Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Self-Organization and the City

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science

Definition of the Subject

Self-organization is a central property of open and complex systems. While the concept had already appeared in the 1940s, its modern use was pioneered in the 1960s by people such as Haken [50,51] with his theory of synergetics, Prigogine with his notion of dissipative structures [87,109,110] and others (see review in Chap. 3.1 [95]). Such systems are typically in “a far from equilibrium condition” and exhibit phenomena of chaos, fractal structure and the like. For a long time, the term “self-organization” was used also as an umbrella name for these theories; nowadays it is common to refer to these theories as complexity theories.

The notions of self-organization and complexity originated in the sciences, specifically in physics, as a property of naturalsystems. However, as we shall see below, from the start they were associated with the city – at the beginning the city was used asa metaphor to convey the notion of “self-organization” [87] and ata later stage...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 3,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

Self organization:

A property of open and complex systems that achieve their order spontaneously, that is, by means of “self-organization”.

City :

A form of settlement that first emerged in the Near East (the core being Mesopotamia) some 5500 years ago. Since its first appearance in Mesopotamia it has diffused in space and time. With colonialism the Western–European form of city has diffused to the entire world, suppressing on the way other forms of cities (e.?g. in South America, East Asia, etc.). In the last few decades the city has become the most dominant form of settlement: for the first time in human history more than half of world population lives in cities.

Urbanism :

The term refers to the totality of life in cities: the interrelations between the social structure, culture, economy, politics, architecture, physical morphology, … associated with life in cities. The first appearance of cities is thus termed the urban revolution. Most students of urbanism would agree that 21st century society is undergoing a major urban transformation; some describe it as a new urban revolution.

Planning :

Planning is, on the one hand, a basic cognitive capability of humans while on the other, a profession and research domain termed interchangeably city planning , urban and regional planning or environmental planning. City planners work and act in the context of planning law and administration the aim of which is to regulate and control life in cities.

SIRN (synergetic inter-representation network) :

An approach to cognitive mapping and urban dynamics suggesting that cities emerge, maintain their order and change again as a consequence of an on-going interaction between cognitive maps that are constructed in the mind/brain of humans as internal representations and the city as a collective external representation. This on-going interaction gives rise to a network some of whose elements are in the mind/brain, while others in the world.

Information compression , inflation and adaptation:

A view suggesting that Shannon's notion of information is a property of closed systems and that in complex, self-organizing systems one has to take into consideration the role of semantic information . Due to semantic information, the process of self-organization often entails information compression; in some cases it entails information inflation . The suggestion is that information compression and inflation are two facets of the process of information adaptation .

Bibliography

  1. Alexander C (1965) A city is not a tree. Architectural Forum April-May, 58–62

    Google Scholar 

  2. Alfasi N, Portugali J (2007) Planning rules for a self-plannedcity. Planning Theory 6(2):164–182

    Google Scholar 

  3. Allen PM, Strathern M (2004) Complexity: The integrated framework for integrated models of urban and regional systems. A talk delivered at a conference on The Dynamics of Complex Urban Systems, November 4–6, 2004, Monte Verita

    Google Scholar 

  4. Allen PM (1997) Cities and Regions As Self-Organizing Systems: Model of Complexity. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  5. Allen PA (1981) The evolutionary paradigm of dissipative structures. In: Jantsch E (ed) The Evolutionary Vision. Westview Press, Boulder, pp 25–71

    Google Scholar 

  6. Allen P, Sanglier M (1981) Urban evolution, self-organization and decision making. Environ Planning A 13:169–183

    Google Scholar 

  7. Allen P, Sanglier M, Engelen G, Boon F (1985) Towards a new synthesis in the modeling of evolving complex systems. Environ Planning B Planning Des 12:65–84

    Google Scholar 

  8. Alonso W (1965) Location and Land Use. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  9. Andersson C, Hellervik A, Lindgren K, Hagson A, Tornberg J (2003) Urban economy as a scale-free network. Phys Rev E 68(3):036124

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Auerbach F (1913) Das Gesetz der Bevolkerungskoncentration. Petermanns Geogr Mitt 59:74–76

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bak P, Chen K, Creutz M (1989) Self-organized criticality in the game of life. Nature 342:780–782

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Bak P, Chen K (1991) Self-organized criticality. Sci Am 28:26–33

    Google Scholar 

  13. Barabási A-L (2002) Linked: The new science of networks. Perseus, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  14. Barabási A-L, Réka A (1999) Emergence of scaling in random networks. Science 286:509–512

    Google Scholar 

  15. Bartlett FC (1932/1961) Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  16. Batty M (2005) Cities and Complexity: Understanding Cities with Cellular Automata, Agent Based Models and Fractals. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass

    Google Scholar 

  17. Batty M (1997) Cellular automata and urban form: a primer. J Am Planning Assoc 63(2):266–274

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  18. Batty M (1996) Urban Evolution on the Desktop: Simulations Using Extended Cellular Automata. Unpublished paper, Centre for Academic Spatial Analysis, UCL

    Google Scholar 

  19. Batty M, Longley P (1994) Fractal Cities. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  20. Batty M, Xie Y (1999) Self-organized criticality and urban development. In: Portugali J (ed) Population, Environment and Society on the Verge of the 21st Century, pp 109–124

    Google Scholar 

  21. Batty M, Xie Y (1994) From cells to cities. Environ Planning B: Planning Des 21:531–548

    Google Scholar 

  22. Benenson I, Torrens PM (2004) Geosimulation: Automata based modeling for urban phenomena. Wiley, London

    Google Scholar 

  23. Benguigui L (1995) A fractal analysis of the public transportation system of Paris. Environ Planning A 27:1147–1161

    Google Scholar 

  24. Benguigui L, Czamanski D, Marinov M, Portugali J (2000) When and where is a city fractal. Environ Planning B 27(4):507–519

    Google Scholar 

  25. Blanchard P, Volchenkov D (2007) Scale-free Segregation in Transport Networks. arXiv:0710.1592

    Google Scholar 

  26. Braudel F (1993) A History of Civilizations, translated by Richard Mayne. Penguin Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  27. Blumenfeld-Lieberthal E (2005) Dynamics of Urban Morphology in the Tel-Aviv Metropolitan Area. Ph.D thesis, Technion, Haifa

    Google Scholar 

  28. Brail RK (2006) Planning support systems evolving: When the rubber hits the road. In: Portugali J (ed) Complex Artificial Environments, Complexity series. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 307–317

    Google Scholar 

  29. Brail RK, Klosterman RE (eds) (2001) Planning Support Systems. ESRI Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  30. Burgess B (1925) The growth of the city: An introduction to a research project. In: Park R, Burgess EW, McKenzie RD (eds) The City. Chicago University Press, Chicago, pp. 47–62

    Google Scholar 

  31. Burgess EW (1926/1968) The Urban Community. Greenwood Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  32. Burgess EW (1927) The determination of gradients in the growth of the city. American Sociological Society Publications 21:178–184

    Google Scholar 

  33. Castells M (1977) The Urban Question. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  34. Castells M (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell Publishers, Malden, MA

    Google Scholar 

  35. Childe VG (1950) The urban revolution. Town Planning Rev 21:3–17

    Google Scholar 

  36. Christaller W (1933/1966) Central Places in Southern Germany. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  37. Cilliers P (1998) Complexity and Postmodernism. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  38. Dalton N, Peponis J, Conroy-Dalton R (2003) To tame a TIGER one has to know its nature: extending weighted angular integration analysis to the description of GIS road-centerline data for large scale urban analysis. In: Hanson J (ed) Proceedings of the 4th International Space Syntax Symposium. University College London, London, pp 65.1–65.10

    Google Scholar 

  39. Dendrinos DS, Sonis M (1990) Chaos and Socio–Spatial Dynamics. Springer, New York, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  40. Faludi A (1973) A Reader in Planning Theory. Pergamon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  41. Figueiredo L, Amorim L (2005) Continuity lines in the axial system. In: Van Nes A (ed) 5th International Space Syntax Symposium. TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Section of Urban Renewal and Management, Delft, pp 161–174

    Google Scholar 

  42. Garling T, Golledge RG (eds) (1993) Behavior and Environment. North-Holland, Amsterdam, London, New York, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  43. Geertman S, Stillwell J (eds) (2003) Planning Support Systems in Practice. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  44. Giddens A (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  45. Golledge RG, Timmermans H (eds) (1988) Behavioral Modeling in Geography and Planning. Croom Helm, London, New York, Sydney

    Google Scholar 

  46. Gould SJ (1980) The Panda's Thumb. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  47. Gregory D (1994) Geographical Imaginations. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  48. Haag G, Muntz M, Pumain D, Saint-Julien T, Sanders L (1992) Interurban migration and the dynamics of a system of cities. Environment and Planning A 24:181–198

    Google Scholar 

  49. Haken H (1979) Pattern formation and pattern recognition – an attempt at a synthesis. In: Haken H (ed) Pattern Formation by Dynamical Systems and Pattern Recognition. Springer, Berlin, pp 2–13

    Google Scholar 

  50. Haken H (1983) Synergetics, an Introduction, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  51. Haken H (1987) Advanced Synergetics: An Introduction (2nd print). Springer, Berlin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  52. Haken H (1988/2000) Information and Self-Organization: A Macroscopic Approach to Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  53. Haken H (1990) Synergetics of Cognition. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  54. Haken H (1991/2004) Synergetic Computers and Cognition. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  55. Haken H (1993) Synergetics as a strategy to cope with complex systems. In: Haken H, Mikhailov A (eds) Interdisciplinary Approaches to Non-Linear Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  56. Haken H (1996) Principles of Brain Functioning: A Synergetic Approach to Brain Activity, Behavior and Cognition. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  57. Haken H (1998) Decision making and optimization in regional planning. In: Beckmann MJ, Johansson B, Snickars F, Thord R (eds) Knowledge and Networks in a Dynamic Economy. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  58. Haken H, Portugali J (1995) A synergetic approach to the self-organization of cities. Environ Planning B: Planning Des 22:35–46

    Google Scholar 

  59. Haken H, Portugali J (1996) Synergetics, inter-representation networks and cognitive maps. In: Portugali J (ed) The Construction of Cognitive Maps. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 45–67

    Google Scholar 

  60. Haken H, Portugali J (2003) The face of the city is its information. Environ Psychol 23:385–408

    Google Scholar 

  61. Haken H, Portugali J (in preparation) Synergetics and captivity in a city

    Google Scholar 

  62. Haken H, Portugali J (in preparation) Information adaptation

    Google Scholar 

  63. Harvey D (1985) The Urbanization of Capital. Basil Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  64. Harvey D (1996) Justice, Nature and Geography of differences. Basil Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  65. Hillier B (1999) Space is the Machine: A Configurational Theory of Architecture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  66. Hillier B, Hanson J (1984) The social logic of space. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  67. Hillier B, Iida S (2005) Network effects and psychological effects: a theory of urban movement. In: Cohn A, Mark D (eds) Spatial Information Theory. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3603. Springer, Berlin, pp 473–490

    Google Scholar 

  68. Hu MB, Wang WX, Jiang R, Wu QS, Wang BH, Wu YH, (2006) Urban Traffic Dynamics: A Scale-Free Network Perspective, http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0606086v1

  69. Isard W (1956) Location and Space Economy. Published jointly by the Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Willey, New York

    Google Scholar 

  70. Jacobs J (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Penguin Books, England

    Google Scholar 

  71. Jantsch E (ed) (1981) The Evolutionary Vision. Westview Press, Boulder, CO

    Google Scholar 

  72. Jiang B (2007) A topological pattern of urban street networks: Universality and peculiarity. Physica A 384:647–655

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  73. Jian B (2006) Small world modeling for complex geographic environments. In: Portugali J (ed) Complex Artificial Environments: simulation, cognition and VR in the study and planning of cities. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  74. Johnson M (1987) The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  75. Johnson (2001) media/cultural critics – postmodern complexity

    Google Scholar 

  76. Kellert SH (1993) In the Wake of Chaos. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  77. Kitchin R, Freundschuh S (2000) Cognitive Mapping: Past, Present and Future. Outledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  78. Lakoff G (1987) Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London

    Google Scholar 

  79. Lefebvre H (1970) La Révolution Urbaine. Gallimard, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  80. Lefebvre H (1974) The Production of Space. English translation, 1995. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  81. Lösch A (1954) The Economics of Location. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  82. Lynch K (1960) The Image of the City. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  83. Mandelbrot BB (1983) The Fractal Geometry of Nature. Freeman, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  84. Milgram S (1967) The Small World Problem. Psychol Today May:60

    Google Scholar 

  85. Miller GA (1956) The magic number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychol Rev 63(2):81–97

    Google Scholar 

  86. Morris R, Ward G (eds) (2005) The cognitive psychology of planning. Psychology Press, Hove, East Sussex, New York

    Google Scholar 

  87. Nicolis G, Prigogine I (1977) Self-Organization in Nonequilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations. Wiley-Interscience, New York

    Google Scholar 

  88. Park RE (1925/1967) The City. Chicago University Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  89. Porta S, Crucitti P, Latora V (2005) The Network Analysis of Urban Streets: A Primal Approach, http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0506009

  90. Popper KR (1959) The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Hutchinson, London

    Google Scholar 

  91. Portugali J (1985) Parallel currents in the natural and social Sciences. In: Portugali J (ed) Links Between Natural and Social Sciences. A special theme issue. Geoforum 16(2), pp 227–238

    Google Scholar 

  92. Portugali J (1990) Preliminary notes on social synergetics, cognitive maps and environmental recognition. In: Haken H, Stadler M (eds) Synergetics of Cognition. Springer, Berlin, pp 379–392

    Google Scholar 

  93. Portugali J (1994) Theoretical speculations on the transition from nomadism to monarchy. In: Finkelstein I, Na'aman N (eds) From Nomadism to Monarchy. Yad Izhak Ben-zvi, Jerusalem, pp 203–217

    Google Scholar 

  94. Portugali J (1996) Inter-representation networks and cognitive maps. In: Portugali J (ed) The Construction of Cognitive Maps. Kluwer, Dordrecht, Boston, London, pp 11–43

    Google Scholar 

  95. Portugali J (2000) Self-Organization and the City. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  96. Portugali J (2002) The Seven Basic Propositions of SIRN (Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks). Nonlinear Phenom Complex Syst 5(4):428–444

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  97. Portugali J (2003) SIRN (Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks), Artifacts and Snow’s two cultures. In: Tschacher W, Dauwalder J-P (eds) Dynamical System Approaches to Embodied Cognition. World Scientific, Singapore, pp 277–294

    Google Scholar 

  98. Portugali J (2004) Toward a cognitive approach to urban dynamics. Environ Planning B: Planning Des 31:589–613

    Google Scholar 

  99. Portugali J (2005) Cognitive Maps Are over 60. In: Cohn AG, Mark DM (eds) COSIT 2005. LNCS, vol 3693. Springer, Berlin, pp 251–264

    Google Scholar 

  100. Portugali J (2006) Complexity theory as a link between space and place. Environ Planning A 38:647–664

    Google Scholar 

  101. Portugali J (2006) The scope of complex artificial environments. In: Portugali J (ed) Complex Artificial Environments: Simulation, cognition and VR in the study and planning of cities. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  102. Portugali J (ed) (1992) Geography, Environment and Cognition. A special theme issue. Geoforum 23(2)

    Google Scholar 

  103. Portugali J (ed) (1996) The Construction of Cognitive Maps. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  104. Portugali J (ed) (2006) Complex Artificial Environments: Simulation, cognition and VR in the study and planning of cities. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  105. Portugali J, Alfasi N (2008) An approach to planning discourse analysis. Urban Studies, Forthcoming

    Google Scholar 

  106. Portugali J, Benenson I, Omer I (1994) Socio–spatial residential dynamics: stability and instability within a self-organizing city. Geograph Anal 26(4):321–340

    Google Scholar 

  107. Portugali J, Benenson I, Omer I (1997) Spatial cognitive dissonance and sociospatial emergence in a self-organizing city. Environ Planning B: Planning Des 27:263–285

    Google Scholar 

  108. Portugali J, Haken H (1992) Synergetics and cognitive maps. In: Portugali J (ed) Geography, Environment and Cognition. A special issue. Geoforum 23(2), pp 111–130

    Google Scholar 

  109. Prigogine I (1980) From Being to Becoming. Freeman & Co, San Francisco, CA

    Google Scholar 

  110. Prigogine I, Stengers I (1984) Order Out of Chaos. Bantam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  111. Pumain D (ed) (2005) Hierarchy in Natural and Social Sciences, Methodos Series (Hardcover). Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  112. Pumain D, Saint-Julien T, Sanders L (1987) Application of a dynamic urban model. Geograph Anal 19(2):152–166

    Google Scholar 

  113. Rasch W, Wolfe C (2000) Observing Complexity. University of Mennesota Press, Minneapolis

    Google Scholar 

  114. Ratti C (2004) Space syntax: some inconsistencies. Environ Planning B Planning Des 31:487–499

    Google Scholar 

  115. Rosch E (1999) Reclaiming concepts. J Consciousness Stud 6(11–12):61–77

    Google Scholar 

  116. Rosch E, Mervis C, Gray W, Johnson D, Boyes-Braem P (1976) Basic objects in natural categories. Cogn Psychol 8:382–439

    Google Scholar 

  117. Salingaros N (2006) A Theory of Architecture. Umbau-Verlag, Solingen, Germany

    Google Scholar 

  118. Salingaros N (2005) Principles of Urban Structure. Techne Press, Amsterdam, Holland

    Google Scholar 

  119. Sanders L (1992) Systems de Villes et Synergetique. Anthropos, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  120. Sanders L, Pumain D, Mathian H, Guerin-Pace F, Bura S (1997) SIMPOP: a multiagent system for the study of urbanism. Environ Planning B Planning Des 24:287–306

    Google Scholar 

  121. Sanglier M, Allen P (1989) Evolutionary models of urban systems: an application to the Belgian provinces. Environ Planning A 21:477–498

    Google Scholar 

  122. Schelling T (1974) On the ecology of micro-motives. In: Marris R (ed) The Corporate Society. Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  123. Shannon CE, Weaver W (1959/1963) The Mathematical Theory of Communication. University of Illinois Perss, Illinois

    Google Scholar 

  124. Simon H (1979) The Science of the Artificial. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  125. Snow CP (1964) The Two Cultures and a Second Look. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  126. Stadler M, Kruse P (1990) The self organization perspective in cognition research: historical remarks and new experimental approaches. In: Haken H, Stadler M (eds) Synergetics of Cognition. Springer, Berlin, pp 32–52

    Google Scholar 

  127. Tversky A, Kahneman D (1974) Judgement under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science 185:1124–1131

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  128. Tversky A, Kahneman D (1981) The framing of decision and psychology of choice. Science 211:4538

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  129. von Thünen JH (1826/1966) von Thünen's Isolated State. An English translation (Hall P (ed)) Pergamon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  130. Watts DJ, Strogatz SH (1998) Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks. Nature 393:440–442

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  131. Weidlich W, Haag G (1983) Concepts and Models of a Quantitative Sociology. Springer, Berlin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  132. Weidlich W (1987) Synergetics and social science. In: Graham R, Wunderlin A (eds) Lasers and Synergetics. Springer, Berlin, pp 238–256

    Google Scholar 

  133. Weidlich W (1994) Synergetic modeling concepts for sociodynamics with application to collective political opinion formation. J Math Sociol 1(4):267–291

    Google Scholar 

  134. Weidlich W (1999) From fast to slow processes in the evolution of urban and regional settlement structures: the role of population pressure. In: Portugali J (ed) Population, Environment and Society on the Verge of the 21st Century. A special theme issue, Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, pp 137–147

    Google Scholar 

  135. Wirth L (1938) Urbanism as a Way of Life. Am J Sociol 64:1–24

    Google Scholar 

  136. Wittgenstein L (1953) Philosophical Investigations. Blackwell, Oxford. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe

    Google Scholar 

  137. Wu J, Gao Z, Sun H, Huang H (2004) Urban Transit System as a Scale-Free Network. Mod Phys Lett B 18(19–20):1043–1049

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  138. Zipf GK (1949) Human Behaviour and the Principle of Least-Effort. Addison-Wesley, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ESLab (Environmental Simulation Lab), Department of Geography and the Human Environment, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Juval Portugali

Authors
  1. Juval Portugali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. RAMTECH LIMITED, 122 Escalle Lane, Larkspur, CA, 94939, USA

    Robert A. Meyers Ph. D. (Editor-in-Chief) (Editor-in-Chief)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag

About this entry

Cite this entry

Portugali, J. (2009). Self-Organization and the City. In: Meyers, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30440-3_471

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation