DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2020.100815

Summary
The authors of this paper argue that urban health and wellbeing problems are increasingly at risk due to the external effects of urban growth, which are carried mainly by marginalized groups and the environment. They propose a theoretical framework of multi-level selection, complex systems evolution, and governance to explain why human societies have not been better at collectively adapting to the challenges of urbanization and global environmental change. The authors note that urban systems have evolved into ultrasocial superorganisms, displaying a preference for sustaining themselves as a whole rather than their subordinates. This has led to a mismatch between rapid urban growth and slow adaptation, with institutions of decreased variety reinforcing themselves and becoming dominant. This creates a positive feedback mechanism and promotes invasive and exploitative exponential growth, but also reduces the creativity and resilience of urban systems. The authors argue that both the "human-scale" and "people-centered" approaches acknowledge the exponential growth and decreasing variety in urban systems, and advocate for correcting the mismatches. They suggest that a more sustainable approach to urban governance would involve promoting self-organization at multiple levels, reducing externalities and negative impacts on marginalized communities and the environment, and fostering greater diversity and resilience within urban systems. Overall, the paper highlights the need for a more holistic and integrated approach to urban governance that takes into account the complex interactions between social, economic, and environmental factors. It also emphasizes the importance of recognizing the limitations of current institutions and governance structures, and the need to develop new approaches that are better suited to the challenges of urbanization and global environmental change.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The paper uses a complex system approach to understand why human societies have not been better at collectively adapting to the challenges of urbanization and global environmental change

Point of Strength
This paper reflects on incorporating people's needs and values for long-term, truly sustainable urban health governance.
Students could apply these reflections to urban landscape design processes combining the self-organizing, evolutionary feature of "human-scale" and the coordinative, political feature of "people-oriented" and "community-led development."