Cities Do Not Emerge from the Bottom Up

Abstract

As indicated by its title, this study challenges the common view that as complex systems cities emerge from the bottom-up. It suggests, firstly, that that this common view is a consequence of applying the various complexity theories to the dynamics of cities by means of analogy to material media namely to complex systems such as Benard cells or laser. Secondly, that when examining cities from first principles of human media that concern cognition, behavior and brain dynamics, cities emerge in a top-down manner. Thirdly, that the dynamics of cities is characterized by the simultaneous coexistence of bottom-up and top-down processes so that the question is not bottom-up or top-down, but rather how these apparent negating processes co-exist.