Environmental psychology
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Environmental psychology
Environmental psychology[1] focuses on the interplay between society/social individua and their (structural) surroundings. The term "environment" encompasses natural environment as well as built environment, but also social settings and learning and informational environments. Environmental psychology is both value and problem oriented and addresses the complexity of environmental problems on the basis of human-environment interactions and the perception of environment.
- Urban design and environment impacts social behaviour in a positive or negative way.
But:
- Security or resilience cannot just be designed by way of planning.
- Environmental/security/risk cognition cannot be designed.
- The meaning intentionally embodied in built environment is not always decoded by citizens as intended.
- The identification of “weak points” in urban environments from a security culture point of view takes place in cultural contexts[2]. It is socially negotiated and/or constructed.
Approaches how to address it
- Urban design should avoid stressful and potentially threatening feelings of being lost in large buildings[3].
- Urban design should “incorporate public meanings” and citizens’ images of places, including those of “secure” or “safe” places[4].
- Desire for security should not inform urban planning to contribute to threatening citizens’ rights of expression and dissent[5].
- Consider local/regional security culture.
- Consider local/regional perception of (in)security/risks.
- Involve citizens in the planning process (see citizen participation).
An example would be securitization as an emerging process:
As a result, also
Debates in urban design though have often disregarded this aspect, rather centring on “[...] which good design determines good behavior [...]” (Whitzman 2011:650)[6]. Another relevant aspect is the perception of criticality of built infrastructure.
Footnotes and references
- ↑ E.g. J. L. Nasar: Environmental psychology and urban design. In: T. Banerjee/A. Loukaitou-Sideris (eds.): Companion to Urban Design. London/New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 162-174.
- ↑ J. Falkheimer/H. Mats: Multicultural Crisis Communication: Towards a Social Constructionist Perspective. In: Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management 14, no. 4., 2006.
- ↑ K. Lynch: The Image of the City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960.
- ↑ J. L. Nasar: Environmental psychology and urban design. In: T. Banerjee/A. Loukaitou-Sideris (eds.): Companion to Urban Design. London/New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 162-174, p. 166.
- ↑ Cf. C. Whitzman: Secure cities. In: T. Banerjee/A. Loukaitou-Sideris (eds.): Companion to Urban Design. London/New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 670-671.
- ↑ C. Whitzman: Secure cities. In: T. Banerjee/A. Loukaitou-Sideris (eds.): Companion to Urban Design. London/New York: Routledge, 2011, pp. 663-673, p. 670.
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