Planning through the lenses of complexity theories: the case of HUD's Public Housing Program in Binghamton (New York)

Solving the problems of citizens at local level takes the efforts of national agencies, states, county, local governments and other stakeholders. This paper integrates the conceptual frameworks of public planning and... [ view full abstract ]

Solving the problems of citizens at local level takes the efforts of national agencies, states, county, local governments and other stakeholders. This paper integrates the conceptual frameworks of public planning and complexity in order to understand how they interact at the local level. Using complex adaptive systems theory as a conceptual lens, document analysis of federal, state, county and local housing consolidated plans reveal that some strategies are appropriate at the levels for which they are proposed while others may be better served at a different level of government. Finally, the interaction between the conceptual framework and document analysis point out some challenges in the coordination among different agents with heterogeneous structures and behaviors.

Relevance of the paper to the panel topic: as a first author, I consider this paper is relevant to A.1 New Researchers panel. As a second year PhD. student this panel is a great opportunity to present the results of this research to an international audience and get important feedback on what will be my dissertation proposal on comparative analysis on comprehensive planning at different intergovernmental levels. In addition, this article analyzes the implementation of public planning across different coordination levels in public agencies. Finally, the results of this article bring some known and new lessons for public administrations about their complexity and managing, according to different intergovernmental levels of implementation.