Redesign and Management of Communities in Crisis

Abstract

Leaders who must deal with crises afflicting their communities often discover that these crises depend upon normative factors transcending mere economics. The factors include such things as ethics, justice and belief. They also discover that there are not many tools available to analyse them and to assist their decision-making. The author presents a method to identify the primary factors that are threatening communities, to collect information about such factors, organise it and analyse it. More importantly, leaders can develop models to examine how factors interact with each other to sustain or to threaten the viability of a community. These models can also be used to redesign and manage the community and ensure its long-term viability.

Although solidly based on theory, the object of this book is fully practical. The method is illustrated with a real life application to Boden (a town in northern Sweden), furthermore, it incorporates an especially designed computer modelling tool (separately distributed) to assist its application.

While the focus is on communities, the method can also be applied to other social systems, such as business organisations, voluntary associations, and government departments. The book should be of interest to managers, project leaders and other community leaders.

About the Author

J. D. R. de Raadt is Professor of Informatics and Systems Science at Lulea University of Technology, Sweden. He has endeavoured to extend through teaching and research the disciplinary scope of management, information systems and systems design to incorporate all types of social systems in addition to business organisations. He has also sought to shift the emphasis of these disciplines from a utilitarian focus to a humane concern for the well being of people and their communities. His research has been published in numerous articles and in two prior books: Information and Managerial Wisdom (1991) and A New Management of Life (1997). Practical applications of his research have been made in European Community projects and in association with the Institute for Management and Social Systems. He has served as president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences and of the Swedish Operational Research Society.