I didn't get a chance to read all of the great ideas of the year, but I listened to a description of a new type of relationship, the "fleeting relationship," which reminded me why public spaces are great. The fleeting relationship is exactly why it is fun to hang out in a coffeeshop by yourself, sit on a park bench, smoosh into a crowded subway -- basically, live in our public spaces. The thing about fleeting relationships, as fleeting as they are, is that they need places to occur - the softball field, a bar, a gym - all grounded places.
I'm glad people are studying this. My architecture, landscape architecture, geography, etc friends have found it incredibly difficult to make headway in this field in the traditional academic disciplines. It reminds me to add Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" and "Better Together," with Lewis Feldstein, to my wish list. Places don't necessarily determine the interaction, but they really make those positive relationships so much easier to form.
12.14.2005
"Together Alone"
Posted by Shin-pei at 9:00 PM
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4 comments:
Shin-Pei,
I was surprised to find that I owned Putnam's "Better Together" and thanks to your influence, I think I'll actually read it over the holidays.
Sorry, Shin-Pei, I didn't mean to sign in anonymous. I'll let you know what I think when I get around to reading it.
No problem. Thanks for leaving comments! Let me know what you think about the book.
...just a comment by an anonymous reader doing some thesis research on the very topic you're discussing here. I actually would like to posit that Putnam - though his insights are helpful in our growing awareness of modern society - has missed the mark. What I find is that our fleeting relationships in public places (I'm studying commuter rail trains in Boston) are intimate, personal, and important to us. This is what Shin-Pei is saying about how great public spaces are. We aren't losing our communities in exchange for a love of being alone around other people, as Putnam describes, but gaining a new kind of community. Let me suggest "Together Alone: Personal relationships in public places" edited by Morrill, Snow & White. The authors say, rather, that we are together but in disconnected niches of society. The people on my Boston trains are dedicated to each other - but only while on the train. Then everyone gets off and enters another realm. This doesn't mean these relationships are in any way "less" than the communities of the past, as Putnam says, but a whole new way of achieving fulfillment.
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