Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

This workshop explores the cultural and social attitudes that have formed and affected the human-nature relationship in an urban context. This workshop starts by generally investigating the existing variety of practical approaches and the variety of “influences” that have formed and affected the human-nature interaction in the global context. The workshop would then focus on the influence of routines, rituals, and the disappearing history that have been weakened or faded but which have the potential to be revived or strengthened in order to redefine the relationship between human beings and nature. To this end the author starts the workshop with the question, “What is your preferred practical approach towards nature?” The author would provide a list of the participants’ responses. The author would then broaden the list by adding/introducing other possible practical approaches. This is done by using/introducing a wide range of existing references in different fields, in particular landscape urbanism, cultural studies, and urban design and planning. The author has investigated these references with details through literature review. This would result in familiarizing the participants with new concepts/ways of dealing with nature and hence invite them to think more widely about the relationship between human beings and nature through potential multidisciplinary areas. The author would then ask about “the reasons of participants” for selecting their mentioned practical approaches. The author would categorize the reasons and it would lead to a debate about the factors/influences that have formed the variety of definitions and subsequently practical approaches for the human-nature relationship. Following the debate about various influences, at this stage of the workshop the author asks participants’ views about this sentence: “How a single influence affects the human-nature relationship strongly depends on the context, the particular characteristics of the people and the natural structure.” This sentence will be discussed by the participants through a conversation in groups of 3-4 people for 5-10 minutes. By the use of the answers/opinions of groups about this sentence the following diagram-puzzle would be trained/created by groups that would be a key outcome of the part 1 of the workshop. In part 2 of the workshop the context and the influence become more precise. For the start of part 2 of this workshop the author exemplifies some of the findings of her Ph.D. thesis about a particular context and a particular influence. In other words part 2 would be started by exemplifying the role of social and cultural attitudes of Iranian-Tehranians in relationship between Tehranians and Tehran’s seven rive-valleys. Communal morning exercises in parks, groups of retired men and non-employed women in parks, use of parks at night on weekends, holidays and in summer, squares and streets, rivers and bridges, Qanat, programmes in parks, and Persian New Year and related water-based events are the main examples of these cultural and social attitudes in Iranian-Tehranian context that are related to the human-nature interaction. The workshop would then raise a dialogue and invite the participants (with variety of backgrounds) to provide their own examples of routines, rituals, and the disappearing history that are related to the human-nature relationship. In collaboration with the workshop participants various types of cultural and social attitudes would be identified. As a key outcome of this part a categorization of routines, rituals and the disappearing history with integrated components introduced by author and participants would be created that can strengthen and develop the human-nature interaction in urban areas in global context. Furthermore as a supplementary and subordinate outcome part 2 explores (through an extended dialogue between the presenter and participants) the possible methods such as direct observation, interviews and literature review for investigating further social and cultural attitudes related to human-nature interaction.