УНИВЕРСИТЕТ ПО АРХИТЕКТУРА, СТРОИТЕЛСТВО И ГЕОДЕЗИЯ Международна юбилейна научно-приложна конференция УАСГ2012 15-17 НОЕМВРИ 2012 15-17 NOVEMBER 2012 International Jubilee Conference UACEG2012: Science & Practice UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE, CIVIL ENGINEERING AND GEODESY
OUT OF THE CRISIS: THE CENTRALITY OF IDEAS AND METROPOLIS G.Longhi 1 Keywords:crisis, new economy, centrality of the metropolis, UACEG2012 Research area: strategic planning ABSTRACT I suggest you a reflection about a development policy (economic and spatial) simmetric with the European Community policy, based on the enlargement of: - GNP meaning, according to the way from Tobin to Fitoussi, Sen, Stiglitz Commission; - development idea, in syntony with the way from Lisbon Conference to Europe 2020; - centrality of local administration; - research organization, according to the european smart platform model. This armonic set of instruments could allow to start a development policy based on: - engine: the creativity; - metric: that is a metabolic development; - space: the physical and cognitive space of the town.
1. Introduction In time of recession, I think that effects of structural changes affecting, among other things, the relationship between human resources, technological innovation and urban structure, are underestimated, with the result of giving redundancy in policies of development that the Anglo-Saxons would call 'Victorian'. I feel virtuous a careful reevaluation of EU economic and spatial policies, which I interpret as a system of organic complexity, seeking balance between rigor and development strategies and synergies between Community countries. In fact, the model of EU development, as noted by the report "Europe in 2025", combines the rigor of fiscal consolidation with a harmonious system of investments for the development of human resources, the protection of natural resources and heritage, starting innovative processes regarding both technologies, both the management of 1
G. Longhi, Prof., longhi@iuav.it
social processes. In essence, the budget virtuosity is linked to the vision of a new Europe "low cost", highly innovative, able to strengthen policies of inclusiveness, centered on the city.
2. EU accountability model For a common policy it is important a substantial progress in criteria for measuring wealth, by aligning it to what could be called a "green planetary accountability". This requires an acceleration in the evolution of the financial statements, whether public or private, through these steps: • enlargement of income recognition, following the path opened by Nordhaus and Tobin in 1971 until the Commission Fitoussi, Sen, Stiglitz (2008), that is to passe from the GDP measuring to the integrated measure of wealth based on the formula: Genuine saving = GDP - Consumption of natural capital + Increase in human capital; • integration of quantitative measure of growth with the development of quality monitoring; • use of resources classification according to the metabolic model, to the objectives of international conventions and protocols and to the principles of circular economy. This detection system is functional in a model of development that Jane Jacobs call of "organic complexity", whose driving forces are the same of Tobin and Nordhaus, but with a role substantially changed over time. In fact, in the original formulation the dominant element was the correction of the amount of GDP by subtracting the value of natural capital consumed (to produce GDP) and revaluating the human resources due to the recognition of unpaid work value. After Rio Conference (1992), this technique is institutionalized in the "integrated budget", that integrates the findings of the budget with a system of indicators able to represent the human resources growth and the natural resources exploitation. At this stage the growth of human resources evaluation has great emphasis, thanks to the important works of Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum and Joseph Stiglitz . So a comprehensive view of wealth takes shape, in which the quantitative growth go alongside components such as individual satisfaction, culture, relationships, .... approach today synthesized in the index of happiness. An important time about the exploitation of natural resources was the Millennium Convention, which placed the ecosystems productive role at the centre of attention. With this, environment image changes, from the romantic vision of garden mitigating the negative externalities of production, or leisure center for citizens, to become the most important factor of production (as scarce resource), the value of which has to work alongside those of production and economy services. The Millennium Convention marks the decline of the man's claim to guide and control the living world, according to the culture of the Neolithic, in favor of the Revolution of living being: that is the ability of humanity, after taking control of their reproduction, to take control of their "production" developing in synergy with the natural resources. This path, marked by the transition from the supremacy of GNP to the human Welfare one, now get to a certain completeness with the elaboration by UNEP, under the supervision of prof. Partha Dasgupta, of “Inclusive Wealth Report” ", according to which the development of a nation is determined on the basis of the following driving forces: human capital, natural capital and produced physical capital.
This system of driving forces causes the model of metabolic development, synthesized by Partha Dasgupta and Anantha Duraiappah in Figure 1. In the new metric "post Rio" the trend of GDP, for long time leader in development measure, must be compatible with the carrying capacity of the land and, therefore, must be instrumental to a development model in which is decisive the lowering of ecological footprint. This starts a vision of economic and territorial action conformed to dematerialisation, to the rules of organic farming and looking forward the future.
Figure 1. Metabolic model of development
3. New metric, new organization The update of wealth measure requires renewal of the public administration role and organizational model , whose urgent steps are: • adjustment to the deliberations of Rio and Aalborg Conferences, development of governance 'horizontal' forms (giving centrality to local communities and cities), development of collaborative and shared management forms; • a substantial reorganization of the research, according to the model of smart platforms, involving companies, public administration, universities, research centres, with the aim of filling the embarrassing fall of productivity in the public, private and research sectors. The renewal of governance, according to the EU policy, should lead to a system of investment centered on the cities, which became the driving force for a substantial regeneration of the European system, based on: • The engine: creativity, the result of synergy between human resources territory technology;
• The metric: a process of metabolic development, whose evolution rates are dictated by international Conventions and Protocols; • The space: the city.
4. The driving forces of development: citizens + education + creativity The development model, proposed by the EU since the Lisbon Conference of 2000, was due to the model proposed by neoclassical economists since the 60s, first with Robert Solow and later with Robert Lucas, in agreement with Jane Jacobs, to Paul Romer. It marks the transition from the supremacy of physical capital (products and goods) to a holistic system in which five driving forces interact: ideas, institutions, population, human capital (measured by education, research and development) and physical resources (expressed from financial resources, artifacts, equipment and infrastructures). This model introduces a number of changes in the way we think about the economy, because the ideas: • have characteristics substantially different from physical capital (land, infrastructure, capital and objects), ideas are non-rival goods, as they can be used simultaneously by a large number of people without creating congestion or depletion; • develop new technologies, such as biotechnology, which help to demolish the specter of diminishing returns, which haunted the economic thought from Ricardo to Keynes. On the contrary, new technologies are generative because create increasing returns, because new knowledge through research, give the launch of new products; • are based on organizational models (including the city model) based on symmetry of relations, and on cooperation and not on competition. This creative model, driven by studies such as those of Richard Florida, and even more by Charles Landry, has inspired new methodologies and experience in urban planning, so we need to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the creative filiere in our cities to promote new infrastructure, new planning tools, new organizational structures, such as festivals or creativity fairs.
5. A MODEL OF METABOLIC DEVELOPMENT UE Engineering for development combines the output growth: a) with decreasing pressure on natural resources, in line with the objectives of international conventions on the environment, b) with the human resources development, through actions aimed at increasing cohesion, knowledge, creativity, c) in a long time vision, coinciding with the times and the results agreed at the time of signing international protocols on sustainable development. This approach explains the structure of EU budget based on the rule of decoupling and on the measure of resources metabolism. This means radically changing the pattern of economic, social and territorial development and, therefore, reaffirm the centrality of investment on human resources.
Figure 2. Decoupling
6. GOING OUT OF THE CRISIS: THE CITY AS A DRIVING FORCE To exit the recession becomes crucial to implement a "green new deal", based on strategic projects of urban regeneration, with substantial employment prospects, and it is in this direction that must work together our countries. Thus the infrastructure and sites that promote the accumulation of knowledge and skills embodied in the workforce become strategic factors of regeneration. These fundamentals are already the basis of EU economic policy, according to which European cities are the engines of regeneration, so they have to be smart, sustainable and inclusive, as the EU guidance document "Europe 2020". It follows that the recovery is influenced by the speed with which the city will proceed in their regeneration processes along lines now clear for at least a decade. The city will be: • sustainable: the city is a biological 'closed' system, so its design is inspired by metabolic principles and its activities must rapidly convert in order to save material and to achieve zero level emission ; • smart: the principles of urban governance should be guided to processes horizontalization and to dematerialization, so the renewal of the investment policies is urgent, with translation from the old infrastructure with high consumption of raw materials to the new high dematerialization infrastructure; • inclusive: the renewal must be aimed to expand capacity in a green new deal that gives transparency to the potential of the new innovating cycles.
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