236
11 The Self-Organizing Society
processes, pretty much as I have discussed it in the previous chapters. The same can
be said about the “virtual cities” on the Internet, i.e. the social communities that have
formed in the digital world, where transparency is also important to foster trust.
11.9 City Olympics to Improve the World
Going a step further, in full agreement with Nobel prize winner Elinor Ostrom’s
“polycentric” approach to solving global problems,
26 I believe that cities and social
communities can be important agents of global change. A suitable combination of
competition and collaboration among cities can advance us in our efforts to solve the
challenges of the twenty-first century. If we manage to find ways to make our cities
smarter, this will make our planet smarter.
27 In this way, acting locally will cause a
global change for the better. For example, I recently proposed that we might establish something like a “City Olympics” to address global problems such as climate
change.
28
As we know, calls to combat climate change are often met with skepticism by
companies and citizens, who see it as a threat to their preferred ways of business and
life, and that’s why these attempts receive so little support. However, doing something
for our climate could be rewarding and even fun, if we ran a climate-oriented City
Olympics every few years. These events would have a sporting spirit, whereby cities
all over the world would engage in a friendly competition to develop the best science,
technology, and architecture to counter climate change. They would also compete to
achieve the highest degree of citizen engagement (in terms of environmental-friendly
mobility, investments in renewable energy technology, better thermal insulation, and
more). These events could be presented by the public media in pretty exciting ways.
Furthermore, after each Climate Olympics, there would be a cooperative phase, where
the best ideas, technologies and urban governance concepts would be exchanged
among the participating cities, thereby allowing them to make faster progress. Which
city or country can reach its climate goals first? Let’s be ambitious! While we may
dislike regulations that tell us what to do, we love competitions, we love winners,
and we love cooperation, too!
We could address other global challenges in a similar way. This would simply
mean a change of the disciplines in which cities and regions compete. It also
seems natural that cities would form global networks with other cities that struggle
with similar problems. Exchanging knowledge, ideas, technology and experts, or
supporting each other when disaster strikes would give such global networks of
cities an advantage. Why shouldn’t we have an alliance of cities that takes a lead
in supporting better, climate-friendly technologies? Just suppose that cities next to
rising oceans, such as New York City, Singapore, London, Hamburg, Sydney, and
26 Ostrom [8].
27 Barber [9].
28 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaRghSuzBYM.
11 The Self-Organizing Society
processes, pretty much as I have discussed it in the previous chapters. The same can
be said about the “virtual cities” on the Internet, i.e. the social communities that have
formed in the digital world, where transparency is also important to foster trust.
11.9 City Olympics to Improve the World
Going a step further, in full agreement with Nobel prize winner Elinor Ostrom’s
“polycentric” approach to solving global problems,
26 I believe that cities and social
communities can be important agents of global change. A suitable combination of
competition and collaboration among cities can advance us in our efforts to solve the
challenges of the twenty-first century. If we manage to find ways to make our cities
smarter, this will make our planet smarter.
27 In this way, acting locally will cause a
global change for the better. For example, I recently proposed that we might establish something like a “City Olympics” to address global problems such as climate
change.
28
As we know, calls to combat climate change are often met with skepticism by
companies and citizens, who see it as a threat to their preferred ways of business and
life, and that’s why these attempts receive so little support. However, doing something
for our climate could be rewarding and even fun, if we ran a climate-oriented City
Olympics every few years. These events would have a sporting spirit, whereby cities
all over the world would engage in a friendly competition to develop the best science,
technology, and architecture to counter climate change. They would also compete to
achieve the highest degree of citizen engagement (in terms of environmental-friendly
mobility, investments in renewable energy technology, better thermal insulation, and
more). These events could be presented by the public media in pretty exciting ways.
Furthermore, after each Climate Olympics, there would be a cooperative phase, where
the best ideas, technologies and urban governance concepts would be exchanged
among the participating cities, thereby allowing them to make faster progress. Which
city or country can reach its climate goals first? Let’s be ambitious! While we may
dislike regulations that tell us what to do, we love competitions, we love winners,
and we love cooperation, too!
We could address other global challenges in a similar way. This would simply
mean a change of the disciplines in which cities and regions compete. It also
seems natural that cities would form global networks with other cities that struggle
with similar problems. Exchanging knowledge, ideas, technology and experts, or
supporting each other when disaster strikes would give such global networks of
cities an advantage. Why shouldn’t we have an alliance of cities that takes a lead
in supporting better, climate-friendly technologies? Just suppose that cities next to
rising oceans, such as New York City, Singapore, London, Hamburg, Sydney, and
26 Ostrom [8].
27 Barber [9].
28 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaRghSuzBYM.