Who was Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs was a prominent urbanist, writer, and social/environmental activist who made significant contributions to urban development and urban design. She promoted the creation of healthy communities. Her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), proposed that cities are complex and vibrant ecosystems that thrive on diversity that includes a mix of land uses, and a variety of building structures, within a dense network of streets and public spaces. She focused on the importance of sidewalks, and mixed buildings to create neighborhoods designed to foster and reinforce social interactions, community cooperation, and cohesion, ensuring stability and economic vitality. She believed that active and diverse street life contributes to safety in the community.
Jacobs focused on shaping an environment that facilitated improving the lives of those in the community. Her objectives for urban development focused on improving communication and exchange of ideas among the residents, contributing to the security, stability, and well-being of the people in the community. She was a proponent of evolutionary design, creating an environment for self-sustaining and mixed-use urban spaces that can evolve and shape a mosaic of cultural windows - groups of people interacting and motivated to sustain the culture of the living environment.
Jacobs lived a life of grassroots activism and promoted community participation in shaping the development of the city where one lives. She also advocated for environmental causes, preservation of historical buildings, and the welfare of local economies. She wrote a few books that included The Economy of Cities (1969), Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1984) and Dark Age Ahead (2004). She was a great observer of what was going on around her and the environment in which we behaved.
Preserving the Memory of the Past
In her book, Dark Age Ahead, Jacobs informs us that people living in vigorous cultures typically treasure their cultures and resist any threat to them. Nevertheless, humanity lives in a “graveyard of lost aboriginal cultures, many of which were decisively finished off by mass amnesia in which even the memory of which was lost was also lost.” Early in her book (21 years ago), she warned us, “we show signs of rushing headlong into a Dark Age.” She considers the Dark Age as a dead end because “the mass amnesia of survivors becomes permanent and profound. The previous way of life slides into an abyss of forgetfulness, almost as decisively as if it had not existed.” That contributes to failing to learn from past experiences and not correcting the course of the ongoing cultural evolution. We end up not having a way of comparing what we have with what was. She informs us, “Many subtractions combine to erase a previous way of life, and everything changes as a richer past converts to a meager present and an alien future.” She emphasizes, “When the abyss of past memory by the people becomes too deep and too old, attempts to plumb it are futile.” She adds, “All of those changes go unnoticed.” We believe we are near that point now! We live in a culture now where the present is all there is, forgetfulness of the past is prevalent, and the consequences of what the future brings are delayed by our actions in the present. We are in a dead zone.
Jacobs concludes that decline “in vigorous cultures is caused not by assault from outside but by assault from within, that is, by internal rot in the form of fatal cultural turnings, not recognized as wrong turnings, while they occur or soon enough afterward to be correctable. The time during which corrections can be made runs out because of mass forgetfulness.”
To quote Jacobs, “Diamond’s (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies - 1999) analysis of winners and losers, elegantly precise and predictable whenever the forces at work were geography, climate, plants, animals, microorganisms, and demography, turned mushy and unreliable as soon as human decisions entered the equation. Yet, as he himself was the first to admit, a science of human history that omits the behavior of human beings is an absurdity.” Behavior and culture interact and they drive each other. That is why achieving the goal that most people engage in prosocial behavior that benefits the culture is essential to stabilizing and reigniting our culture toward the common good. Jacobs stresses the importance of individual behavior and the cumulative effect behavior can have on one's destiny and the destiny of all around us. Our behavior impacts others. Preserving the best and learning from the past is a must if our culture is to survive.
Five Pillars of Our Culture
Jacobs warned us that a culture “is unsalvageable if stabilizing forces themselves become ruined and irrelevant. This is what I fear for our own culture.” She urged us to engage in corrective actions. She observed that the collapse of one sustaining cultural institution weakens others, increasing the probability that others will follow in collapse. She worried that with each collapse, further ruin for another institution becomes more likely and finally the whole culture becomes dysfunctional and eventually turns into chaos and collapse - it becomes ungovernable.
Jacobs describes five pillars crucial to a culture's vitality. These include:
Community and family.
Education.
The practice of science
Government - power directly in touch with needs and possibilities.
Professional and corporate accountability - the practice of self-policing.
Jacobs noted, “It may seem surprising that I do not single out such failings as racism, profligate environmental destruction, crime, voter’s distrust of politicians and thus low turnout for elections, and the enlarging gulf between rich and poor along with attrition of the middle class.” From her analysis, she concluded that these societal ills should be considered as symptoms of breakdown in the five pillars of the culture. It is important to keep in mind the context of when she wrote her book. This was in 2004, that is 20 years before the advent of all the new technology we have (e.g., the iPhone was introduced in June 2007). Most of the problems she lists have significantly increased in frequency since her observations were made. Go figure!
Community and Family
Community and family provide a framework for social interaction, support, and nurturing relationships. When these bonds decline, there is a reduction in the sense of togetherness and interdependence within our culture. This frequently contributes to increased isolation, individualism, and a diminished sense of belonging. There is a loss of social capital.
Good parenting is essential to create order and facilitate the acquisition of healthy values that convert into prosocial action. Parenting skills have become increasingly deficient. Parents teach foundational knowledge of life and social skills as well as the practice of rule-following. The decline of the family contributes to the lack of guidance, mentoring as well as serving as role models. This impacts the social and rule-following behavior of future generations. We can see signs of this now in many of our youth.
Addressing the decline of family and community requires a collective effort from all of us. Investing in public policies and social initiatives that strengthen families and communities is needed to protect our cultural fabric and promote social cohesion.
Education
The decline in public education has substantial impacts on both the present and the future culture.
Decreasing educational standards can deepen existing inequalities.
A decline in public education can result in a workforce without the necessary skills, knowledge, and critical thinking abilities to thrive in a rapidly changing global economy impacting competitiveness in an increasingly complex economy.
A decline in public education can result in a less informed and engaged citizenry, impacting civic discourse, political involvement, and social progress. It can weaken our democracy and the fabric of society.
Education teaches tolerance and celebrates diversity, and students learn by being exposed to different perspectives and ideas. A decline in the education of our citizens may contribute to cultural homogenization and the erosion of the richness of society’s cultural fabric.
A decline in public education can hinder research, intellectual progress, and scientific advancements thereby impacting society’s ability to resolve pressing challenges through innovation as well as making informed decisions about complex issues.
Jacobs also points out that universities are becoming increasingly more interested in facilitating credentials than providing high-quality education.
On the need for education, Jacobs notes, “A vigorous culture capable of making corrective, stabilizing changes depends heavily on its educated people, and especially upon their critical capacities and depth of understanding.”
The Effective Practice of Science and Science-based Technologies
Jacobs valued science and informed us that the wealth, well-being, and creative power of our culture depend heavily on science and technology. Science is cumulative and builds further upon truths already in the bag. Science relies on trust and ethics. It examines and evaluates the evidence. We, as citizens, rely on the truthfulness of the scientist. But recently, Nature reported, “More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 - a new record.” That should frighten us! What does it mean? Can we trust science?
Jacobs informed us in 2004, “If the rot of bad science continues to spread, to be tolerated, and even to be rewarded by corporations and centrally administered government grants, the heyday of scientific and technological achievement is inevitably drawing to its end.” It seems that we are getting close to her prediction made 20 years ago.
What are some of the consequences?
Stagnation of knowledge.
Economic impact.
Our health and well-being.
Further environmental decline.
Reduced technological advances.
Loss of talent and brain.
Loss of trust in relying on scientific knowledge.
The fact is that there have been significant advancements in scientific methodologies, technology, and research practices that enhance rigor. Most scientific organizations emphasize the importance of rigorous research practices. The introduction of open science initiatives has promoted transparency, reproducibility, and robustness in research. However, the scientific community has concerns about declining scientific rigor. The inability to replicate certain scientific findings has made the news. There are concerns that the increased pressure to publish in prestigious journals and secure funding may create an environment where practices that compromise rigor may be reinforced. The problem is not with science itself, it has served us well over eons and it needs to continue to do so. The problem is with the behavior of some scientists and the environment/culture of research that we have created, with incentives that may reinforce some to engage in fake science. To address the “problem of science”, we need to look at the culture where science is practiced.
Governments
What can we say about the governments? Just look around. Jacobs' main argument was that most members of government are more interested in deep-pocket interest groups than the welfare of their constituents. She proposed “responsible taxation” as opposed to what she considers “dumbed-down taxation.” She noted, “Dumbed-down use of taxes - and the dumbed-down use of powers the taxes make possible - imposes deterioration, and it is surprising how rapidly this can happen once it gets underway.”
Some of the ways she noted that governments are failing us include much waste in government programs with little or no accountability, the behavior of elected officials that contribute to political polarization, and maintaining and developing our physical infrastructure. She also noted the challenges in ensuring affordable healthcare and maintaining access and equality in education. Concerns were raised about income inequality as the wealth gap continues to increase. Bureaucratic inefficiencies are abundant.
The most significant challenge we face with governments is the lack of public trust and accountability which are essential for a functional democracy.
The problem is not the government. A country needs to be governed. The problem is the behavior of those we elect to govern us. This may be related to the gradual decline in civics education. As a group, we are not doing a good job of picking those who govern us.
Actions to increase transparency, accountability, professionalism, and ethical standards within government can eventually improve the function of our government of the people, by the people for the people, “shall not perish from the earth” (The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln November 1863.).
Professional and Corporate Accountability
Here is one of the most eloquent quotes from her book - “Advanced cultures are usually sophisticated enough, or have been sophisticated enough at some point in their past, to realize that foxes shouldn’t be relied on to guard hen houses.” Who is going to hold professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. accountable for their work product?
These are some of the factors that have contributed to the decline in self-policing by institutions including professional practice. In recent years there has been a rise in polarization where individuals and groups within and between institutions and professional organizations prioritize their own interests over the well-being of the commons. The decline in self-policing is attributed to institutions and professional organizations may be more hesitant to hold themselves accountable for fear of backlash, liability, or reprisal from powerful groups.
Scandals, corruption, and abuse of power by members of various professions that are now made public, have contributed to the growing skepticism toward those who hold professional ranks or positions of power. When trust is low, self-policing is less effective because people are less likely to believe that professionals will hold themselves accountable. Transparency is essential to maintain accountability. Those who engage in acts of corruption tend to be less transparent and accountable.
Special interest is cancer which is eroding our trust in many professions and institutions. Professionalism requires certain barriers and limits that may decrease significantly within the context of special interest.
Addressing these challenges requires collective efforts to rebuild trust, strengthen checks and balances, enhance transparency, and reduce the influence of special interest.
Jane Jacobs’s Predictions Are Coming True Today
Dark Age Ahead is a book that focuses on the erosion of the key pillars of stable, democratic societies. Jacobs identified the decline of the family, the rise of consumerism and hyper-materialism, the transformation of powerful special interest groups as well as the increasing problems we see now in our education system. She voiced concerns that these societal trends she saw could undermine our society and culture. She was observing the increasing homogeneity in neighborhoods created by gentrification, the replacement of unique personally owned shops with corporate franchises, and the transformation of local styles and fashions with luxury goods. She argued that standardization is the greatest impediment to progress. She seems to have been greatly concerned that many aspects of capitalism (consumption and waste), bureaucracy, and large corporations are draining humanity out of modern culture. Many of the events she predicted are ongoing and increasing in frequency.
She was a firm proponent of creating cities that harness human diversity that power our economy, culture, and politics forward in a more progressive, human-centric direction. She noted in the New York Times Magazine (The Greening of the City, May 16, 2004) that “perhaps it will be the city that reawakens our understanding and appreciation of nature, in all its teeming, unpredictable complexity.”
The Atlantic (November 2016) published an article by Nathaniel Rich - The Prophecies of Jane Jacobs. The article noted, “her real prescience lay in her fears about the fragility of democracy.” She was concerned about allowing political campaigns “to construct new realities.” Look around, she was a prophet indeed.
Food for Thought
Let’s face it, we have created a social environment (culture) that is not healthy. Behavior is the driving force. We are at a crossroads - Navigating a Changing Landscape. Reversing this evolving pattern of behaviors that are taking us toward the Dark Age will take time. But the time is running late. Our future postings will focus on how we can engineer and reframe our culture. Behavior Matters.
Thanks and see you in 2024. Happy Holidays and New Year!