From Polycrisis to the Smart Commons

to navigate the intersections between scale and regeneration, between growth and the commons. A principle of ‘many universals’ could provide the framework for balancing the tension between, on one hand, enabling community-led and governed projects to flourish, and, on the other, the need to then challenge massive and well-resourced centers of power... See more

When we innovate only in terms of a solutionist framework, Easterling argues in her book  Medium Design , we optimize for static outcomes wedded to the status quo of product-market fit. Solutions are one-time fixes, usually implemented by someone else, which break as soon as the context they’re responding to changes (which it does, constantly)

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Futures of polycentrism , beyond either atomized decentralization or top-down centralization, where collective self-determination is protected through overlapping rights and responsibilities, abundant digital public infrastructure, and mechanisms for accountable governance.

New forms of architecture, infrastructure, and organisation will emerge from this, relying on a rebalanced relationship between participatory cultures and corporate interest, public sector and private sector, and the reinvigorated institutions of trusted government. It emphasises shared resources and civic relationships, yet recognises individual d... See more

emblematic ideas to take forward could include: * resilient and diverse communities as essential foundations; * the value of trust in government and civic institutions; * recognising the agility and capability latent within the public sector; * and the enormous value of inefficiency and redundancy in systems; * an understanding that there are essen... See more