THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF PLACE

After whatever evolved following the BIGbang is what it is and our planet within the cosmos evolved to be what it is. That is, it is what it is in the way that humanity understands it and as it has been constructed in accord with humanity's top predator imagination. In large part until relatively recently 'planet earth' has been imagined as being bountiful and inexhaustible.

Within the Judaic belief systems it is a foundational idea that "the LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail." such is the bounty of the GODS. Other belief systems and mythologies express the bounty of 'mother earth' in different ways but it it turns out that there is agreement in regard to the mystery of the planet's bountifulness.

Nonetheless, whenever that bounty has been seen as exhausted, or being exhausted, in one 'place' typically another is sought out to fulfil the promise of the planet's bounty. However, it is just the case that increasingly there are fewer and fewer empty or sparsely populated spaces, that is places uninhabited by humans. In Australia for instance, the 'humanity' that was found to 'occupy' the island continent was deemed to be 'not really humans and thus a part of the land's flora and fauna' in order to regard 'this place' as 'terra nuilius'  and thus open for occupation and colonial exploitation. 

By now, anyone unaware of this can be ranked among the 'self-identifying'  'climate change deniers and flat earth adherents' where the evidence that stacks up against their position/belief counts for nothing. 

The reality is that Eurocentric  'colonial expansion' and its attendant Industrial Revolution and its consequences and by extension its various consequences – say for instance indirect representational governance. Quite simply 'placedness' has undergone fundamental conceptual MINDshift by-and-large to do with cultural diversity as time has past. Why? How?

In order to begin to respond to such questions it is worth reiterating the underlying concepts to do with 'placedness'. Here, it is useful to understand that 'cultures' shape places and in turn 'places' – via their placedness – shape the cultural realities within them – their belief systems, their sense of wellbeing etc. 

As a 'place', for its population to expand it is to diminish and challenge its bounty somewhat. Cultures' need to adapt and likewise as the resources in a 'place' come under stress, the imperative to waste less expands – but not always. Unless such a mindset accommodates the changed understanding of being in the world it is ever likely that the bounty to be had in a place will be disproportionately distributed. Additionally, for identifiable cohorts within a cultural landscape all this tends to be a driver for impoverishment and ever increasingly so – and that is not to mention the increasing levels of conflict arising from competition.

It is not rocket science to understand that this impoverishment is totally unsustainable as we might well image was the was so in the case of the 1917 Russian Revolution and its aftermath. A breaking point must come. Therefore, it is worth the time to consider the 'wages' of a mindset dedicated to investment and wealth creation, that is careless about the impoverishment consequence, and the distress that results given the evidence. All this is quite clear to see for whoever dares to look.

FOREWORD

Fundamentally a safe and secure HOMEplaces outranks most of the social issues politicians invest time in. There are four imperatives for every human on the planet. Firstly, we all need sufficient air to breath, water to drink and food to eat. Secondly, given that we are social animals we need to be able to identify, and be identifiable, within our group/family/tribe and relative to others in the group. Thirdly, we need to procreate and that is genetically and ideologically; and fourthly, but not lastly, we need a safe and secure HOMEplace.

If any of these imperatives are not being met or are being compromised in some way, we are impoverished. When we are existing in a circumstance were these imperatives are fulfilled in abundance we are wealthy and secure. The very moment that this ceases to be we are measurably impoverished to the extent it is not the case.

In the Eurocentric Western World 'money' has become the default 'measure' for wealth and wellbeing. There remains an ever decreasing number of 'places' where money is not in the lexicon to communicate  relative wealth and wellbeing in a social context. If in Australia we can look at our history and heritage PREcolonisation then we might be able to imagine an exemplar social paradigm were 'money' was not 'the measure'. Indeed, as the evidence builds, the world is becoming increasingly aware that First Nation peoples were/are not impoverished. 

When 'housing' is envisaged as an 'investment' and consequently as a 'wealth marker' it is at once understandable and problematic. That is that the 'thinking' tends to ignore the concept  that a safe and secure HOMEplace  is a fundamental HUMANright as a consequence of what we might imagine as being the FORTHimperative.

When this manifests itself in PLACEmaking and CULTURALlandscaping the 'planning' that goes on around this in 'Planning Authorities' becomes somewhat warped and ONEdimensional. It is not too difficult to imagine that the trickle down is ultimately a mindset that leads to impoverishment all too often.

The HOUSINGdesign sensibilities at work in this, is all too often is driven by the 'INVESTMENTparadigm san be found at work in McBURBIA. Moreover it is a mindset that is by-and-large careless of climate change, environmental degradation, sustainability, etc. Likewise, the BUILTinfrastructure gets to be 'designed' drafspeople and engineers who do not have and are not required to have an an education or the skill sets relative to cultural sensitivities and sensibilities – based o geography, cultural production, anthropology etc.