Infrastructure transitions towards sustainability: a complex adaptive systems perspective

Kerry Brown, Craig Furneaux and Amanda Gudmundsson

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2012, vol. 15, issue 1/2, 54-71

Abstract: To ensure infrastructure assets are procured and maintained by government on behalf of citizens, appropriate policy and institutional architecture are needed, particularly if a fundamental shift to more sustainable infrastructure is the goal. The shift in recent years from competitive and resource-intensive procurement to more collaborative and sustainable approaches to infrastructure governance is considered a major transition in infrastructure procurement systems. In order to better understand this transition in infrastructure procurement arrangements, the concept of emergence from complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory is offered as a key construct. Emergence holds that micro interactions can result in emergent macro order. Applying the concept of emergence to infrastructure procurement, this research examines how interaction of agents in individual projects can result in different industry structural characteristics. The paper concludes that CAS theory, and particularly the concept of 'emergence', provides a useful construct to understand infrastructure procurement dynamics and progress towards sustainability.

Keywords: sustainable infrastructure; engineering asset management; complex adaptive systems theory; infrastructure delivery; procurement; sustainability; sustainable development; infrastructure governance. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=44034 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijsusd:v:15:y:2012:i:1/2:p:54-71

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Sustainable Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().