Investigating the dynamics of decentralised systems in US and encouraging local participation, engagement

Abstract

There is growing awareness that a top-down approach, whereby decisions are made at an executive level and disseminated down, is not the only way to run companies and countries. Professor Soichiro Maeyama, Graduate School of Urban Management, Fukuyama City University, Japan, is applying his interest in decentralised systems and the potential connections with consciousness to investigate the social function of urban decentralisation in the US. The goal is to provide new perspectives on how local dynamics and governance can be formulated. Two important considerations for Maeyama and his team are citizen governance and how organisations can introduce innovations that can motivate staff members. His vision involves a considerable reorganisation of society that ensures people can be supported and sustained ('Mighty Community'). Ultimately, Maeyama hopes that the new perspectives brought to light by his research can promote change in how local governments and various organisations as its cells operate and govern and help tackle disparities, discrimination and social fragmentation in communities across the globe. Maeyama and his team believe that citizen-governance is key to establish new paradigm-shifted governments and the necessary co-production for local residents after Covid-19.