CONCEPT
Concentric Governance
The construction method the Lindblom volume proposes for attentional ecology — organizational policies at the innermost circle, sectoral standards at the middle, regulatory frameworks at the outer edge — expanding as practical knowledge accumulates rather than descending from comprehensive design.
Concentric governance is the Lindblom volume's incrementalist alternative to comprehensive AI governance frameworks. Rather than designing a unified national strategy that descends through institutional layers, governance is built in concentric circles, starting with the innermost and expanding outward as practical knowledge accumulates. The first circle is organizational: specific guidelines for AI use within specific organizations, designed by the people who understand those organizations best. The second is sectoral: standards that emerge from the accumulated practical experience of many organizations operating in similar contexts. The third is regulatory: government interventions that address risks too large or too diffuse for organizational policies or sectoral standards to manage.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The structure has a property that comprehensive design lacks: it fails gracefully. When one element of a comprehensive framework proves inadequate, the entire framework is compromised, because the elements are designed as an integrated whole. When one element of a concentric structure proves