Self-organization and the city. (English) Zbl 0962.91070

Portugali, Juval

Springer Series in Synergetics. Berlin: Springer. xvii, 352 p. (2000).

This book integrates the theories of complex self-organizing systems with what may be called “social theory of cities and urbanism”. The author introduces a new family of heuristic models – FACS (Free Agents in a Cellular Space) models – and applies them to study the issue of socio-cultural spatial segregation in cities. Moreover, he develops a synergetic/pattern recognition theory of cities and of decision-making in the context of city planning. Contents of this book are subdivided into the following five parts: I. On cities and urbanism; II. City games; III. Self-organizing planning; IV. Synergetic cities; V. Self-organization and urban revolutions.
This book is intended for students of self-organization in general, for scientists working with mathematical models of self-organizing cities and for urbanists in a variety of disciplines such as social geography, architecture, urban and regional planning, econimics, sociology etc.

Reviewer: Ivan Křivý (Ostrava)

MSC:

91D10	Models of societies, social and urban evolution
91-01	Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to game theory, economics, and finance
93-01	Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to systems and control theory
91D25	Spatial models in sociology
93A30	Mathematical modelling of systems (MSC2010)

Keywords:

self-organization theories; synergetics; FACS models; social theory of cities; urbanism