Jane Jacobs: The Power of Creative Systemic Thinking
Jane Jacobs was the urbanist who taught us how to see and understand cities. She had a knack for observing streets and blocks and seeing what intertwines in between: the connections between people and the identities of communities. As an intellectual, she produced works that repeatedly emphasized the importance of diversity, complexity, and the commitment of citizens to the space they inhabit.
The creative importance of starting the process with a vision that differs from the status quo.
As an activist, she knew how to structure individual wills to create a community large enough to truly inhabit a city. She brought the city down to a human scale and elevated the citizens to have the power to decide about the place where they lived.
In the ByBa, we call "Alienating" the creative dynamic of, for example, importing foreign characteristics into what we are working on: Jacobs exchanged scales between the citizen and the city.
She began her journalism career in New York and never had formal training in urban planning or architecture. This did not stop her from being voted the most influential person in the history of urban planning in a 2009 Planetizen magazine survey among urbanists, city planners, and urban development professionals.
The power of the outsider: seeing things from outside the reigning code in a particular field.
Four Essential Contributions
1. Seeing the Benefit of Urban Complexity
Jacobs advocated for the complexity of cities, expressed in the mix of all their uses: residential, commercial, industrial, educational, etc. The integration of all these functions makes the city a rich and dynamic environment, both economically and socially.
Here's where we see Jane Jacobs' unique perspective: the trend in her time and even today is the opposite, known as zoning, which aims to separate different urban functions: where you live, you don't shop; where you study, you don't work; where you produce, you don't live.
2. Considering that the Community Comes First
Jacobs believed that the city was not an end in itself but a tool for the well-being and development of a community of people. She always analyzed every urban characteristic in terms of its social impact. This society-centered vision led her to see the city as the ideal setting for a vibrant life, a flourishing culture, and a resilient community ready to deal with conflict and diversity.
By thinking in terms of community, Jacobs thought systemically, not in separate elements. This gave depth and complexity to her thought. For example, she first understood and then advocated for the role of small businesses, seeing them integrated into community life: how they serve, beyond strictly commercial and service aspects, as daily contact points among diverse people.
3. The Concept of "Eyes on the Street"
This concept arises from Jacobs' systemic vision. It suggests that the safety of citizens is naturally built within a diverse community, rather than relying solely on police presence. When there's life on the street (and not just the flow of cars), with residents going in and out of local shops, bars, parks, and integrated public spaces where people live, the sheer number of eyes watching "what's happening" makes the entire community a surveillance agent, preventing many crimes.
Not requiring police presence in all conflict situations, but rather social engagement, is, in design terms, much smarter: not only is this dynamic more effective (there are always more citizens than police officers), but it's also more stable and organic: it links commitment with benefit, doesn't require a "special implant" (like a law enforcement officer), and ends up creating a much smarter community in managing differences.
4. The Idea of Walkability
By thinking about integrated cities, where citizens don't need to cross the city from end to end to get to work, shop, or attend university in areas where they don't live, they can move on foot or use public transportation and what are now known as micromobility options. This not only has an obvious positive environmental impact but also produces many social contact points (no longer is each person or small family group isolated from the community in their car but instead "inhabiting the streets"), doesn't distort urban design by prioritizing highways for cars over streets for people, and ultimately generates a dense and vibrant urban life.
Here we see how Jacobs' creative systemic thinking integrates elements that generate diverse and virtuous consequences.
This is one of the main benefits of this type of creative thinking: rather than just generating ideas, it creates ideas that generate ideas—true idea machines.
In summary, we owe Jane Jacobs a sort of complete renewal in the field of urbanism on one hand, and in the very conception of the modern, dense, vibrant city at a human functional scale on the other. Her creative thinking has always been systemic, never focused on isolated elements, unlike what we often see in traditional urban planners who present the benefit of their designs limited to the specific element of that design and nothing more. Jacobs encompasses a myriad of good creative practices, such as starting from novel and original visions, scale changes focusing on the person and the group, special attention to behavioral aspects, and integrating diversity and complexity into the creative process.
References:
If you want to deepen your knowledge about Jane Jacobs, we recommend these works:
a. "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" (Jane Jacobs, 1961)
This work introduces innovative concepts such as "eyes on the street" and critiques strict zoning, promoting instead the mix of uses and walkability.
b. "The Economy of Cities" (Jane Jacobs, 1969)
In this book, Jacobs presents the idea that cities are not just the product of economic growth but also the source of that growth, subverting the traditional economic theories of her time.
c. "Cities and the Wealth of Nations" (Jane Jacobs, 1984)
Here, she introduces the idea that national economies often stifle the innovation and growth that are naturally fostered by urban dynamics.
d. "Dark Age Ahead" (Jane Jacobs, 2004)
Jacobs analyzes the cultural and social trends that can lead to the decline of cities, highlighting the importance of education, family, and community integrity.
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In What Kind of Creativity Is Yours?, one of the biases you can explore—by yourself or with others—is the bias of alienation. There, you’ll also find endless games dedicated to this important bias, helping you develop it to the fullest and make it a key part of your creative toolkit!