Abstract

Urban Community-Building Initiative 1 Eight Social Technologies: An Urban Community-Building Initiative Senator Bill Bradley Editor's Note: In the premier issue of this journal, a member of the editorial board wrote that we will consider "the social and institutional technologies of the city at least as important as the physical technologies... [and that in addition to discussing] technologies based on the natural sciences, [the journal will] explore social and institutional technological alter- natives to the physical techniques usually promoted. " The following article, reproducing portions of a Senate floor speech delivered by Senator Bradley on March 18, 1993, details a community-building initiative for cities—an initiative composed of eight programs we define as "social technologies. " The Senator writes that all eight programs have "a strong accountability provision with rigorous standards and frequent review and assessment. " This is as it should be, for social technologies must be introduced in the same manner as physical technologies. That is, when they are introduced, there should be a period of experimentation, test, evalua- tion, feedback, and most importantly criteria for modification and improvement. Summaries of the legislation follow the text of the speech on page 13. AST year I spoke on this floor