Practical Arcology is about the reformulation of Arcology itself. Paolo Soleri because he coined the term Arcology, basically had ownership of the word and a monopoly on its definition and meaning. However, we know that many visionary urban planners, designers and thinkers have put forward similar ideas in history long before the Arcology was accepted as a legitimate term for defining a future city that was compact, while mimicking natural principles and dynamics.
Soleri sought to propose a fundamentalist approach to the current human conundrum that he termed Reformulation. His proposal was that in order to move society in a direction of social and ecological sanity we needed to re-engineer modern mainstream systems from the ground up, and to introduce a fundamentally different way of doing things that was aligned with his Arcology Manifesto and vision.
Practical Arcology seeks to embrace the idea of reformulation, while questioning the lack of oversight and accountability that has led to Soleri increasingly being seen as saying one thing for the outside world, but doing something else and applying an entirely different standard for his own Arcosanti/Arcology world. The result is that to many it appears that what he has created in terms of both Arcology as a theoretical concept and Arcosanti as an attempt to create a practical working model of that concept, do not "walk the practical talk" in terms of really offering compelling and intellectually consistent models for human sustainable development that can now be applied globally as an alternative to corporate capitalism. To go further on this would be to see that what emerged was a group-think mentality led by Soleri that was at odds with an practical of sensible way of actually designing, implementing or managing the necessary socioeconomic systems to put forward such an ambitious Arcosanti 5000 type plan. Such a plan was deemed necessary demonstrate the practical relevance of Arcology theory in relation to urban planning and mainstream development.
The idea of making Arcosanti the "world's first prototype Arcology" became the catchy rallying cry for many devoted to the cause. Yet to many it appeared to be a half-hearted mantra that never seemed to get much traction, in terms of ever really coming close to actually bridging the gap between what Arcosanti actually was and the definition of Arcology. Its also been long acknowledged throughout the movement that so long as Soleri maintained veto power over both Arcology as a terminology and theoretical framework and Arcosanti as a project that sought to implement that Arcology vision, there could be no real practical progress. And that we would have to wait for him to die before anything constructive could ever manifest in terms of seriously considering the realization of some kind of practical Arcology vision at Arcosanti. Indeed what emerged is the realization that a "negative network effect" emerged in which collaboration to support the project was actually politely discouraged because to some it was a codeword for accountability and compromising with partners and stakeholders. In this way Arcosanti actually and ironically became a model of what Soleri termed the Global Hermitage.
No doubt in all fairness we as humans face a great challenge in learning how to effectively collaborate and work together. This is the byproduct of excessive corporate capitalism as it now pervades not only our institutions and culture as United States citizens but our very consciousness. This is all the more reason for the case for a Practical Arcology.
A Practical Arcology approach seeks to do several key things deemed vital to the ensuring the relevance of Arcology as a valuable ideology and manifesto for the future urban development of humanity
Expand the Faculty of Arcology Experts - to facilitate a vibrant discussion to enable the full and mature development of Arcology an intellectual platform
Enable financial parties and relationships to emerge to provide funding for research, economic development and prototypes to prove the nature of the concept on a practical level.
Develop educational curricula and necessary media to effectively educate students particularly those involved in the design, planning and development fields
Empower the formation of a leadership culture that is both diverse and single minded in their commitment to forwarding this idea as not just an Arcosanti novelty concept but a global movement for radical change in how cities are built.