News programs, popular movies and books scare us with dystopian visions of the future and impending disasters. Or maybe the only chance for a better future is a little optimism? Joanna Erbel, author of the book "Leaning into the Future. How to change the world for the better."
Blazej Ciarkowski: In your book there are references to cultural images of the future, which to the creators usually appears as a degraded place, inhabited by degenerate humanity. Some scientists speak in a similarly pessimistic tone. You, however, try to free yourself from the negative message. Where does this optimism come from? Do we really not need to be afraid of the future?
Joanna Erbel:Optimism is a conscious cognitive choice. The fact that my book has been dedicated to the swallows of positive change is not because I do not see the negative phenomena and the resulting threats. However, I believe that negative and positive variants of the future coexist, and the only way to make our future better, not worse, is to work based on harnessing the potentials of this constructive change. We need to see positive examples of actions around us, thanks to them we have a chance for a future that will not be the realization of catastrophic visions.
Moreover, research shows that excessive focus on catastrophic visions leads to a feeling of total powerlessness, apathy. We are then "frozen" in action and have a belief that nothing better will happen. An example of such a state is climate depression, very common among the younger generation. The only way to make the vision of a better future a reality is to start taking action, testing and implementing new solutions, and then watching the results. What is needed is an approach that, following Kevin Kelly, I call protopia: doing everything to make tomorrow better than today and better than yesterday.
Blazej:The term protopia will certainly enter the vocabulary of many people permanently. To me, this outlook is associated with utopian visions of the future, which were plotted at the turn of the 20th century. In your book, innovative solutions are very often a return to ideas that were created decades earlier....
Joanna: I believe that development is not linear, but rather follows a spiral movement. New trends and ideas emerge, which die down, only to be reborn after some time. As an example, we can use the concept of cooperatives, which returns in different variants approximately every fifty years. Thus, we can benefit from the legacy of the past, as we focus on different ways of thinking that respond to specific phenomena at a given time, rather than on specific realizations. Polish cooperativism at its best in the interwar period was a set of solutions for times of crisis, whose common denominator was the belief that together we are stronger. And that the point of reference is localism and we must make the most of existing resources.
Our goal should be to build small neighborhood communities, creating good public space with lots of greenery. Creating what are sometimes called fifteen-minute cities. They provide residents with a good quality of life, more free time that is not wasted in transportation. At the same time they realize ecological demands, because by reducing transportation, we use less fuel. Today, this idea is also gaining a political dimension, because the more we become independent of oil, the more resilient we are to international tensions arising from Russia's attack on Ukraine. What's more, it's also apparent that it's the neighborhood communities that give the most housing, material and psychological support to those fleeing war.
Thinking of change as a spiral movement also means that while certain utopian themes recur over the decades, there are also elements that are completely new. Eventually, the context changes. For example, visions of the future created a century ago created an image of a futuristic high-tech world in which nature was not among the main topics of interest. Nature was treated as an inexhaustible resource, so it didn't need to be cared for as much as it is today. Today, technology should support us in our quest for greater synergy with nature. Such a social movement, I mention in the book, is solarpunk creating a vision of the future, which on the one hand is based on highly developed technologies, and on the other - on biodiversity, localism, use of renewable energy sources. It is a combination of smart city and DIY city and implies the use of technological knowledge and a simultaneous return to simple solutions.
Blazej:You propose prototyping reality, changing reality through a policy of small steps. Is that enough? What about planning for the long-term, multi-year perspective? Are we able to influence global processes by acting on the small scale of our immediate environment?
Joanna: One does not exclude the other. For me, running forward and focusing only on creating broad visions of development until 2050 is first and foremost running away from responsibility and acting "here and now." Among other things, our responsibility should be to move forward in small steps, instead of waiting idly for the perfect project, the perfect solution.
Let's look at Krakow. There are nine hectares of very attractive land in the Wesola area. A protopic solution would be to make this area available now, in the spring, to a group of maximally diverse entities. Among them would be social organizations and local neighborhood communities, representatives of the catering or event business. They would have to be allowed to test some variant solutions for the area. Such tests are extremely important, because, after all, sometimes we ourselves don't know what we want. Not everyone, seeing an empty site, knows how to model a vision of a better future on it. Sometimes we need to see this vision, touch it, test it... Prototyping is an extremely important and yet underestimated planning tool in Poland. In the world, it is definitely more popular, the best example of which is the transportation revolution that was carried out in New York by Janette Sadik-Khan with a can of paint. As the person in charge of transportation, she painted new temporary lanes and calmed traffic in the city center before implementing a major street reconstruction. However, this was not a spontaneous action, but part of a new sustainable mobility strategy. Prototyping is effective when the actions fit into an overall vision for the city's development and are carried out consistently.
Blazej:For change, one must first convince the authorities and the public....
Joanna: Every change is accompanied by an extensive educational process. And this is not always done by city authorities or the state. We are as a society still educated by the commercial market. The biggest supplier of healthy food, including vegan food, at the moment are the big hypermarkets, which saw a niche in the market and, not wanting to lose their eco-friendly customers, started introducing "bio" and "vege" products in their chains. We go vegan because we have healthier products on hand.
Making the right choices should be easy. We can't demand heroism from people. Instead, we can help them make good decisions. Such activities can be carried out as part of urban policy. We don't know, for example, whether male and female residents really want to choose the car as a means of transportation until we create an alternative in the form of a safe route to get from point A to point B by bicycle, or an accessible and convenient public transportation network. We don't know whether people prefer a hypermarket or a local market until there are these local stores in the area where they live. Supporting local services, on the other hand, is an action on the part of the city. To undertake it, political will is needed.
Blazej:Are small centers in Poland ready to introduce their own narratives? You mention Slupsk, Chrzanow in the book....
Joanna: The small scale of a city can be its great advantage. Small centers are almost by definition fifteen-minute cities. Those of them with a good leader or leader are able to take advantage of favorable circumstances. These include lower housing prices than in metropolitan areas, proximity to greenery, a sense of familiarity or rootedness that is harder to obtain in large cities.
Blazej:Don't you get the impression that the authorities of large cities pay too little attention to the quality of life of their residents? Cracow focuses its activities on tourists, "forgetting" about those who live near Wawel Castle on a daily basis. Łódź focuses on big media investments, such as the so-called Lodz Metro, while failing to take care of good public transportation.
Joanna: At the end of the day, the success of a city is determined by the financial decisions of its male and female residents anyway. People are returning to their hometowns because living there is cheaper and they can be close to their parents. Much has been changed here by the coronavirus pandemic, which showed that we don't have to live in a metropolis to have a good job. We can work remotely or show up at the office one or two times a week. In view of this, our base home can be in a nicer place than a big city. Quality of life is more and more important to us and is increasingly influencing our choices. We live in times of crisis, so the need to live where our loved ones are, including our aging parents or our local support network - neighbors and neighbors we know - cannot be overstated.
Lodz could arguably invest in locality. There are strong social movements in the city, and there are several successes, such as the first woonerf or a large-scale revitalization program implemented (no matter how many shortcomings it has). An advantage is its central location on the map of Poland, which means that Lodz could be an alternative to Warsaw or Poznan. However, in order to make it attractive to residents, it is necessary to ensure the comfort of everyday life. What is needed is well-organized public transportation, good public space, green areas, affordable housing or good air quality. These do not necessarily have to be huge investments. An interesting example of opening up to small changes that improve the quality of life is Rzeszow, whose part of the smart city vision is the creation of pocket parks.
Blazej:But aren't these positive examples exceptions, and are most Polish smaller cities experiencing a regression due to their inability to keep residents migrating to larger centers?
Joanna: People migrate when there are no jobs and when there is no housing. The pandemic has strained much of the service market, including food service. I describe in the book a solution used in Toronto called Digital Main Street. The local government, in consultation with IT giants, built digital versions of shopping streets and computerized local stores. Residents and residents who shopped online were able to do so in a store located two streets from their home, rather than in a global virtual space. This was one of the tools that gave the choice of whether to shop locally or use global networks. Today, such tools are also being created by non-corporate entities, such as PLZ Cooperative, of which I am a member.
There are many tools that can help revitalize the city. But first you need to open your head and take the subject seriously. Ask what can be done to keep people coming to the city, to keep young people from leaving for other centers. One answer to these questions is to invest in public services, in kindergartens, nurseries, schools. It is important to provide housing. A model example in this regard for me is Chrzanow, a model of comprehensive thinking about the future. Mayor Robert Maciaszek, in parallel to creating a friendly environment for new investments (launching a special economic zone for companies representing clean industry), has launched a program to build city apartments for rent and measures to encourage private investors to build within the city. The new housing development is being built right next to the train station, so its residents will be able to easily commute by train to work in Katowice or Krakow. And in Chrzanów they will spend their free time and... pay taxes.
The city authorities had no experience and no knowledge of how such a settlement of the future should be implemented. So the mayor turned to the European Investment Bank, which granted funds for the creation of a comprehensive multi-discipline analysis on the implementation of the settlement and - the transformation of part of the city.
