Community regeneration and complexity

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors describe the regeneration of the Beacon and Old Hill estate and advance their initial hypotheses, explaining how and why this process of regeneration occurred. The Falmouth Beacon and Old Hill estate is a living example of relevant order emerging out of what was in 1995 a chaotic system. The intricate web of interactions which have formed between the community and the agencies hold the Beacon Partnership at the edge of chaos and allow the exploration of adjacent possibles, where new projects can be tried out and new relationships formed. The self-organization of these emergent social structures patterns the behaviour of the Partnership and is able to adapt and respond to changes. A key element of complexity theory is the insight that, within a community or organization, knowledge is distributed and behaviour is necessarily localized.