Community mix
IS INTEGRATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE EXCLUDED NEEDED?
Saba Golchehr
66 | 160
In the first chapter several theories on ethnic concentration were introduced. The movement behaviour of communities was one of the theories showing that the process of concentration is a natural occurrence. Rapoport (1977) also handles this topic. According his theory the nature of the various groups as well as the scale plays a role in this process. According to him the size which homogeneous areas should be is an important question on which there is very little work. This relation between homogeneity and heterogeneity is far from clear or simple, according to Rapoport (1977), it even suggests that homogeneous areas may reduce prejudice. From his research he concludes that homogeneous areas have lower delinquency and crime rates than heterogeneous ones regardless of poverty. Furthermore the preservations and creation of homogeneous area provides a greater range of physical and social environments and services. It finally leads to a much higher level of urban complexity. The theory of Rapoport (1977) stresses the importance of clustering for migrants and other populations. According to him this notion can be applied to urban environments in two ways. First by comparing what is available to what is needed, leading to the design of the supplement. He explains that the urban environment should be composed of many varied settings. The specificity of each setting is the various more or less homogeneous groups which compose them. Portions of these varied settings should be accessible so that it can be experienced in a given period of time and via a variety of routes. This will lead to a greater complexity, because of the increase of noticeable differences through uniqueness and specificity and also because the areas of different groups will have different complexity levels. Also the fear of ghettofication is undermined in this theory. According to Rapoport the isolation of these settings is unlikely, since interaction often increases under such conditions and is helped by the provision of potential interaction and meeting places. These places are carefully related to relevant activity systems and include relatively similar groups. Rapoport emphasizes on the relation between socio-cultural variables and the urban environment. The design literature has however “stressed a unitary urban environment, while urban sociology and ecology literature have neglected the design implications of urban differentiation� (Rapoport, 1977: p. 265). Therefore these socio-cultural variables need to be deeper investigated in order to incorporate it in the design. In the proposal of the new method these variables are translated into principles for the design.
Fig. 7.11 Level of social mix or homogeinity (Rapoport, 1977)
According to Rapoport designers have been eager to generate connectedness and interaction. But his research shows that various groups desire particular levels of interaction. Moreover different groups have different levels of interaction, different forms of networks, different places for interaction and different territorial needs. In the Moslem city these social links are expressed physically. In order to conclude, all the above mentioned concepts stress the need to be specific and not deal with averages or generalized, unitary urban environments. Evidently different groups have different behaviour setting systems.
Fig. 7.12 User patterns of different communities (Rapoport, 1977)