It goes without saying that society tries to provide the best for all its members. We fought for equal rights, now we try and preserve the superiority of the laws we created. Some things, however, cannot be provided by law – social cohesion, or the integrity and well-being of the whole community is something governments try to realize, but the only means for that is the involvement and willingness of all individuals to collaborate. A lot of social actions have been taken in this direction lately. But with the rapid change of social structure, brought by the advance of technology and the changes in the structure of the economy, we might want to reconsider our idea of social cohesion. Of course we want it – we want a stable, integrated, happy society. The only question is how exactly this can be achieved.
Society is often thought of as an abstraction, as the summa summarum of all people. And the dream of planners and politicians alike is for it to behave like a well-oiled machine, a utopia of happy gearwheels joining forces to create something greater than themselves. But ever since the ancient Greek cities grew large enough to substitute direct with representative democracy, it became clear: society is far too big and complex to reach a unanimous agreement, too big for everyone to know each other and to care for each other. Current society consists of intertwining networks of interest and physical proximity. Everyone is included, but not in the whole society. Everyone is included in their specific network of interest, of acquaintances, of physical neighbours. And it’s the complex layering of those intertwining networks that actually makes a society integrated.
Designers often make the mistake to aim their work at a simplified abstraction of the users, the society. We make general assumptions of what their behavior will be – and are often wrong. The role of a designer is often overrated – a good design can improve the social structure, but gradually and slowly. You cannot make a quantum leap in society, especially not with street furniture. For change to happen work should be done on many levels, also by social and government run projects. Communities will be more eager to be involved if the design is developed together with them, and fitted to their needs. A design without designers can sometimes prove even more successful because of people’s attachment to it.
It’s interesting to see what made a few examples successful. Business incubators are a recent invention and are about to replace expensive single-company run offices. The people renting a desk at those places do so voluntarily. And it’s not just because of the cheap office space, but also for the opportunity to meet people with the same interests and to exchange your thoughts over a desk lunch. If there’s already desire for meeting and collaboration, there’s a very high chance for the physical design to work. Cohousing is another working strategy - is a union of people willing to live together and share facilities and responsibilities and spend good times together. Once again it’s the desire of the people that got the idea off the ground, but not the desire of the whole society, rather that of a small, motivated group.
Designers work with the physical side of this inclusion, trying to force people from different backgrounds to bump into each other, to share resources. Often a residential project is accompanied by social condensers - shared kitchens or laundry rooms or meeting places, or social filters – more subtle shared spaces like a children playground. This idea, however, is not always working. No matter how hard the designer tries, without the individuals’ desire for participation, social cohesion cannot be reached. Communities cannot work without the individuals’ involvement.
It’s wrong to think of a community as an inseparable whole. To try and connect everything. To try and provide one all-working solution. As a member of society you no longer know everything about everyone, you don’t necessarily get involved. You don’t necessarily desire physical proximity with people around you, and that’s totally fine. The projects creating strong communities apply only to limited groups of people. They’re the designers’ attempts to return to the glorious days of the past, to be back to normal, to be happy again. But maybe this situation has changed for good, maybe this past will be no more and it’s about time to stop blaming society for being what it is but try and work with it and lead it to a better way. Smaller groups of people with shared interest might be more productive from a cul-de-sac of neighbours mowing each other’s lawns, moreover – they can be happier. In Seth Godin’s words, this is the new normal, and we’d better get used to it.
