a guide to find
SOCIAL
GLUE
From December 9Th until December 15Th we where doing research in Istanbul. Galata Sishane, which is the oldest lightning production district in Istanbul was our investigation area. The center of the city is changing raplitly, because of economic change. Craftsman and inhabitants are being moved out of the area, and are placed into other areas of the city, and there is a huge zoning change. We wanted to find out; what holds a community together, what is the social glue? By finding out what the ingredients are, we want to make clear what is important in a community and if and how you can move this web to another area. We explored community life, and why we humans have sense of collectivity in our nature. We use the term “social glue� as a metaphor for the presence within a locality of a mutual bond of recognition, connectedness, feeling of responsibility for, and concern for others because they occupy the same territorial Community. This definition of social glue does not necessarily include trust, liking, or mutual respect. Those may come later once the feeling of connection and the sense of being in the same boat has been established. Social glue can and does exist between individuals and groups who are at odds with or even dislike one another. A sufficient amount of social glue maintains the base of community even when there is mistrust, differences, disagreements, and even bitterly contested conflicts. With
enough effort and ingenuity it is possible to use that basis of connection to create the trust, fellow-feeling, and willingness to work collaboratively on issues of common concern that have been labeled social capital. Integrative infrastructures that improves social glue are, therefore, essential to any wel functioning community. (Donald C. Klein)
We co-create our own reality. (Donald C. Klein) That is, although we behave according to our own individual interpretations of our experiences, those interpretations are, for the most part, shared with others and shaped by the culture and the identity groups that are important to us. When it comes to the many projections that affect community life it is far more useful to think in terms of collective identities rather than personal selves; that is, in terms of “us” and “not us” rather than “me” and “not me.” In the dynamics of community life, those unacceptable and dis-valued qualities that are being projected onto others are not so much personal as they are collective in nature. (Donald C. Klein) Harry Stack Sullivan, well-known, for his interpersonal orientation in psychiatry, pointed out that human relationships were grounded in what he called “consensual reality.” (Sullivan, 1968) He meant that our ways of framing shared situations resembled each another enough so that we could count on
one another to behave in predictable ways. In other words, under ordinary circumstances, our projective interpretations were “normal” in the sense that they were close enough to others’ interpretations of events so that we could be understood and accepted by them. Sullivan understood that we were prone to over-emphasize differences between ourselves and others and to judge those who were different from us as deficient in some way. As his residents began to work with psychotic patients, Sullivan is said to have cautioned them against being too caught up in their patients’ differences from normal. With respect to those patients, he is quoted as saying, “Remember, we are all more human than otherwise”. In the book “Scenes in de copy corner” by Joke van de Zwaard, the writer explains the importance of social glue in a neighborhood, and small encouters; THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL GLUE IN A NEIGHBORHOOD. ‘The townsman has not lost his capacity for deep, sustained and multilateral relationships.
He acquired the ability to superficial, fleeting and limited relationship.’ (Lofland 1973) The social life of the city consists of many small encounters. You can ignore each other, observe, listen, or catch a glimpse of one and other, socialize and everything in between. What exactly happens says something about you and how you read the environment. These micro events affect your mood and your view on society. Acourding to Joke van de Zwaard neighbors don’t need to become friends, we did not choose our neighbours. But what is important for pleasant conditions in a densely populated community is a social insight; understanding, avoidance, assertiveness, caring, kindness, noise tolerance and language sensitivity. Distance is also an important aspect, not to be confused with indifference. This means that we speak to each other on the street, on the stairs, at a window. Both in the city and in the village this is important for a nice neighborhood. IMPORTANCE OF SMALL ENCOUNTERS Often we know people just from sight; this
type of superficial communication is between intimacy and anonymity. When you can place faces you get the feeling that you know what you can expect from each other and feel more safe. Fischer calls this public familiarity. According to the Council of Social Development; unexpected meeting places can be a cure for feeling apart, fear and discomfort, Places with a ‘public domain’ function. The Belgian researcher Soenen (2006 ) calls it the domains of ‘ small meetings ‘ following observations in the tram and shops in Antwerp. In many neighbourhoods these obvious meeting places are disappearing. With better facilities in different parts of the city we aren’t that depended anymore on our neighbourhood stores, schools and café’s. Community houses and cafes have lost their purpose since the diversity in visitors is low. In order to recreate these obvious meeting places in neighborhoods we need accessible meeting places where different kinds of people can meet. By looking in to these small encounters, materials, activities and common mood hopefully we can learn and recreate.
SO, FOR WHAT REASON DO WE COME TOGETHER IN COMMUNITIES? SAFETY Human beings come together in communities to increase their chances of surviving environmental, economic, and social threats to their survival.In the district of Galata/Sishane, craftsman work together for a long time. Every craftsman makes one part of a lamp. In this way, they are all responsible for the endresult. CELEBRATION Human beings come together in communities in order to celebrate life, engage in sports and games, carry out religious, historic, and other rituals that give larger meaning to their lives. In Istanbul, we heard about the rituals cocerning a funeral. When somebody passes away, this messages is being spread raptly around the community. Even if you aren’t a relative, you still take part in the celebration of the life. The Family of the deceased one make halva (a turkish dish) and share this with their two neighbors. SOLVING PROBLEMS On the one hand, human beings come together in communities in order to exchange goods and services and thereby increase their access to resources that will increase their quality of
life. In Istanbul, we saw this in the brooms. The inhabitants have a sense of common responsibility. MEANING On the one hand, human beings come together in communities in order to achieve meaning and dimension in life beyond their personal identities. In Istanbul, we found big plastic bottles hanging on fences in the neighborhood Galata/Sishane. The bottles where filled with blue plastic bottle lids, which are collected by the inhabitants. The plastic lids are being recycled, the money that is raised by that, goes to the making of wheelchairs.
Cindy Moorman
According to the media, social cohesion is disappearing. Though, at the same time, community gardens and village cooperatives are popping up rapidly. Government and municipalities are organizing more often with the goal of increasing contact within the district. This book is a manifest of the unorganized social glue. The people, places or materials that unconsciously contribute to social cohesion.
MATERIAL Physical aspects that create social encounters in Istanbul.
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Every evening before closing, Hoyat Büfe owner Ceger Aydogan places a pile of chicken kebabs and sausages in an aluminum tray and waits for Nazli and Arap to come eat such a feast. At 8 p.m. they show up and devour the offerings. It’s been this way for the past three years. Nazli, resting on Mesrutiyet Street in front of the British Embassy. Many shop owners put out water and food for stray dogs and cats because they feel compelled to care for them. These cats are among an estimated 150,000 others stray dogs who live all around Istanbul. “They are from street,” Aydogan said. “Everyone around here care for them, but no one wants to take them home.” Most practicing Muslims do not keep dogs as pets because they are generally considered unclean. Also, Muslims, who make up 99 percent of the population in Turkey, believe that angels will not visit a home that contains a dog. And finally, according to Sunni tradition, which accounts for 85 percent of the Muslim world, the prophet Muhammad reportedly did not like dogs, so people of that culture generally stay away from taking them in as pets.
Yet, Islam instructs its followers to take care of all creatures, and so many people feel compelled to offer a bit of food, and fresh water, to the strays that live around the city. “They have to live a natural life, not inside homes,” said Barbaros Ecran, who sometimes looks over a stray female dog, Sonay, that lives in the street where his convenience store is. Yet he too refuses to call her his pet. “They have to be free.” Source: Lorena F. Aspe
Istanbul December 2013 Man feeding cat
Istanbul December 2013 Community streetpets
Istanbul December 2013 Food on every corner for community streetpets
Our research and inspiration started in Istanbul, Turkey. Here we spotted many examples of social glue. Istanbul December 2013 Shared responsibility for public space. When stores are in a neighborhood for a long time, regular customers and store owners get to know each other. This creates a shared sense of responsibility, for example, for the outdoor space. (Joke van der Zwaard 2010) We recognized this in Istanbul. In front of every other house we saw a broom. The shopkeepers and inhabitants of the area take care of their streets together. This not out of own interest but to improve the community by a joint effort.
Social network of craftsmen While meeting some craftsman in Istanbul, we came in contact with Artin, a metal worker. Artin brought us to a lot of craftsmen and knew everybody in the area, he was the connection in this network of craftspeople. He took us for example to an Ebru artist for whom he made a huge tub so she could use her art on bigger pieces of cloth. He also showed us a tool which he made for an instrument maker.
MATERIAL 2 After being in Istanbul we saw the social glue in the Netherlands the things we took for granted now stood out. What are the cats and brooms in different parts in the world? We gathered these examples in pictures and text hoping to inspire.
IMG_3979.JPG
979.JPG
Istanbul December 2013 Community seats
Chakdas in Gondal, India Public transport
Albert Heijn pin-up board
common banal activity
Sharing and moving in public space
Supermarket meetingplace on wheels
Holly Barto Hugs Bellingham health and rehabilitation center, USA Animals als company
Traders own language
Henk Wildschut Delineation of garden in refugee camp
Community sofas
Something to gossip about, like a complaining old lady in your neighberhood.
A village character
The mailman that spreads messages and says hello.
The churchbells that communicate Konrad Smolenski
Roland Kaiser Surprising objects, people or activities
Collecting, to get in contact with other collectors
Setting up a tent
Collecting the trash
Dabbawallas, Mumbai
A dabbawalla is a person in India, most commonly in Mumbai, who is part of a delivery system that collects hot food in lunch boxes from the residences of workers in the late morning, delivers the lunches to the workplace utilizing various modes of transport, predominantly bicycles and the rail trains, and returns the empty boxes back to the customer’s residence that afternoon. They are also made use of by prominent meal suppliers in Mumbai where they ferry ready, cooked meals from central kitchens to the customers and back.
Tables turn into shelters for rain
Small spaces make us react to each other. According to Joke van der Zaan(2010) you need places which are large enough to move but to small to isolate yourself. People bump in to each other, are forced to stand next to each other, follow conversations, ask each other for help and have the opportunity to observe others without this being intimidating. That activity, movement and informality increases the vibrancy of these areas and the probability that people share something with each other. When you try to find shelter you end up in these small places. You talk about the one thing you have in common; the rain.
Hospitalbeds with new neighbors Marina Giulianelli
There are people who love Christmas, and then there are people who go crazy for Christmas. Some people are so overcome by their love for something they decorate. Decorating on a large scale, often happens with each other. When the owner of a flat wanted to hang a guillande from the one flat to the other, he had to ring the door at every level, asking to pass on the guillande to the next level.
Decorating shop window
oranjestraat Goirle Decoration hung by inhabitants
Inhabitants initiatives
A special medicine
A visual story to tell
Papo Alfonso
A garden with dirrect connection to the street
ACTIVITIES Contribute to social cohesion by being actively involved in Istanbul.
In Istanbul we saw empty ten litre water bottles hanging on fences, bridges, trees, just about everywhere all around the city. Inside the bottle are usually blue caps of empty water bottles. The caps are collected by a recycling company. They turn them into plastic pallets that last for decades. For every 250 kilograms of caps, somebody gets a wheelchair for free. People who need a wheelchair but have no money to buy one, can apply at the recycling company, and also people can collect these caps themselves and exchange them for a wheelchair if they manage to collect 250 kilos. The strenght is the simplicity of just hanging bottles in the street. Collecting of these plastic lids are a representation of the care taking society in Istanbul. It can give meaning and make people part of their community.
Istanbul December 2013 Collected lids, recycled into wheelchairs.
Istanbul December 2013 System to pass on food
Istanbul December 2013 When we took the bus to a big market, the Turkish students told us about the paying system in the Domus busses. Standing on the side of the road, you sign the bus to stop. When you get in, it imideiatly starts driving. You find a seat, and pass the money on to the one in front of you. This goes on untill the money arrives at the busdriver. The change will be given back in the same way.
Istanbul December 2013 The roof of the market as an umbrella of shared public space.
ACTIVITIES 2 When we started looking at our own live and what happening around us we saw that social glue is happening all around us. For instants the man standing in front of stores waiting for their wives to finish shopping. Our streets, like in Istanbul, are also used as a social gathering point.
Jessica Hilltout
Marktplaats Selling to meet the potential buyers
Man waiting for their wifes to finish shopping.
Miners, Romania Everybody in same visual appearence
Christmas Shows, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Baby Fitness, Russia Same ownership
Queing to talk to strangers
Bumping into the unknown
Going out for Lunch at 13.00
Food transporters
Having no garden makes you visit green public spaces
Turning public spaces into DIY playground
This documentary showed why cats don’t hunt that often. The hunting has changed in stealing food from other cats, using the catflaps of different houses.
Documentary; The secret life How cats connect houses.
Leonie Hampton This is how you handel big things.
Working in the open
Protest, Egypt Tahirsquare
Virtual Messaging, Same mindset, same action
Fred Forest
MOOD There may occur situations in which we get in the same mood. By recognizing the same mood in others, togetherness arises. With shared moods like curiosity, irritation and hope contact is inevitable.
Istanbul December 2013 Waiting in line for the boat. An assembling of different people on a spot that turns into a chatting area.
MOOD 2 Shared moods you can find around the world. Complaining about the weather is something of all cultures. Getting annoyed by something is a common feeling we can act on it together or talk about with each other.
Domenique Karl Himmelsbach de Vries
Neil Minnow
Deepak Kumer, Laughing out loud
Make your humor work for you: It is very difficult to simultaneously think of something negative while smiling. With a smile, the body sends signals to the brain “Everything is safe and everything is calm� It will be difficult to think of something negative
nuisance as a binding factor
Ognes Geoffray Fear
Sleeping Well Make Us More Socially Adept Ed van der Elsken
Same temper
Disasters can make us socially active and creative
Lambda Diasec
Alex Prager Having the same hopes
RockDiab, Sydney Thrilled by spectacle
Alex Prager Delay as an opportunity to talk
CONCLUSION With this book, we hope to inspire. Our goal is to show how socially well we humans are actually doing. In the media news about individualism is being spread daily. We conclude that when you zoom in, natural social glue is everywhere. We suggest governments, neighborhoods, municipalities to look at these valuable aspects. Whenever you want to create a space, place or event that has the goal to create social cohesion, look at the hundreds of social glue examples that already exist in a natural way, and include them in the plan that you are making. We found out through our research, that normally the artificial way of creating cohesion, is usually not working, because they stand to far away from human nature and its behavior. To give an idea on how to use this book as an inspiration tool, we made a small book with some suggestions to include the natural social glue in our close surroundings. You can find the book in the appendix.
THANKS TO Our teachers: Nicoline Dorsman Isabelle Makay Robert Adolfsson Mike thompson Peter van Casteren Turkish students: Merve Atac Reyda Donmez Architect designer: Alsi Kiyak Sociologist: Alev Erkilet Design Academy Eindhoven ITU Department of Industrial Product Design Salt Istanbul All people who took part in our research.
SOURCES : MAGAZINES: Colors 6-11 Colors 30-34 Colors 47-49 Colors 54-59 Colors 64-65 Colors 66 Colors 69-70 Colors 76-79 Colors 80-85 Colors 88 Kunstforum 222 Kunstforum 223 Kunstforum 224 Mark 47 Works that work 2 Topos 84 Topos 85 Volume 23 Volume 26 Volume 30 BOOKS: Theorie van de straat - Paulien oltheten
Scenes in de copy corner - Joke van der Zwaard The cameleon effect as social glue -Jessica L. Lakin Design-Manufacture Relation on an Urban Scale: -The Case of Şişhane Architect M.Sc. Aslı Kıyak İngin Çelik Design, Lighting, Design Manager Made in Sishane: -Architect M.Sc. Aslı Kıyak İngin Design in informal economies: Craft Neighborhoods -Yagiz C.K Research Pracitce for social studies: -Ann Gray The craftsman: -Richard Sennett MOVIE: The lunchbox -Movie directed by Ritesh Batra Dabbawala De 7 plagen van Moerdijk Reportage uit brandpunt Uitzending 1 December 2013 WEB: City plans -http://reclaimistanbul.files.wordpress. com/2011/04/diwan_istanbul_living_in_exclusion.pdf Public spaces -http://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/ WCCR2013.pdf Community places
-http://www.gezondheidskrant.nl/59954/buurttuin-leidt-tot-sociale-cohesie-en-vertrouwen-inde-wijk/ -http://www.schiedam.nl/Def/nieuws/Bewoners-Nereusflat-zorgen-voor-plantsoen-en-plantenbak.html -http://www.vergetentuin.nl/ -http://bottomup.ruimtevolk.nl/initiatief/goudoud-in-warffum/ -http://bottomup.ruimtevolk.nl/initiatieven/ -http://brandpunt.incontxt.nl/seizoenen/2013/ afleveringen/01-12-2013/fragmenten/de_7_plagen_van_moerdijk Social glue http://www.humiliationstudies.org/documents/ KleinCreatingSocialGlueCommunities.pdf http://northeasternuniversityjournalism2011. wordpress.com/2011/06/15/some-try-to-limit-the-number-of-strays-in-the-city-by-spaying-and-neutering-but-150000-still-roam-thestreets/ Modernisation: -http://www.groene.nl/artikel/gespleten-parel# -http://www.d-q-e.net/projekt-more-than-design_en.html -http://tasarimbienali.iksv.org/tr Š 2014 MicrosoftGebruiksrechtovereenkomstPrivacy en cookiesOntwikkelaarsNederlands Š 2014 MicrosoftGebruiksrechtovereenkomstPrivacy en cookiesOntwikkelaarsNederlands