Category: Ecosystems

Three key questions to give your ecosystem a physical: Part 1, follow the critters

18 September, 2009 (09:16) | Ecosystems, Essential posts, Finance, Primer Posts, Theory, Titling | No comments

By: David A. Smith

If you get a new doctor, what’s the first thing he or she does – after establishing how you or your insurance will pay, of course? The physical exam.

We make them cold so that we know you’re dead if you don’t flinch

When we don’t know how a system [...]

The ecology of a slum: Part 6, the future’s flows

16 April, 2009 (10:03) | Ecosystems, History, London, Slums, Theory, United Kingdom | No comments

[Continued from yesterday's Part 5 and the previous Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.]
 
[Editorial justification for the tour: If we want to improve slums, we have to see them as ecosystems – spontaneous self-generated communities, self-organized, economically rational, economically efficient, adaptive and robust.  We may not like the slums (like Dharavi in [...]

The ecology of a slum: Part 5, government flows

15 April, 2009 (09:34) | Ecosystems, History, London, Slums, Theory, Urban Infrastrucure | No comments

[Continued from March 6th’s Part 4, and the previous Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.]
 

[Editorial justification for the tour: If we want to improve slums, we have to see them as ecosystems – spontaneous self-generated communities, self-organized, economically rational, economically efficient, adaptive and robust.  We may not like the slums (like Dharavi in Mumbai, Kibera [...]

Housing authorities’ comparative advantages

25 March, 2009 (10:05) | Ecosystems, Innovations, Legislation and policy, Predictions, Public housing, Theory, US News | 1 comment

On Saturday, March 14, I participated in back-to-back panels at the NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials) spring legislative conference, and the topic rolled around to the reinvention of public housing – particularly in light of the tumult engulfing the American affordable housing ecosystem.
 

 
[Readers will recall that I've previously published three speculative/ [...]

The ecology of a slum: Part 4, family flows

6 March, 2009 (11:14) | Ecosystems, History, London, Slums, Theory, United Kingdom | No comments

[Continued from yesterday's Part 3 and the previous Part 1 and Part 2.]

[Editorial justification for the tour: If we want to improve slums, we have to see them as ecosystems – spontaneous self-generated communities, self-organized, economically rational, economically efficient, adaptive and robust.  We may not like the slums (like Dharavi in Mumbai, Kibera in Nairobi, or Sao [...]