Book reviews

Professor Jay W. Forrester's book, Urban Dynamics, is an important, but controversial, contribution in the area of computer simulation of urban problems. This article presents a critical examination of this book.     

Adjusting policy-thinking to global pragmatics and future problematics

An unprecedented rate of change is rapidly outdating traditional modes of policy thinking. New orientations are needed to deal with the growing interaction between global pragmatics which encompass emerging trends that diverge radically from anything previously experienced and intractable problems that do not respond to conventional solutions and future problematics which arise from the nature of the future and paradoxes underlying futures oriented thinking. Current policy thinking suffers from many incapacities and should give way to the search for a new holistic paradigm based on the twin propositions that the properties of the parts can only be understood through an understanding of the dynamics of the whole and that the dynamics of the whole may be greater than the summation of the parts. Several suggestions are made where to make a start. The new policy thinking must provide a common meaning, purpose and sense of direction. It must be anticipatory, considering both the probable and the improbable, looking both backwards and forwards. It must be crisis-prepared, innovative, multi-dimensional and capable of handling adversity, uncertainty, and complexity. Other components of governance must also be improved lest an oversized head develop on an undersized body. Meantime, hope is placed in a new type of learning that would allow for living with past mistakes and failures without being overwhelmed, one that would allow for change, perception, problem reformulation, unlearning and even debunking. It would involve questioning the appropriateness of ultimate purposes and goals, selecting new replacements, and identifying new means for achieving them.     

SYSTEM AND PROCESS IN CAPITAL-INTENSIVE PRIVATIZATION: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY OF MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS

Capital-intensive privatization (CIP) is an option for infrastructure project development. Advocates claim that CIP generates cost savings through efficiencies inherent in the coordinated design, construction, and operation of facilities. The present paper assesses these claims in the field of municipal wastewater treatment facilities (WIWs). It presents case-study results and aggregate data on seven of the first privatized WIWs, and on seven comparable grant-funded facilities. The analysis relies on the concepts of system and process. It concludes that CIP changes the system of players and the processes through which they interact. In doing so, CIP generates efficiencies of time and cost in project design and construction. It also may change accountability mechanisms, trade efficiency off against accountability, and raise issues of compatibility with the nature of the state. These matters bear directly on the current debates over tax and budget policy generated by increased demands for services, limited resources, and deficit reduction mandates.