ACADEMIA Letters
Embracing complexity for healthy cities during COVID-19
Edna Pasher
Boaz Tadmor
Milka Dunchin
Lee Sharir
According to the complexity theory, to solve complex issues you need a complex design
of answers and methods. We suggest that in the current demanding COVID-19 pandemic
this approach of “embracing complexity” can be an effective and helpful tool for successfully
coping with the demanding challenges, especially in the cities.
There are different methodologies that enable decision-makers and stakeholders to implement the principles of complexity easily and efficiently during crises such as COVID-19 and
in this article, we present some examples of this kind of implementation.
In recent years, the “systems theory” has drawn ideas and understandings from chaos theory, network research, and the complexity theory that belongs to the field of exact sciences and
natural sciences. (Mitleton-Kelly,2003) From this perspective, it re-examines the ways people and groups are required to make decisions and shape strategies and a new field of science
studying how parts of a system and their relationships give rise to the collective behaviors of
the system, and how the system interrelates with its environment. (Bar-Yam,2002) While it
proposes that systems are unpredictable, they are also constrained by order-generating rules.
(Mitleton-Kelly,2003)
The complexity theory can be implemented in various forms by using its principles like
connectivity, engagement, experimentation, self-organization, co-evolution, and co-creation.
These principles can be applied in a lot of frameworks, organizations,s, and cases of crisis for
reaching new ways of actions and perspectives. (Bar-Yam 2002. Mitleton-Kelly, 2018)
According to this theory, the city is a living organism, an ecosystem in which there are
close relationships among streams of resources, knowledge, and people. It is a system in
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
1
which, as in nature, a line of co-evolution occurs – the emergence of processes and selforganization of all individuals in the system – that enables the creation of a new order in a
natural evolutionary process. (Mitleton-Kelly, 2018)
The first one to do the link between complexity sciences and cities was Jacobs (1961) who
referred to the latter as ‘problems of organized complexity.
In addition, the reality is dynamic and the search for a single optimal strategy may not be
possible and undesirable, any strategy can be optimal under such and other conditions. So,
the ultimate strategy is to work parallel on several experiments that have low costs and low
risk, draw conclusions from each experiment and upgrade the strategy. (Mitleton-Kelly,2018)
According to Bar-Yam (2018), many of the key problems and crises today are affected by
human activities, and this way global connectivity leads to vulnerabilities. The COVID-19 is
known today to be a very complex and surprising disease. (Laure Wynants, Ben Van Calster,
et al. 2020) is a great example of global connectivity, a local crisis that has started in China
and become worldwide quickly and affects not just the healthcare system but also a lot of
industries.
Cities are home to most of the world population and are fulfill the social needs of their residents for physical venues for interactions that generate innovation, art, culture, and economic
activity. (Shafiri, Khavarian-Garmsir,2020)
Jane Jacobs inspired us to acknowledge the fact that cities are about people, and particularly about bringing people together (Martin, 2006). For a city to keep pace with the modern
world, or to catch up with it, it must focus first and foremost on learning and understanding the
needs of its residents and their assets and only then attempt to provide them with appropriate
services through technological media. (Pasher, Pross,2017)
However, the high concentration of people and activities in cities make them vulnerable
to various stressors such as natural and man-made disasters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the issue of urban vulnerability to pandemics and the fact that a high concentration of population and economic activities happen in
cities, they are often hotspots of infections. (Shafiri, Khavarian-Garmsir,2020)
In this crisis, the behavior of the residents became a part of the contract between themselves, their friends, and leaders, while the last had to address and educate the population
taking care of themselves, their siblings, and friends. Therefore the trust and transparency
between residents and leaders became a critical element in obeying the requests and guidelines and reducing the number of infections. Like in Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO
of General Electric quote: ‘people support what they help create (Krames,2001) This statement is on the same line with the global vision for smart cities which are expected to deliver
much more than efficiency and excellence in services for residents. The new vision prioriAcademia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
2
tizes a deeper engagement with the community, involving an open dialogue with and between
residents, the creation of new models for trading and sharing goods and services, and most
importantly, making cities liveable and equitable. (Pasher,Herzog,Harir,Turjeman,Zhiqiang,
2018) This vision is also valid for a healthy city and the principle of engagement of all the
stakeholders supported by complexity theory.
For example, one of the major criteria for a load of infection spread in a city,” the color”:
red or green that was critical to deciding about different measures to be taken meaning alleviating or putting more constraints on the residents.
The COVID-19 epidemic provides all of us with the experience of dealing with uncertainty
and with the need for local adaptive solutions in addition to top-down regulations. Few case
studies were published recently presenting success stories on a local level like in Shenzhen,
China, a city of 22 million inhabitants combined central regulations with 660 community
multidisciplinary teams working on the neighborhood level (Zou, Shu, Feng, 2020). In each
residential community, cadres disseminated information to residents, controlled movement,
provided on-site health assessments, psychological support, COVID-19 testing, and delivered food and medicine to residents sheltering at home. They succeeded in combating the
epidemic within a few weeks. Although cities in the Czech Republic are mostly authorized,
they differ in their type of leadership behavior and managing the COVID-19 crisis (Placek,
Spacek, Ochrana, 2020). The “passive” ones presented a high degree of reliance on central
state assistance. They did not prepare their own pandemic crisis plan and applied primarily
the central government restrictions. The ‘active’ ones had an adaptive evolutionary strategy
and succeeded in coping with the crisis. Local governments of this type prepared their own
pandemic plans and imposed restrictions even before they were announced by the central government. In Israel, there are several examples of active local leadership, where the activist and
participatory approach resulted in reducing the spread of the COVID-19 (not published yet).
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of uncertainty, lack of knowledge,
and misinformation regarding personal, economic, societal, and medical demands and needs.
Medical chaotic phases happened, a lot of questions regarding day to day way of life and
behavior of different sectors of the population were asked by different experts with no one
conclusive and definitive answer, like how to treat the diseased people, different modes of
treatment were used without real valid proof, no evidence-based knowledge and each hospital
used its own best experience, protocols, and judgment. Medical knowledge was gathered intensively and communication between medical systems around the world, directly or through
the W.H.O, was on a day-to-day basis.
One of the suggested ways to act is through Transformational Learning Approaches which
means using dialogue to understand diverse views, attain a more inclusive frame of reference,
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
3
communication that fosters democratic participation. (Yukawa, 2015).
According to the Transformational Learning Approaches, the medical community reorganized itself and started to publish newly collected information through virtual meetings,
peer review journal articles, and professional social media. This way the knowledge traveled
fast, was transparent and all medical stakeholders were involved, commented, and shared their
remarks.
This connectivity through the different media vehicles brought a new and coherent emerging understanding about the stages of the disease, the mode of transmission, ways of protecting people, and how to diagnose, predict deterioration, and treat the diseased people: drugs,
monitoring, and artificial respiration.
Knowledge and experience are continuing to emerge almost any day with new scientific
articles, for example by July 2020 more than 20,000 papers about COVID-19 were published.
But although all the above complexity of the disease is still going on and its affections
on society in a variety of ways still present. For example, after discharge from the hospital
or after becoming negative on the viral testing, the recovers may have long-lasting influences
and side effects on different body organs and systems.
In addition, looking at the social element of the pandemic, every country has its own
characteristics and skeleton of the political system, cultural heritage and beliefs, different
educational systems, and different levels of trust between leaders and people. All of those
interacting together, have a critical influence on the emergent behavior of the population, and
elements of personal example, transparent delivered information, transparent understanding
of decision-taking, and trust are critical to moving from chaos to a safe zone when people are
involved.
While living biochemical and physiological systems can adapt to each other according to
very strict physical laws, humans who have mind and soul, sentiments and thoughts, values
and norms, specific culture, egos, and legal and ethical responsibilities can be surprisingly
disobedient and unpredicted in their behavior, in this area dealing with people is much more
complex than dealing with viruses. In the current stage of the pandemia, there are signs of
’pandemic fatigue’ (WHO, 2020), presented by demotivation to follow recommended protective behaviors. It is an expected and natural response to a prolonged public health crisis.
WHO suggests a multifactorial action plan to handle this new problem, which is based on the
barriers and drivers experienced by people, and which is implemented in an integrated way
across all levels of society.
The COVID-19 pandemic offers an unprecedented opportunity to reflect how cities can
embrace complexity theory to minimize the impacts, deal with uncertainty, engage the citizens
and enhance urban pandemic resilience.
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
4
The implementation of the principles of complexity in cities can make a real change in
times of crisis, and mostly depends on the decision-makers and their flexibility to embrace new
methods, a different way of thinking, and transformative leadership that enables successful
dealing with complex situations.
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
5
ACADEMIA Letters
Embracing complexity for healthy cities during COVID-19
Edna Pasher
Boaz Tadmor
Milka Dunchin
Lee Sharir
According to the complexity theory, to solve complex issues you need a complex design
of answers and methods. We suggest that in the current demanding COVID-19 pandemic
this approach of “embracing complexity” can be an effective and helpful tool for successfully
coping with the demanding challenges, especially in the cities.
There are different methodologies that enable decision-makers and stakeholders to implement the principles of complexity easily and efficiently during crises such as COVID-19 and
in this article, we present some examples of this kind of implementation.
In recent years, the “systems theory” has drawn ideas and understandings from chaos theory, network research, and the complexity theory that belongs to the field of exact sciences and
natural sciences. (Mitleton-Kelly,2003) From this perspective, it re-examines the ways people and groups are required to make decisions and shape strategies and a new field of science
studying how parts of a system and their relationships give rise to the collective behaviors of
the system, and how the system interrelates with its environment. (Bar-Yam,2002) While it
proposes that systems are unpredictable, they are also constrained by order-generating rules.
(Mitleton-Kelly,2003)
The complexity theory can be implemented in various forms by using its principles like
connectivity, engagement, experimentation, self-organization, co-evolution, and co-creation.
These principles can be applied in a lot of frameworks, organizations,s, and cases of crisis for
reaching new ways of actions and perspectives. (Bar-Yam 2002. Mitleton-Kelly, 2018)
According to this theory, the city is a living organism, an ecosystem in which there are
close relationships among streams of resources, knowledge, and people. It is a system in
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
1
which, as in nature, a line of co-evolution occurs – the emergence of processes and selforganization of all individuals in the system – that enables the creation of a new order in a
natural evolutionary process. (Mitleton-Kelly, 2018)
The first one to do the link between complexity sciences and cities was Jacobs (1961) who
referred to the latter as ‘problems of organized complexity.
In addition, the reality is dynamic and the search for a single optimal strategy may not be
possible and undesirable, any strategy can be optimal under such and other conditions. So,
the ultimate strategy is to work parallel on several experiments that have low costs and low
risk, draw conclusions from each experiment and upgrade the strategy. (Mitleton-Kelly,2018)
According to Bar-Yam (2018), many of the key problems and crises today are affected by
human activities, and this way global connectivity leads to vulnerabilities. The COVID-19 is
known today to be a very complex and surprising disease. (Laure Wynants, Ben Van Calster,
et al. 2020) is a great example of global connectivity, a local crisis that has started in China
and become worldwide quickly and affects not just the healthcare system but also a lot of
industries.
Cities are home to most of the world population and are fulfill the social needs of their residents for physical venues for interactions that generate innovation, art, culture, and economic
activity. (Shafiri, Khavarian-Garmsir,2020)
Jane Jacobs inspired us to acknowledge the fact that cities are about people, and particularly about bringing people together (Martin, 2006). For a city to keep pace with the modern
world, or to catch up with it, it must focus first and foremost on learning and understanding the
needs of its residents and their assets and only then attempt to provide them with appropriate
services through technological media. (Pasher, Pross,2017)
However, the high concentration of people and activities in cities make them vulnerable
to various stressors such as natural and man-made disasters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the issue of urban vulnerability to pandemics and the fact that a high concentration of population and economic activities happen in
cities, they are often hotspots of infections. (Shafiri, Khavarian-Garmsir,2020)
In this crisis, the behavior of the residents became a part of the contract between themselves, their friends, and leaders, while the last had to address and educate the population
taking care of themselves, their siblings, and friends. Therefore the trust and transparency
between residents and leaders became a critical element in obeying the requests and guidelines and reducing the number of infections. Like in Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO
of General Electric quote: ‘people support what they help create (Krames,2001) This statement is on the same line with the global vision for smart cities which are expected to deliver
much more than efficiency and excellence in services for residents. The new vision prioriAcademia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
2
tizes a deeper engagement with the community, involving an open dialogue with and between
residents, the creation of new models for trading and sharing goods and services, and most
importantly, making cities liveable and equitable. (Pasher,Herzog,Harir,Turjeman,Zhiqiang,
2018) This vision is also valid for a healthy city and the principle of engagement of all the
stakeholders supported by complexity theory.
For example, one of the major criteria for a load of infection spread in a city,” the color”:
red or green that was critical to deciding about different measures to be taken meaning alleviating or putting more constraints on the residents.
The COVID-19 epidemic provides all of us with the experience of dealing with uncertainty
and with the need for local adaptive solutions in addition to top-down regulations. Few case
studies were published recently presenting success stories on a local level like in Shenzhen,
China, a city of 22 million inhabitants combined central regulations with 660 community
multidisciplinary teams working on the neighborhood level (Zou, Shu, Feng, 2020). In each
residential community, cadres disseminated information to residents, controlled movement,
provided on-site health assessments, psychological support, COVID-19 testing, and delivered food and medicine to residents sheltering at home. They succeeded in combating the
epidemic within a few weeks. Although cities in the Czech Republic are mostly authorized,
they differ in their type of leadership behavior and managing the COVID-19 crisis (Placek,
Spacek, Ochrana, 2020). The “passive” ones presented a high degree of reliance on central
state assistance. They did not prepare their own pandemic crisis plan and applied primarily
the central government restrictions. The ‘active’ ones had an adaptive evolutionary strategy
and succeeded in coping with the crisis. Local governments of this type prepared their own
pandemic plans and imposed restrictions even before they were announced by the central government. In Israel, there are several examples of active local leadership, where the activist and
participatory approach resulted in reducing the spread of the COVID-19 (not published yet).
At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of uncertainty, lack of knowledge,
and misinformation regarding personal, economic, societal, and medical demands and needs.
Medical chaotic phases happened, a lot of questions regarding day to day way of life and
behavior of different sectors of the population were asked by different experts with no one
conclusive and definitive answer, like how to treat the diseased people, different modes of
treatment were used without real valid proof, no evidence-based knowledge and each hospital
used its own best experience, protocols, and judgment. Medical knowledge was gathered intensively and communication between medical systems around the world, directly or through
the W.H.O, was on a day-to-day basis.
One of the suggested ways to act is through Transformational Learning Approaches which
means using dialogue to understand diverse views, attain a more inclusive frame of reference,
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
3
communication that fosters democratic participation. (Yukawa, 2015).
According to the Transformational Learning Approaches, the medical community reorganized itself and started to publish newly collected information through virtual meetings,
peer review journal articles, and professional social media. This way the knowledge traveled
fast, was transparent and all medical stakeholders were involved, commented, and shared their
remarks.
This connectivity through the different media vehicles brought a new and coherent emerging understanding about the stages of the disease, the mode of transmission, ways of protecting people, and how to diagnose, predict deterioration, and treat the diseased people: drugs,
monitoring, and artificial respiration.
Knowledge and experience are continuing to emerge almost any day with new scientific
articles, for example by July 2020 more than 20,000 papers about COVID-19 were published.
But although all the above complexity of the disease is still going on and its affections
on society in a variety of ways still present. For example, after discharge from the hospital
or after becoming negative on the viral testing, the recovers may have long-lasting influences
and side effects on different body organs and systems.
In addition, looking at the social element of the pandemic, every country has its own
characteristics and skeleton of the political system, cultural heritage and beliefs, different
educational systems, and different levels of trust between leaders and people. All of those
interacting together, have a critical influence on the emergent behavior of the population, and
elements of personal example, transparent delivered information, transparent understanding
of decision-taking, and trust are critical to moving from chaos to a safe zone when people are
involved.
While living biochemical and physiological systems can adapt to each other according to
very strict physical laws, humans who have mind and soul, sentiments and thoughts, values
and norms, specific culture, egos, and legal and ethical responsibilities can be surprisingly
disobedient and unpredicted in their behavior, in this area dealing with people is much more
complex than dealing with viruses. In the current stage of the pandemia, there are signs of
’pandemic fatigue’ (WHO, 2020), presented by demotivation to follow recommended protective behaviors. It is an expected and natural response to a prolonged public health crisis.
WHO suggests a multifactorial action plan to handle this new problem, which is based on the
barriers and drivers experienced by people, and which is implemented in an integrated way
across all levels of society.
The COVID-19 pandemic offers an unprecedented opportunity to reflect how cities can
embrace complexity theory to minimize the impacts, deal with uncertainty, engage the citizens
and enhance urban pandemic resilience.
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
4
The implementation of the principles of complexity in cities can make a real change in
times of crisis, and mostly depends on the decision-makers and their flexibility to embrace new
methods, a different way of thinking, and transformative leadership that enables successful
dealing with complex situations.
Academia Letters, July 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Lee Sharir, lees@pasher.co.il
Citation: Pasher, E., Tadmor, B., Dunchin, M., Sharir, L. (2021). Embracing complexity for healthy cities
during COVID-19. Academia Letters, Article 1950. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1950.
5