Author ORCID Identifier
Regan Duff: 0009-0003-6426-7257
Gabrielle Peko: 0000-0002-7878-3258
Johnny Chan: 0000-0002-3535-4533
David Sundaram: 0000-0003-1575-4174
Abstract
Communities face complex sustainable-development challenges requiring agile, inclusive solutions driven by collective intelligence. Yet extending adaptive systems frameworks from organizational to community contexts remains underexplored, particularly where governance is informal and knowledge systems are diverse. This paper introduces the Community Kinetic Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (CKICAS), where "kinetic" denotes minimizing adaptive latency: reducing decision-response cycles while maintaining quality. CKICAS extends Intelligent Complex Adaptive Systems (ICAS) principles to community contexts, integrating socio-ecological resilience and complex adaptive systems theory through five constructs: domain characteristics, permeable boundaries, curation mechanisms, community intelligence, and dual-action constructs enabling coordinated implementation and fundamental transformation. Developed through Action Design Research with community-based participatory research during COVID-19, CKICAS demonstrated compressed decision-response cycles (months to weeks, weeks to days, days to hours) across five crisis contexts, from building-scale interventions to cross-jurisdictional coordination spanning five jurisdictions. Convergent evidence from operational deployment, stakeholder adoption, and governmental recognition provides formative validation, while prospective application to the 2026 fuel-security crisis demonstrates anticipatory use beyond the pandemic; systematic experimental evaluation remains future work. A proposed six-layer technical architecture illustrates how the constructs could be operationalized from low-tech crisis response to AI-enhanced systems, advancing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through inclusive, ethically grounded technology integration.
Recommended Citation
Duff, R. W., Peko, G., Chan, J., & Sundaram, D. (In press). Empowering Communities: The CKICAS Framework for Adaptive, Low-Latency Decision-Making in Sustainable Development. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 58, pp-pp. Retrieved from https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol58/iss1/116
When commenting on articles, please be friendly, welcoming, respectful and abide by the AIS eLibrary Discussion Thread Code of Conduct posted here.
