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A sense of rootedness comes from knowing people and, just as importantly, from being known. Anonymity within a large city has, at times, been portrayed by the media as somehow aspirational and ‘urban’ but it is chiefly a control mechanism which can be used to orchestrate dependencies upon others or by which others might have to depend on you both emotionally and economically in order to survive.

Single person households are marketing gold, providing marketeers even greater numbers of consumers who are co-habiting only with their gadgets, especially as they increasingly manipulate our technology-based culture. Social media is another control mechanism whereby social interaction can be managed, at an emotionally disconnected distance. On top of that, technologically influenced architecture serves to isolate people as is demonstrated by airports and ‘malls’ and by our emotional responses to them. Designers are principally to blame for the deterioration in quality of the built fabric of communities and the erosion of any real sense of diversity. But in light of the rise of social media, is it possible to marry the success of virtual communities with real physical communities to get people to care for their neighbourhood and be involved? Taking this further, maybe arresting the influence of global brand blandness, changing the miserable generic appearance of our local high streets, getting the community to resonate with local services, businesses and most importantly relationships once again.

Thankfully, developers are becoming more aware of the social value of a good quality neighbourhood and that new developments have a responsibility to enhance and contribute to the existing community. The physical environment cannot, however, magically engineer this without people becoming more involved in their own neighbourhood and more involved in their neighbours’ lives. As development control has shifted to larger organisations local voices have been polarised and rendered less effective. However, where local ideas have been sourced, it has often led to far richer and more successful design, which is eventually adopted with a greater sense of pride by the neighbourhood.

These are issues that SUSD plans to grapple with, openly discuss and ultimately help solve. For now though, here are some interesting links to check out

Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind – A report on Baroness Susan Greenfield’s observations on social networking sites and their relationship how our brains will develop in the future

www.thesocialorganization.com Established by Rachel Happe to use social media to enhance organisations and communication

www.heidelberg.org – community arts project in Detroit

www.goodwilldetroit.org – giving a hand-up, not hand-out to people in Detroit.