idle gaze 002: Community thrives through bustling neighbourhoods and casual chatter.
Will cities of the near future be defined by solitude or will weak ties survive in the new normal?
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Small talk and friendly glances: the weak ties that fuel cities.
Cities of solitude and the Unity Arena: a glimpse at a distance-first dystopia.
Nour Cash & Carry and the 15-minute city: how we're championing community in the new normal.
“A neighbourhood is not only an association of buildings but also a network of social relationships, an environment where the feelings and the sympathy can flourish.” -
Jane Jacobs
The spontaneous cafe encounters. The warm welcome at the wine shop, the small talk with the barista. The comfortable silence at the monthly barber visit. A friendly glance at the yoga studio. When people talk about community and connection, it’s not just about close friends and family, it’s also about the spontaneous interactions of daily life that lead to a sense of belonging.
These loose connections are called 'weak links' and were first formulated by the American sociologist Mark Granovetter. Granovetter proposed that weak links offered connections into a wider circle of people and places than those that one sees regularly and live and work in the same places. This wider circle of acquaintances was proven to be the main source of new information, connections and daily familiarity:
“Individuals with few weak ties will be deprived of information from distant parts of the social system and will be confined to the provincial news and views of their close friends. This deprivation will not only insulate them from the latest ideas and fashions but may put them in a disadvantaged position in the labour market.”
Crowded bars, vibrant restaurants, bustling side streets, packed nightclubs - these are the spaces that spark the electric currents of weak ties. Many studies link these connections to an overall sense of happiness and meaning.
The city squares come alive. Illustration: Ilya Milstein
But what if the near-future was designed for safety, caution and control, stemming the natural hustle & bustle of the city? What if these fleeting, surface-level, but life-affirming daily interactions were no longer part of daily life?
And what if we were willing to instead fight for physical spaces where the weak ties of community can continue to thrive?
CITIES OF SOLITUDE & A DISTANCE-FIRST DYSTOPIA
Anecdotes from the ‘new normal’ in Wuhan from the California Sunday Magazine reads like a near-future sci-fi novel - where freedom of movement and city access is dictated by colour codes on WeChat:
Does this provide a glimpse of a future city experience defined by control and solitude, devoid of community and spontaneous connections?
Cities of solitude. Liam Wong: TO:KY:OO
Artist’s rendition of a distance-first dystopia: the Virgin Money Unity Arena, Gosforth Park, Newcastle:
The 2,500-capacity venue, known as the Virgin Money Unity Arena, was announced for Newcastle’s Gosforth Park last week. The venue, which will see fans arriving by car before being led to a socially distanced viewing platform, will host a series of events across the second half of August and into September.
As the blueprint for a new way of living in cities begins to reveal itself, the Unity Arena hints at a future of physical spaces compartmentalized by households, measured and divided in favour of order and organization, killing any chances of natural interaction.
CHAMPIONING COMMUNITY IN THE NEW NORMAL
Fighting to save a bedrock of local community: Nour Cash & Carry,
Location: Brixton, London
A grocery store that houses tight rows of shelves with every ingredient imaginable. A “Whole Foods without the eye-watering prices, for real people,” where working class immigrants, yuppies and vegan hipsters rub shoulders with celebrity chefs. From adding new spices and herbs to introducing oat milk, as new communities arrive in the diverse area of south London, the foods are added to the shop’s offering to match their tastes. In January, Nour received a notice of eviction from Brixton’s Market Row, sparking a 50,000 signature strong petition, ultimately leading to the withdrawal of the eviction by the new landlord. When people are feeling more isolated than ever, this shows that we are willing to fight for the spaces and opportunities to maintain a sense of community.
Read further: New York Times
Envisioning a community-centric way of urban living: The 15-minute city
Location: Paris
In her re-election campaign, Mayor Anne Hidalgo says that every Paris resident should be able to meet their essential needs within a short walk or bike ride from their home. Shaping Paris into a “15-minute” city involves mixing as many uses as possible within the same space and challenges much of the planning orthodoxy of the past century, which has attempted to separate housing from offices and retail spaces. But the concept of “hyper proximity" seeks to stitch some of these uses back together, and has been found to improve quality of life by building a sense of community between residents, shopkeepers and workers.
Read further: Bloomberg
STRIVING FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD BUSTLE THAT BUILDS WEAK TIES
It is often assumed that when coming into the city, one should expect a cold shoulder and a resentful shrug: the city excludes outsiders. In her book “the lonely city”, an exploration of loneliness through the lens of living alone in New York, Olivia Laing wrote:
“You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people.”
But not everyone agrees that city living is by and large a solitary experience. In his book “Cities are good for you”, Leo Hollis argues that contrary to the belief that city life undermines traditional ties and replaces them with "impersonal, superficial, transitory and segmental relationships", it was precisely these relationships that make the city so unique and important.
It is the abundance of these weak ties that bring people to the city, for it is the intensity of these informal relationships that makes the city so special – and it’s these weak ties that hold chaotic, bustling and transient cities together.