3 The living room of society
In traditional society, up until the onset of this century, the space that existed between buildings was like the living room of society. It was the place where people did things, got together, felt comfortable.
How does he get this belonging? He gets it because he and his villagers control everything in their environment.
In our century the loss of control and loss of belonging started with the car. The car of course is a wonderful thing. I, we, almost none of us, would willingly give up our ability to have cars and get what the car can get us because it creates this phenomenal kind of access to everyone and everything, which is so valuable. But at the same time during the last century, because of the car and trucks, nearly all the streets have been taken away from us. And for property reasons, too, […] even the common space that is provided for pedestrians, emotionally does not belong to us.
The personal computer in combination with the internet, and smartphones today have a similar impact. They, however, have much bigger influence on the digital spaces we share.
In a living structure for society, the vital importance of the public room is fundamental. The street is not a thing to drive through, but a series of spaces which are the places where you most want to be. But to get it in meaningful fashion, again, as in the Indian village, people need to be in control — in control of their individual space, and in control of the public space. Design alone cannot accomplish this. It needs a change in the way we make it possible for people to control the world around them.
The same is true for the digital world. In the early days of the personal computer, there was no real distinction between users and programmers. If you simply used a computer, you had to be a programmer. Then programmers started to build and sell applications to users. Programmers build them, users used them. Users gave up their control over what and how their applications would be built. There are movements of “end-user programming” today that aim to reverse that.
#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/1 Belonging and not-belonging#