Pressure-Point Strategy: Leverages for Urban Systemic Transformation
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. From Intuitive Practice to Strategy
3. The Pressure-Point Approach
3.1. Strategic Elements
3.2. A Three-Step Iterative Process
3.3. Step 1: Identify Stress States—Empirical Symptom Mapping Section
- Need to Act: Active State of Necessity. There is risk in the current situation that requires change, either because of the potential loss of function or imposition of costs that will destabilize systems beyond the accepted limits of tolerance. The consequences of inaction are clear. Symptoms or stresses can be of a social, demographic, environmental, political, technical or economical nature or often a specific combination of these.
- Shock. In some cases this ‘need to act’ can come very sudden, as a shock. These ‘breaking news’ stress states can be of natural origin such as a hurricane, a flood or an earthquake (of course, human influence on, for instance, climate change could increase their frequency and intensity), or of manmade origin, such as the collapse of the financial system or the housing market, or an epidemic or an embargo (e.g., the well-known US embargo against Cuba). Note that systemic shocks can be interconnected.
- Latent Need to Act. There is fragility in the urban system that will exacerbate the impacts of a shock, ‘it is just a matter of time’ [32].
- Managed Creation of Stress or Socio-Political ‘Heat’. This is basically self-induced stress, which represents a commonly used tactic to trigger action in the system, such as Lerner’s bulldozing of the downtown avenue. Media can play an important role here.
3.4. Step 2: Understand—Diagnostic Mapping and Symptom Analysis
- Size of the net facilitating forces (for a given moment of time) that are increasing the momentum (moving away from the stress state).
- Size of the net hindering forces (for a given moment of time) that are restraining the momentum (from moving away from the stress state).
- Direction of the net forces and the ability for their alignment.
3.5. Step 3: Set Direction and Design the Intravention Set at Selected Pressure Points
- Intraventions that create openings to weaken or by-pass the hindering forces towards the desired direction. The hindering forces, which are often systemic dependencies or vested power structures, are impeding systemic change. These hindering forces can be weakened or by-passed by creating openings (disruptions) in the current systems to make space for alternative systems to develop and ideally outcompete the old system.
- Intraventions that strengthen or add facilitating forces that increase the momentum towards the desired direction.
- Align the pressure point intraventions collectively towards the desired direction. The openings and forces of the intravention set should be aligned in such a way that they reinforce each other and do not adversely affect each other.
4. A Case Example: Neighbourhood Regeneration in Chicago
4.1. The Local Context
4.2. The Process
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
References
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De Flander, K.; Brugmann, J. Pressure-Point Strategy: Leverages for Urban Systemic Transformation. Sustainability 2017, 9, 99. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010099
De Flander K, Brugmann J. Pressure-Point Strategy: Leverages for Urban Systemic Transformation. Sustainability. 2017; 9(1):99. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010099
Chicago/Turabian StyleDe Flander, Katleen, and Jeb Brugmann. 2017. "Pressure-Point Strategy: Leverages for Urban Systemic Transformation" Sustainability 9, no. 1: 99. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010099