The overall frame for Nest City is John O’Donohue’s blessing, The Time for Necessary Decision. The chapters of the book follow the trajectory of the blessing by moving from seeing patterns (Part 1), to the organizing patterns we create in cities (Part 2) and the ways to integrate our organizing patterns to achieve cities that serve us well (Part 3).
In the column to the right of each post, if you click on “Categories” you will be able to navigate to all the posts in a Part or Chapter of the book. I have categorized the most recent posts that form Chapter One – The City Impulse, and I have sorted out the older posts into Chapters as well. Please feel free to explore and comment.
Here is the gist of each Part (and group of corresponding chapters):
Part One – City Patterns builds a broad foundation for my argument: cities build evolutionary capacity. The foundational ‘impulse’ patterns are introduced, explaining why cities exist, how they are created and the underlying values that evolve within and with us as our cities grow and develop.
Part Two – Organizing for Emergence explores the organizing patterns of humans as we create and live in cities. We set plans to reach a destination. We experience uncertainty along the way. Then a whole new and unexpected future comes to pass. The first level of city “nestworks” are presented.
Part Three – Nest City integrates the three elements of destination, journey and emergence presented in Part Two. This is a second level of city “nestworks”, cog-like features of the nest city: city making, civic practice, city emerging and a sweetspot at the heart of city nestworks.
The next series of posts originate from Chapter Two – The Planning Impulse and focus on the impulse within us to “plan” our cities. Are our cities actually planned?
