50 ideas for a new city: #3 | "Epistemic community"

"In some ways, it's almost like building a new city."

...[C]onscious efforts to develop a shared understanding of the region amongst diverse constituencies seems to make a difference for blending the imperatives of equity and growth.....[E]pistemic refers to what you know (what facts, figures, and perspectives) and community refers to who you know it with (whether alone or in collaboration with others). When such collective knowledge includes not just the “usual suspects” of urban growth coalitions, but a broader constellation of community interests and perspectives, it seems to make a difference.....

- Just Growth, Benner and Pastor

I think whenever one gets an opportunity to use the word, "epistemic," one should but, it's "community" that gets our attention here. How often do we think of what we know in light of with whom we know it?

"Usual suspects" are words of caution, not condemnation. And we are gathering - as usual.

What remains to be seen is whether or not "a broader constellation of community interests and perspectives" is embraced. Embraced in a manner that does not simply relegate those who hold these interests to subjects of focus and survey or reduce their perspectives to data points and cameos in promotional videos.

These other lives should not be overlooked, but neither can they just be visioned. They must appear in the places where coalitions form and be seen at the tables where knowledge is collected.

The way ahead requires more of us than a broad knowledge of the community, it also requires a broad community of knowledge.