History & Theory - Assignment 1

I found Susan Bickford's essay, "Constructing Inequality: City Spaces and the Architecture of Citizenship" to be quite provocative. Her assessment of the degradation of the democratic polity in America seems very true, the causes very plausible, and the solutions worthy of pursuit.

Susan contends that a truly democratic polity is a community defined by social, economic and ethnic diversity, with all individuals equally empowered to affect the decisions of the community. Meaning no single sub-class of the society holds more control than another. She points out that American society today is inegalitarian and undemocratic as a result of a middle class trend to avoid risk and exposure to the unknown. This has manifested itself in the creation of suburbia and the proliferation of local government to the detriment of diversity, complexity, and democracy for the regional community as a whole. It has lead to increased segregation and subjugation of the "undesirable classes" by the middle class.

It is hard to disagree with this assessment. I live in middle class suburbia, in a cookie cutter development, in a cookie cutter house, with cookie cutter neighbors, (God bless them all). I look around and see all the "gates" that Susan claims have been erected to keep us safe "inside" and to keep others "outside". If you look at any of the houses in my neighborhood you will see such a "gate" proudly emblazzoned in the front windows, "This House Protected by ADT Security". What this really says is, "if your a stranger and can read this sign, your not welcome on my lawn". And if that is not enough, when you get back to the sidewalk and look up, you will see a sign stating, "This Neighborhood is Protected by the Neighborhood Watch". What this really says is, "your not welcome here, get out of my neighborhood". I hadn't really thought about that before and I find it quite disturbing. But that is not the worst of it. There are probably 75 to 100 homes in my neighborhood. I know some of my neighbors but I do not know most of my neighbors. Unfortunately, I can probably tell you which FEW houses are owned by minorities.

I agree that the concentration of the middle class is the result of a combination of factors that Susan discusses in her essay; developer strategies to market housing , the creation of smaller governing authorities able to affect policy to futher propogate segregation, the side affect of these resulting in the establishment of economically depressed ghettos. I would argue though that Susan may have missed a very influential factor. That is the ideology of the American Dream, to own a plot of land with a house and to raise a family. Doesn't most of America strive for this and doesn't this attract multitudes of immigrants to our shores? This is part of the impetus behind the urban development that Susan explains has been occuring since WWII. And unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I think it has become a culture ingrained in the subconsciuos of the middle class. It is a self-perpetuating ideology with each new generation. I don't believe that the middle class as a whole is knowingly pursuing this type of class isolation.

Susan offers several strategies as solutions; raise the collective conscious of the middle class to be more courageuos in the face of the unknown, revise the decision making institutions to become more regionalized and less local - less "intersubjective", provide multilayered urban and suburban spaces, redefine the sense of "home" to resist the urge to purge conflict, even enact legislation to limit CID's and gated communities for the betterment of the polity. Her most poignant solution for architects maybe that as we have created the problem through design of undemocratic spaces so we should be able to design spaces that promote the integration of econmic, cultural and social diversity. I believe this would help lead to the enlightenment of the middle class, but for a sustainable solution the fix needs to be interdisciplinary in nature.