenry realize just how much power it actually has in the decision-making process.

4. Believe there is some traction in the GROW Corpus Christi movement — that is, believe it really does represent a movement.

5. Prepare for the next round of elections without thinking politics is no more than an end in itself — once the election is won or lost, actually doing something is either irrelevant or just so much icing on an otherwise tasteless cake.

6. Disbelieve that there are so many people who refuse to realize they are the true victims of bad governance.

So, all I can resolve is to be less petulant and more realistic. Darn, that’s not happening either.

J. Fred Johnson

There are some key themes in this editoral that are presumably echoed in other localities : 1) lack of citizen participation: 2) oligarchy of local politicians: 3) voting as a meaningless exercise to improve city governance: 4)quality of local decision-makers; and 5) boosterism groups which are have no effect in the direction of city change (in this GROW Corpus Christi). If I could travel back in time to the turn of the century, I would have seen these same themes presented, albeit in the language of that era. In these times city halls were controlled by powerful groups, the press controlled by local business, local politicians were responsive to special interests and boosterism was a puppet for self-interested local oligarchy. Sound familiar? The counter-balance to this situation was the Progressive Movement and to certain degree the Socialist Party presence at the local level (ie. Milwaukee). (Recently, the socialist mayor for Milwaukee, Frank Zeidler, died. An editorial by Roger Bybee, a Milwaukee writer and activist, documents Zeidler's accomplishments, but also chides the current local government for serving a few and ignoring the many. This editoriall can be found at http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/FrankZeidler/LastSocialistMayorInUS-FrankZeidlersRemarkableLegacy )

Where are the modern-day versions of Zeidler, Teddy Roosevelt, and Robert La Follette Sr.? The updated version of the Progressive Party could be found in the Green Party of America:

http://www.gp.org/index.php

. Unfortunately, it is having very little effect on the local or national level.