to improving local population self-esteem

In the past, the main task was to create settlements near enough from a job source. Work was alwais the main issue to solve, for sure. But all this was happening in a society in which work was the main asset to be achieved, to be defended. On the assumption that only a few, very few, were born in a position not to depend on their own effort to live well, for the majority, the most important factor was to get a job that would allow them an economic relief and a certain social status.

In fact, what was the main factor of planning during Modernity? The division of the day into three parts, dedicated to rest, work and leisure. 8 hours each. And this division would be embodied in the city, divided into these three areas: residential (housing areas), productive (industrial estates), leisure, with varied morphologies. All this was done trhough zonning.

But as time went by, what did the Modern Movement actually achieve? Well, it created specialized spaces, something like an expanded zoning that no longer encompassed just the city, but the entirety of the growing metropolitan space. And then, the movement was no not more called Modernism but Posmodernism.

And the main difference lies in the fact that Postmodernism no longer pretends to work on a scientific basis, but only to handle symbols. And symbols, as we all know, are the ones that shape the image, positive of not so positive, of a Place. The Sense of Place
The self-esteem of the inhabitants of a place is much more influenced by this way of practicing urbanism, because it is detached from what was the main source of traditional self-esteem: working with the resources that the environment offered to improve one’s social situation or simply to lead a dignified life.

The “logical” evolution of Postmodernism led it from seeking the massive participation of citizens in decisions to imposing criteria that were not always shared. And the less an urban planning action is felt to be one’s own, the lower the self-esteem of those concerned! It is pure logic.

It is common to relate low self-esteem to a settlement’s level of wealth. However, this has not been the case traditionally. The inhabitants of any settlement used to have a strong sense of local pride, in the sense that they felt part of a community that was able to survive using local resources.
The best example is provided by the fishing settlements, historically poor or very poor, which nevertheless formed settlements with an enviable sense of place.

However, it is true that the populations most affected by low self-esteem are those located in peripheral suburbs, in decadent historic centers or in rural underserved areas, because their lifestyle has deviated from the minimum socially required standards.

Local authorities, the media and the general population are beginning to openly consider that this “deviation from the norm” corresponds to social decadence and all that goes with it. And once a community has been “condemned” to irrelevance, it is time to act and “regenerate”. Usually by gentrifying the space.
We have already seen in a previous entry how, in fact, gentrification processes require that the area “to be regenerated” must be previously seen, “felt” as degraded or marginal. And this is also a symbolic process, in which Postmodernity has shown itself to be an expert.

Then, we can conclude that

lowering the self-esteem of populations is an effective way of “regenerating urban spaces”… That is to say, to integrate them into global networks. Let’s call it gentrification, urban equity, regeneration or whatever.

But the question is: are these spaces really degraded and do the population perceive themselves as degraded? NO, most of the time, strictly NO.

View of the city of Ronda, in Andalucia (Spain)
The urban fabric is renaissance. The buildings, slightly less medieval but increased in height to gain density. The density is high. The accessibility is complicated.
And the question is: do you think that the population has low self-esteem because of living in an “old-fashioned” space?
NO, of course NOT, on the contrary. It is difficult to find a more suggestive urban environment than this one.
The sense of Place is so strong that it can overcome problems that, in another environment, would be insurmountable.

And here we have already defined our objective in daily urban planning practice: to build spaces that improve, as far as possible, the self-esteem of their inhabitants.
That’s all…