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Summary of all literature of Interaction, Society and Space
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Summary of all the literature you have to read for the course Interaction, Society and Space of the Master Socio-Spatial Planning.
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Introduction session.A theory generalises, explains, predicts and helps understand reality.
Theory informs our decisions that we make in reality
We make a theory out of something we see in reality by experience, data and empirics (observation)
Theory creates a truth, some truths are contested. For example climate change.
Theory is based on our beliefs.
Theories help you communicate with others.
We are going to be discussing papers about: People, Policy Matters and Planners, Physical Properties
and Space.
All these subjects influence each other: Planning is ultimately a social process.
Cluster A
How social structures are enabled or suppressed by the physical characteristics of a neighbourhood.
The placement of high rises, alleys shops and parks result in certain behavioural patterns. You could
say: you are defined by the place you inhabit.
A. Giddens - Constitution of Society: about reciprocity of structures
and behaviours.
A closer look at the concept of society, taken by many to be the main unit of analysis in the social
sciences. The structural properties of social systems are both enabling and constraining.
The term society traditionally has two main senses. The sense of social association or interaction and
the sense of forming a unity, having boundaries which mark it off from other, surrounding societies.
However, these assumptions are incorrect.
Societal totalities are found only within the context of inter-societal systems along time-space edges.
All societies are both social systems and at the same time are constituted by the intersection of
multiple social systems.
Societies are social systems which stand out in bas-relief from a background of a range of other
systemic relationships in which they are embedded. They stand out because definite structural
principles serve to produce a specifiable overall ‘clustering of institutions’ across time and space.
Such a clustering is the first and most basic identifying feature of a society, other features are:
An association between the social system and a specific locale or territory.
The existence of normative elements that involve laying claim to the legitimate occupation of
the locale.
The prevalence, among the members of the society, of feeling that they have a common
identity.
Most forms of structural sociology, have been inspired by the idea that structural properties of
society form constraining influences over action. In contrast, structuration theory is based on the
proposition that structure is always both enabling and constraining, in virtue of the inherent relation
between structure (society) and agency (individual).
In structuration theory structure has always to be conceived of as a property of social systems,
carried in reproduced practices and embedded in time and space. One of the circumstances which
Durkheim usually associates with constraint depends upon the observation that the longue durée of
,institutions both pre-exist and outlasts the lives of individuals born into a particular society. Another
circumstances Durkheim mentions is that social totalities stretch across time and space away from
any particular agent. In this sense the structural properties of social systems are certainly exterior to
the activities of the individual.
Society constraints you when you are born you are constrained to learn you first native language,
this constraints your thought and action, but this also enables you allowing you to communicate with
others in the society.
Another circumstance of constraints according to Durkheim have to do with social facts. Social facts
have properties that confront each single individual as objective features which limit that individuals
scope of action.
Constraints generated by difference types of recourse (power) may range from naked physical
coercion to much more subtle ways of producing compliance.
Power is never only a constraint but is at the very origin of the capabilities of agents to bring about
intended outcomes of action. Each of the various forms of constraint is also in varying ways a form of
enablement. They serve to open up certain possibilities of action at the same time as they restrict or
deny others.
Three senses of constraint:
- Material constraint: Refers to the limits which the physical capacities of the human body,
plus relevant features of the physical environment, place upon the feasible options open to
agents. Physical capability and coupling constraints are limits to the feasible social lives that
people can lead. All human beings have to cope with the constraints of the body.
- Power constraint: The constraining part of power are experienced as sanctions. Sanctions
require some kind of acquiescence from those subject to them.
- Structural constraint: Structural constraints stem from the objective existence of structural
properties that the individual agents is unable to change. It places limits upon the range of
options open for the actor.
What is the relation between contradiction and conflict? Conflict is the struggle between actors or
collectives expressed as definite social practices. (Structural) contradiction is a disjunction of
structural principles of system organization. They two coincide. The emergence of structural
contradiction heats up processes of social change.
Associations =social reproduction occurs in and through the regularized conduct of knowledgeable
agents.
Tradition is the medium of the reversible time linking the present of daily life with that of the longer
duration of institutions.
Organizations and social movements = collectivities in which the reflexive regulation of the
conditions of the system reproduction looms large in the continuity of day-to-day practices.
Transferring analysis from the situated activities of strategically placed actors means studying, first
the connections between the regionalization of their contexts of action and wider forms of
regionalization: second, the embeddedness of their activities in time: thirds, the modes of time-space
distanciation which link the activities and relationships in question to features of overall societies or
to inter-societal systems.
,Jan Gehl - Life between buildings.
Life between buildings.
Opportunities for meetings and daily activities in the public spaces of a city or residential area enable
one to be among, to see, and hear others, to experience other people functioning in various
situations (various levels of contact intensity).
Life between buildings represents primarily low-intensity contacts. These low-intensity contacts offer
opportunities for more intense contacts.
- Contact at a modest level
- A possible starting point for contact at
other levels
- A possibility for maintaining already
established contacts
- A source of information about the social
world outside
- A source of inspiration, an offer of stimulating experience
A lack of life between buildings erases transitional forms between being alone and being together.
LBB offers an opportunity to be with others in a relaxed and undemanding way.
People come where people are. Seeing other people is the greatest attraction of a city.
Benches that provide a good view of surrounding activities are used more than benches with less or
no view of others.
Life in buildings and between buildings seems in nearly all situations to rank as more
essential and more relevant than the spaces and buildings themselves.
Outdoor activities and architectural trends.
In the middle ages cities developed over a long period of time. There were no plans. It was a process
of adjustment and adaptation from the physical environment to city functions. The result of this
process are urban spaces that even today are good for life between buildings.
In the renaissance planning changed. The focus shifted to spatial effects and the buildings. The visual
expression of cities and buildings became important.
A second important development for planning took place around 1930 under the name of
functionalism. During this period the physical-functional aspects of cities and buildings were
developed as a planning dimension independent from and supplementary to aesthetics. The
emphasis was on sun, light and open spaces and the elimination of public urban spaces. Streets and
squares disappeared.
The functionalist made no mention of the psychological and social aspects of the design of buildings
or public spaces. Everybody was in favour of these new functionalist neighbourhoods, because they
did not recognize that buildings also had great influence on outdoor activities and consequently on a
number of social possibilities.
Streets and squares had formed focal points and gathering places, but with the advents of
functionalism, streets and squares were literally declared unwanted. Instead, they were
replaced by roads, paths and endless grass lawns.
, The spreading and thinning out of dwellings assured light and air but also caused an excessive
thinning of people and events.
Processes and Projects.
In order for neighbour contacts and various forms of communal activities to develop beyond a
superficial level, a meaningful common denominator will generally be called for – common
background, common interests, or common problems.
The physical framework itself can be designed so that the desired contact forms are impeded or even
made impossible. The physical structure aka the project both visually and functionally supports the
desired social structure aka the process.
There is a hierarchical systems of communal spaces. Spaces also vary in degrees to which they are
public and private. Both are important in making social contacts. It is also crucial that the various
categories of public spaces have gentle transitions.
The establishment of social structure and corresponding physical structure with communal spaces at
various level permits movement from small groups and spaces toward larger ones and from the more
private to the gradually more public spaces, giving a greater feeling of security and a stronger sense
of belonging to the areas outside the private residence.
Residents in small units are more quickly and more effectively able to organize themselves for group
activities and to solve mutual problems. If public housing areas are too big and lack clarity it does not
work.
Life between buildings – a process.
Life between buildings is potentially a self-reinforcing process. When someone begins to do
something, a process beings and other start to join. Something happens because something happens.
But also nothing happens because nothing happens.
It is not the number of people or events that is important for life between building, but rather the
minutes spent outdoors.
In new housing projects with multi-story apartments residents come and go in great numbers, but
they have no reason to be outside. There is no life between buildings. Row houses with small front
yards do give residents a reason to go outside. Creates life between buildings.
To open up or close in.
To open up for a two-way exchange of experiences is not only a question of glass and windows but
also a question of distances. The narrow parameters of human sensory experiences play a part in
determining whether an event is opened up or closed in. It is remarkable how few events and
functions in buildings are made visually accessible.
Recent years have shown a tendency to create public areas in private buildings. This results in a
dispersal of people and an effective closing in of people and activities, emptying the public spaces of
human beings and interesting attractions. The same functions, now closed in, could have enhanced
many public spaces and the city as a whole.
Jane Jacobs – Death and life of great American Cities.
Part One: The peculiar nature of cities
Chapter 2: The use of sidewalks: safety.
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