Collaborative Cities: Mapping Solutions to Wicked Problems

Dynamic problems require dynamic collaboration and technology.

Our communities today face difficult issues―such as climate change, access to health care, and homelessness―which are tangled, complicated, and constantly evolving. Coined “wicked problems” more than 40 years ago by the University of California’s professors Horst Rittel and C. West Churchman, these issues exceed the capacity of any one sector, instead demanding the kind of creative thinking, democratized engagement, and integrated action that come from government, nonprofits, businesses, and citizens working in concert.

These different stakeholders, however, don’t always agree on the best approach, strategy, or goals. But their commonality in driving social outcomes relies on place: where problems are happening, where people need assistance and help defining the issues. Maps combine complex and relational information that can be visualized and analyzed to deal with these issues. When used with technological developments in data analytics, visualization, connectivity, and the Internet of Things (IoT), mapping can promote effective cross-sector collaboration.

Written for citizens and city leaders, Collaborative Cities: Mapping Solutions to Wicked Problems guides readers into using location intelligence to derive public value from action. Co-authors Stephen Goldsmith (former mayor of Indianapolis and deputy mayor of New York) and Kate Markin Coleman (former executive vice president for branding and strategy at the YMCA) use their combined years of experience to analyze the best civic examples of geospatial technology working across cross-sector networks. Divided into eight chapters, Collaborative Cities addresses the formation, operation, and adaptation of cross-sector collaborations, including five chapters dedicated to specific wicked problems such as public safety, homelessness, and sustainability.

Starting with Collaborative Cities, government officials, nonprofit leaders, and citizens alike who are acting for social value can learn how to use a geospatial approach to improve insight, trust, and the efficacy of their combined efforts to solve wicked problems.

Stephen Goldsmith was the 46th mayor of Indianapolis and also served as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Operations. He is currently the Derek Box Professor of of the Practice of Uban Policy and Director of Data-Smart City Solutions at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has written The Power of Social Innovation; Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector; Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work through Grassroots Citizenship; The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America; The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance; and A New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed Governance.

Kate Markin Coleman has thirty years of experience as a senior executive in the private and social sectors, including executive vice president, chief strategy and advancement officer at YMCA of the USA. For the past year, as a Harvard ALI fellow, she has applied that experience to research that focuses on obstacles to nonprofit efficiency and effectiveness. Kate spent the first half of her career in the private sector. She transitioned to the social sector after she and three colleagues spearheaded the sale of the fintech company they led. Kate now serves as advisor to, and on, the boards of social enterprises.

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading urbanists.

He is a researcher and professor, serving as University Professor and Director of Cities at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, a Distinguished Fellow at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, and a Visiting Fellow at Florida International University.

He is a writer and journalist, having penned several global best sellers, including the award winning The Rise of the Creative Class and his most recent book, The New Urban Crisis published in April 2017. He serves as senior editor for The Atlantic, where he co-founded and serves as Editor-at-Large for CityLab.