The Chaotic, Fractal and Complex City

In the Occupy Wall Street movement all decisions are being made through a General Assembly (GA) based on consensus.  This is a unique way of decision-making for a group that is leaderless.  There are General Assemblies in other cities that are being formed. The question that I am pondering is: Can GAs replace the local democratic process in cities?  Another question is : Can  Direct Democracy be used effectively to make major decisions at a local level?  The use of GAs promises more participation in government, while Direct Democracy can allow citizens to vote via the Internet on key items in a city’s budget.  These have to be explored further.  In one of the latest posts on OccupyWallStreet ( http://occupywallst.org ) titled “Enacting the Impossible (On Consensus Decision Making)” there is a very good discussion on General Assemblies: http://occupywallst.org/article/enacting-the-impossible/ The Co-Intelligence Institute discusses many aspects of imp...

While reading the posts on the webpage of Occupy WallStreet ( http://occupywallst.org/ ), I came across an interesting post   from Cairo Egypt expressing solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement   and the other Occupy ______ (i.e., Boston, Oakland, Chicago, Corpus Christi etc. ) movements ( http://occupywallst.org/article/solidarity-statement-cairo/ . )   The Occupy Wall   Street movement has been centered in the renamed Liberty Square (formerly   known as   Zuccotti Park) in Manhattan, New York. There were some very insightful comments about the importance of public squares in protest movements. The following is an excerpt of this blog post directly discussing the importance of public spaces for a foci of public protest: In our own occupations of Tahrir, we encountered people entering the Square every day in tears because it was the first time they had walked through those streets and spaces without being harassed by police; it is not just the i...