World Towns: Pathways

Collaborative working is as much about building a community for action as it is about the action. The journey to the World Town Leaders Summit on June 15-16 Edinburgh is building a community around the idea of a World Towns Agreement. This is a statement of intent on towns to address global urban challenges. Crowdsourcing the Agreement invites diversity to shape robustness.

This blog addresses the issue of multiple pathways to town futures under the first overarching principle of the Agreement, The Uniqueness of Place:

 We recognize that there are multiple pathways to future success. There is no single way. We accept that different towns will adopt different strategies based on triggers for action, forms of leadership, and cultural values. We recognize that doing the ‘same as usual’ won’t work.

Francesco Careri suggests that the first form of place shaping was a grass line crushed by the marching of men, in search of food. The motivation to march was provoked by the instinct to survive. The first pathways led to knowledge, about resources, plenty and poverty. Different pathways allow different possibilities to be pursued with choices and conscious decisions. The right way isn’t always obvious or easy, or mapped. They are probed and sensed. Different places have different paths, made with different decisions for different reasons. Maybe the issue isn’t the path. It is the purpose.