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Brian Dowling

Making Cities Work / newcommunityparadigms [licensed for non-commercial use only] - 7 views

    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Economics and creating livable cities notes and comments on the video. Related blog post http://bit.ly/qXggrn    related wiki post http://bit.ly/nKYXWt 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      The future of communities promises to be austere with less public funding available.  This means other means need to be used to create new community paradigms but the challenge is that any major change must take hold in the first 6 months or the existing organizational culture will put the brakes on the effort in self survival.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Major efforts also take 3 requirements. Leadership, Vision and Funding. I suspect for community paradigms the most important is Vision around which Leadership can be organized around to attain funding. One important focus for the community as a whole will be job creation.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      These efforts need to work with outside usually private agencies and finding avenues of mutual benefit.  Having a cooperative government entity to work though can therefore be a plus.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Universities are changing their role in the working with communities.  They can be great resources without necessarily trying to establish political control. Students are also a great resource for community change. Different disciplines design, technology and business can be brought together to help create innovative ideas. They can, as should community paradigm organizations, challenge the status quo. At the same time there is a necessity for structure. The question is how to community paradigm groups achieve structure?
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      In creating community paradigms outcomes are as important as outputs.  Outputs is the metric by which an effort is judged and usually quantitative but outcomes are the changes to the community that come from implementing the effort. You leave behind something sustainable in new partnerships, new ways of working, new ideas.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      The challenge is working with experts for innovative ideas without being snare by ideas that are politically or economically motivated to give another advantage or because they are expedient.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      The very idea of endeavoring to bring about new community paradigms means creating an environment with more social capital from which to draw to achieve the desired shift in community paradigm requires a good deal of volunteering where the participants actively pursue their role as producers of democracy. Volunteering is not limited to formal volunteering but all altruistic forms of social interaction. It helps to increase democratic participation. Robert Putnam's work demonstrates that it also has positive economic benefit as well. See wiki page for more info. There does however need to be something more to the effort of creating a new community paradigm beyond volunteering. What that is not clear but it seems to rise out of the act of creating a viable community paradigm shift.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Danger of disconnect brought about by austerity measures cutting people of from the community. Thousand flowers wll bloom without government theory is without merit
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Communities should do more than provide shelter they should provide opportunities and fundamentally economic opportunities. 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Need a more holistic view, local competency, asking private sector to work in totally different way from traditional way but business still wants government to get out of the way. 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Government can be overly reactive going for the flavor of the minute.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      What is the relationship of virtual communities to real communities through the enabling of programs such as car sharing.  Can it reinforce the connections of communities?
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Volunteering at its best is a face to face proposition
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Liveable is not merely a means of economic advantage but also must include other factors including environmental. We seek what cities give us culturally and aesthetically 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      This part of the discussion mirrors the work of Soul of the Community blog post http://bit.ly/qfZtt2 wiki post http://bit.ly/mXp0sF
Brian G. Dowling

Linear to Complex - Heart of the Art - 0 views

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    Once you have understood the approach and strategies of the Complex paradigm, think of where you can start making changes in your organization or business model. Where do you use the Linear paradigm, and are those actually linear systems?  Some companies like to plan how their users should interact with their products, and typically don't allow them to configure their own solutions. What if you started preparing rather than planning?
Brian G. Dowling

The Democracy Collaborative - 0 views

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    The Democracy Collaborative was established in 2000 to advance a new understanding of democracy for the 21st century and to promote new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life. Our goal is to change the prevailing paradigm of community economic development-and of the economy as a whole-in the United States toward a new emphasis and system based on: Broadening ownership and stewardship over capital Democracy at the workplace Stabilizing community and emphasizing locality Equitable and inclusive growth Environmental, social, and institutional sustainability The Collaborative is a national leader in the field of community development through our Community Wealth Building Initiative. The Initiative sustains a wide range of projects involving research, training, policy development, and community-focused work designed to promote an asset-based paradigm and increase support for the field across-the-board.
Brian G. Dowling

Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World - 0 views

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    Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World is a book about a scientific economic solution rooted in a recognition of humanity's interconnectedness; it offers a template that, if applied, could solve many of today's social and economic issues at a root level.
Brian G. Dowling

Capacity Building and Social Capital - 3 views

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    There is, however, one small problem with this. Governments cannot create community, no matter how hard they try, and they cannot build social capital. At best they can create policy environments which assist individuals and institutions in civil society to do these things, or at least, do not stifle their efforts or make their task more difficult. To acknowledge this is not to suggest that governments should simply sit back and hope social capital will grow before them. On the contrary, it is to advocate a radical re-invention of government and a wholesale move away from the old service delivery paradigm in the human services so as to remove some of the key governmental obstacles to civic engagement, responsibility and reciprocity at grass-roots levels of our society.
Brian G. Dowling

Sourcing Crowds for Out of the Box Ideas | Innovation Management - 3 views

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    What interests me is how the lessons found in the article could be applied to real world community governance in relation to the public sector. Such communities are already in existence so cannot be created outside of the box to start with, however many of the other observations can be applied especially with the use of the Internet and application of direct democratic dialogue. It should be possible to create some new disruptive innovations which such an approach and resources to create some new community paradigms.
Brian G. Dowling

The Democracy Collaborative Facebook - 0 views

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    Advancing a new understanding of democracy for the 21st century and promoting new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life. Promoting new strategies and innovations in community development that enhance democratic life. The Collaborative is a national leader in the field of community development through our Community Wealth Building Initiative. The Initiative sustains a wide range of projects involving research, training, policy development, and community-focused work designed to promote an asset-based paradigm and increase support for the field across-the-board.
Brian G. Dowling

To Make an Impact in a World of Brutality and Strife, a Funder Embraces Systems Thinkin... - 0 views

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    Systems thinking, according to HU, has two important dimensions. One is the establishment of a new paradigm that understands global issues as inherently complex, multi-dimensional, conflictive and open to outside influence and intervention. A problem like slavery, for example, may seem intractable because of the economic interests it serves; in fact, the institutional and organizational linkages-the supply chains-that comprise slavery's power structure are vulnerable. The first step in system thinking is to map those linkages to better understand how they fit together and pinpoint their likely weak points. The next step is to devise a strategy that combines public advocacy, coalition building, insider lobbying, and investigative journalism to target those linkages, forcing those implicated in slavery, wittingly or unwittingly, to reform, and weakening the larger circuit of power over time.
Brian G. Dowling

Solidarity Economy Resources - 0 views

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    The concept of solidarity economy has diverse origins and varied meanings, all of which revolve around the effort to root economic activity in principles of solidarity, participation, cooperation, and reciprocity as opposed to the competitive individualism characteristic of mainstream capitalist paradigms.
Brian G. Dowling

New Community Paradigms / Gardens of Democracy - 3 views

    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Metaphors matter, foundationally, in creating communities. Democratic governance is not best done through the machine of government but through a garden of governance by a community.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Changing the relationship of citizens to government as called for by Code for America means changing the relationship of members of civil society to community and of community to government. Community needs to take over a greater role in governance from governance. Code for America provides some of the tools but not the craftsmanship.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Code for America is networked across the USA but grounded in local communities. It is, however, too often leveraged through city councils and city management which is great for cities more in the fashion of Innovatatown than Parochialville. In some cases, it will need to be implemented from outside of city hall.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      A need to redefine the notion of self-interest. Human nature stays the same, what changes is human understanding from fatalistic to mechanistic to hopefully organic.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      The world is complex and networked not simple and add-on, systems are non-linear and non-equilibrium. Systems should not be described as efficient or inefficient but effective or ineffective. We are interdependent, cooperation drives prosperity and we are emotional approximators. Our systems are impacted positively or negatively by contagion.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Viewing the world in a new way redefines your approach to politics. The mechanistic model of citizenship "atomizes" individuals according to Eric Liu. Under a Gardens of Democracy model, individuals are networked and citizenship can be redefined accordingly making true self-interest mutual interest as understood by Tocqueville http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/ch2_08.htm
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Understanding the new reality. You are not stuck in traffic. You are traffic. We need to be more than simple spectators to the political process. In my view, it means being more than simple participants in the existing system but redefining that system. We need to be more than customers and consumers of a system of community management and become co-creators of the system.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      We also use mechanistic metaphors in defining our economy, including "efficient markets". The economy is an ecosystem. Economies prosper best from the middle out not from the top down.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Big government versus small government misses the point. According to Eric Liu government should be big on the what and small on the how. Government should strive to set great goals, does invest resources making them available at scale but the innovation to achieve those goals should come from the bottom up in networked ways.
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    Code for America hosted Nick Hanauer and Eric Liu for a discussion of their recent book, "Gardens of the Democracy." In it, they challenge Americans to approach the world not as a machinery that needs to be perfected but as a garden that needs constant attention, discretion, and periodic weeding. The book argues that since society and technology have fundamentally changed, so must our notions of citizenship and democracy: turning "the machine" into a garden. 
Brian G. Dowling

New Community Paradigms [licensed for non-commercial use only] / Cities for People - 1 views

    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      In a "cold" economic climate better to make cities better cities than to build icons. 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Copenhagen and Melbourne are among cities seen as being highly livable. Most of the work was done in cold economic times.  Creating Public spaces can be the least expensive, quickest, the most visible with the greatest impact for the greatest number of people that a city can do.  Lyon did this in an economic downturn.   
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Copenhagen had economic issues in 70's and still put money into streets to lift spirits of the community.  
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      "In this City everything will be done to invite people to walk and bicycle as much as possible in the course of their daily doings." Keyword inviting. 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      5 times more people can move per hour on a bicycle track compared to a lane for cars.  
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Copenhagen credits bicyclists with saving 90,000 tons of CO2 every year. 
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      'Bicyclists live longer" "Danes who bicycle to work every day reduce the risk of serious diseases 50%"
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Cities become destination in their own right now merely someplace to do other things like shopping.  
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Copenhagen Streets: Sidewalks, 2 proper bicycle lands, street trees, 2 lanes for 2 way traffic and a substantial median to facilitate crossing the street. "We do not have to think and act as 1960's traffic engineers for ever - times are changing and traffic engineers are by now much smarter"
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Sidewalks and bicycle lanes are taken across sidestreets making the city more comfortable and people friendly!
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Copehagen in its 2009 New Public Life Policy strove to the "WORLD'S FINEST CITY FOR PEOPLE" among the goals having everyone to walk 20% more by 2015!!!
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Copenhagen is a city where bicycling has become incorporated as an efficient, citywide transportation system.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Bicycles are taken straight through the street crossings and the lanes are marked with blue.  Bicycle signals turn green 6 seconds before car signals.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      In Copenhagen 27% drive a car to get to work, 33% use public transit, 5% walk and 37% ride a bicycle.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      Between 1994 and 2004 Melbourne City Center saw increases in Pedestrian traffic on weekdays by over 40%, Pedestrian traffic in the evenings by over 100% and stationary activities by over 200 to 300%
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      "Compared to most other mindsets, Vancouver's thinking has been counterintuitive because we rank walking at the top of the list followed by bicycling, transit and goods movement. The auto is last.
    • Brian G. Dowling
       
      People are looking for a Lively City, an Attractive City, a Safe City, a Sustainable City and a Healthy City.
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    The closing keynote at the Economist Conferences Event, "Creating tomorrow's liveable cities", presented byProfessor Jan Gehl, founding partner of Gehl Architects,Copenhagen. This video provides a good deal of information on the benefits bicycling and walking have on a livable community when integrated into the community landscape.
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