An Introduction to Polycentricity and Governance

Title
An Introduction to Polycentricity and Governance
Publication Date
2019-10
Author(s)
Stephan, Mark
Marshall, Graham
McGinnis, Michael
Editor
Editor(s): Andreas Thiel, William A. Blomquist and Dustin E. Garrick
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Place of publication
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Edition
1
Series
Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/51974
Abstract

Though our fundamental focus is on polycentric governance, in order to understand polycentric as an adjective that modifies the noun governance (defined below), we must start with the older term, polycentricity. According to Michael Polanyi, polycentricity had roots in the biological and chemical sciences and in the decentralized processes of decision-making within scientific communities (Polanyi 1964). The term had been used to describe the types of plants in botanical studies in the context of whether they have multiple reproductive cells (polycentric) or only a single reproductive cell (monocentric). The terms polycentric and monocentric are still used in this way in botany, and in other areas of scholarship and policy analysis. For example, many urban planning scholars and geograph-ers use the term polycentric to refer to metropolitan regions which encom-pass both significant suburban centres and one major urban centre, in contrast to a monocentric metropolitan order centred about a single city that has greatly expanded over time.

Link
Citation
Governing Complexity: Analyzing and Applyng Polycentricity, p. 21-44
ISBN
9781108325721
9781108419987
Start page
21
End page
44

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