What is "polycentrism"

n. 1 a political or cultural system which contains many different centre, especially centres of authority or control 2 (context of chromosomes etc English) the existence of multiple central parts 3 the existence of more than one culture in a particular country or region

Polycentrism is the principle of organization of a region around several political, social or financial centres. Examples of polycentric cities include the Ruhr area in Germany, Stoke-on-Trent in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. These "cities" have no single centre, but several. Other examples are Randstad in the Netherlands, Berlin in Germany (due to separation of the city by the Berlin wall) and the Gold Coast in Australia.

A country is said to be polycentric if its population is distributed almost evenly among several centres in different parts of the county.

The theory of polycentrism was coined by Palmiro Togliatti and was understood as characterization of working conditions of communist parties in comparison between different countries after the de-stalinization in the former Soviet Union 1956.

Later, the term polycentrism was extended and used for a system with several centres, as unity in diversity ( politology, architecture, city planning).

In intercultural competence the term polycentrism is understood as attitude and openness towards other cultures, opinions and ways of life: when intercultural actions and correlations are interpreted not only with the background of own cultural experiences, but when the independence of other cultures is recognized and appreciated and when cultural values are relativized and seen in the whole context. This in the way of non-ethnocentrism, opposite to ethnocentrism.

In a March 2006 article in The Nation called "The World Social Forum: Protest or Celebration", Michael Blanding writes, "This year, the Caracas forum was one of three in a new 'polycentric' format intended to foster more regional collaboration". The quotes around "polycentric" indicate that this was a new usage of the word because most World Social Forum attendees would be opposed to what could be called the "unicentrism" that characterizes imperial, neoliberal, and neoconservative economic and political theories and institutions; such people could be said to adherents to "polycentrism".