Social Armatures
When reading, talking, and drawing Landscape Armatures I have been constantly asking myself: What happens with the interaction between humans and nature? Is society an armature itself? During class, we have been talking about ecology, social systems, and all the elements that constitute the Landscape, but when it comes to the concept “Armatures” I tent to relate it to the physical environment rather than to immaterial constructions. In this post, I want to explore some of the thoughts I have had about “Social Armatures” using my intuition and mentioning some of the literature we have read for the class Ecological Factors in Urban Landscape Design.
To start comprehending what a Social Armature could be, I will refer to “GROUNDING: Armatures for coastal resilience” where Kristina Hill describes Geology Armatures as “… a connected regional anatomy analogous to bones and muscles, circulatory systems and skins”. Later, she exemplifies armatures elements using Christchurch as a case of study there she points out roadways, a fault line, a sand spit, rivers, the basin., among others. So, trying to translate this concept to social factors the first elements that comes to my mind are the body, the collective, the organization, economic systems, settlements, cosmovision,… these are components of a larger system, and depending on geographical patterns, social characteristics are also local specific and dynamic.
But what I see as the critical difference between human and environmental armatures is how humanity can modify ecology. Throughout history, we have seen how social beliefs have affected nature, for instance, native Americans understood the land as sacred while modern western societies consider it a provider. Then, what are these believes when not armatures themselves? We know about the restoration initiatives have tried to repair the damage in the environment, but what about restoring the social armatures that are the cause of that disturbance?
As Richard T. T. Forman mentions in Ecologically Sustainable Landscapes, The Role of Spatial Configuration:
“People attempt to improve their well-being. The environment provides materials but also constrains the effort. This interplay between human aspiration and ecological integrity is an underlying theme of sustainable development”
The cartoon “Pyramid of Capitalist System” is a good example that illustrates a society constructed by a structure that holds it. Although things may have changed since this drawing was issued, we still held on the core of a pyramidal organization. In my opinion, today the prevalent social armatures, and that are attempting to sustainability, are the economic system and social hierarchies and it is critical to deconstruct the components of that structure to re-think our beliefs. As humans our priority by instinct is survival, that is why I ask myself how can we achieve environmental sustainability if people live their lives focus on bearing power abuse, hunger, or climate emergencies? Therefore, the urgency to study social armatures, in this case: what would be the analogy to our bones, muscles, circulatory system, and skins?