Sociology (9690) | The built human environment

Welcome to Section 3.2.2: The Built Human Environment!

Hello Sociologists! This chapter is fascinating because we move away from just looking at people, and instead, we examine the structures and spaces that people build—and how those spaces shape who we are, how we interact, and how much power we have.

Think of it this way: the type of house you live in, the city you commute through, or the village you grew up in are not accidents. They are products of social, political, and economic decisions, and they reveal a huge amount about inequality and development globally.

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3.2.2.1 The Built Human Environment: From Field to City

1. The Non-Built Environment: Nomadic Lifestyles

Before diving into concrete jungles, we start with societies that deliberately choose not to build permanent structures. These are societies based on Nomadic Lifestyles.

What is a Nomadic Lifestyle?
This refers to a way of life where a community or group moves regularly rather than settling in one fixed location. They often move to follow food sources, water, or grazing lands for livestock (pastoral nomads).

• Key Feature: Mobility is central. Their structures (like tents or yurts) are designed to be easily disassembled and moved.
• Sociological Relevance: Sociologists study these groups to understand human adaptation and how their social structures (kinship, leadership) differ from settled, hierarchical societies.

Quick Tip: Nomadic = No fixed home!

2. The Rural Environment: Peasants, Labourers, and Emptiness

When societies settle, they often start in Rural Areas (the countryside or villages). Sociologically, rural life is often defined by close community ties, reliance on agriculture, and specific forms of inequality related to land ownership.

Key Social Groups in Rural Areas:

• Peasants: These are typically small-scale farmers who own or rent a small plot of land and use their own labour to produce food, mainly for subsistence (to feed themselves) rather than large-scale commerce.
• Landless Labourers: These individuals do not own land and must work for others (often wealthy landowners) in exchange for wages or a share of the crop. They are extremely vulnerable to economic hardship and exploitation, representing a key inequality in rural societies.

Rural Depopulation

Rural Depopulation describes the decline in population in rural areas, usually because people (especially the young) are moving to cities.

Why does this happen?
This is often driven by "push" and "pull" factors:

1. Push Factors (Why leave?): Lack of economic opportunities, poor health services, mechanisation of agriculture (fewer jobs needed on farms).
2. Pull Factors (Why go to the city?): Better education, higher-paying jobs (often industrial or service sector), and better infrastructure.

Key Takeaway for Rural Life: Rural areas are not uniform or idyllic; they are marked by deep-seated inequalities, particularly between those who own land and those who must work it for survival.

3. The Urban Environment: A World of Megacities and Malls

The great sociological shift of the last few centuries is Urbanisation—the process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in urban areas (cities and towns). This dramatically changes social life and the built environment.

Characteristics of Social Life in Cities:

Cities are complex and unequal. The built environment directly reflects this inequality, separating people into distinct zones:

1. 'Slums' and Informal Housing:

• These are severely overcrowded, densely populated, and unplanned settlements, often lacking basic infrastructure (sanitation, electricity, formal legal status).
• They are sometimes called 'informal housing' because the residents do not legally own the land or the structures they build (e.g., *favelas* in Brazil, *katchi abadis* in Pakistan).

2. Suburbia:

• Residential areas located on the outskirts of cities.
• Often associated with middle-class flight from the urban core, offering larger homes, gardens, and perceived safety, but requiring greater reliance on cars and commuting.

3. Segregation:

• The separation of different social groups (based on class, ethnicity, or religion) into distinct neighbourhoods.
• Example: A city might have wealthy enclaves next to working-class areas, or distinct ethnic neighbourhoods (like a 'Little Italy' or a 'Chinatown'). The built environment (housing quality, parks) reinforces these divisions.

4. Gated Communities:

• Residential areas surrounded by walls, fences, or security checkpoints, designed to offer exclusivity and perceived safety for wealthier residents.
• Sociologically, they represent a form of social closure—excluding outsiders and increasing spatial segregation.

5. Megacities:

• Extremely large cities, typically defined as having a population exceeding 10 million people (e.g., *Tokyo, Delhi, São Paulo*).
• Managing infrastructure, pollution, and social inequality in these massive urban areas presents unique sociological challenges.

6. Shopping Malls:

• Designed as large, enclosed environments for consumerism.
• They are sociologically interesting because they are private spaces that act like public ones, often regulating behaviour more strictly than a traditional public street (e.g., prohibiting certain political protests).

7. Non-Places (Augé):

• The sociologist Marc Augé coined this term to describe spaces of transit and temporary habitation where human relationships are superficial and identity is irrelevant.
• Examples: Airports, motorways, hotel rooms, or large chain supermarkets. In a non-place, you are just a traveler or a consumer, not a community member.

Did You Know?
Sociologists like Augé argue that as urban life becomes more globalised and focused on movement, we spend more time in isolating 'non-places' than in community-building 'places'.

4. Power and Inequalities in Built Environments

A core sociological theme is how the built environment reflects and reinforces existing power structures.

• In Rural Areas: Power is often determined by land ownership. Landowners dictate economic activity, while landless labourers have little power, leading to poverty.
• In Urban Areas: Power is reflected in spatial access. Wealthy groups can afford to live in gated communities (using their power to buy security and distance), while poor groups are pushed into slums or areas with high pollution and crime. The location of schools, hospitals, and infrastructure investment often favours the powerful.

5. The Context: Demographic Transition Theory (DTT)

To understand why urbanisation happened so rapidly, especially in developing nations, we need the Demographic Transition Theory (DTT). While DTT is about population change, it directly fuels the growth of the built environment.

DTT explains the shift from high birth and death rates (characteristic of pre-industrial societies) to low birth and death rates (characteristic of modern industrial societies).

The Stages of DTT and the Built Environment:

1. Stage 1 (Pre-modern): High birth rates (HBR) and high death rates (HDR). Population is stable and low. (Mostly rural/nomadic societies.)
2. Stage 2 (Early Industrial): HBR but Death Rates fall rapidly (due to better sanitation, food, and medicine). This creates a massive population boom. (This explosion of people fuels the need for rapid urbanisation and slum growth.)
3. Stage 3 (Late Industrial): Birth Rates begin to fall (due to contraception, changing roles of women, expense of children). Population growth slows down.
4. Stage 4 (Post-industrial): Low Birth Rates (LBR) and Low Death Rates (LDR). Population is high but stable. (Characteristic of highly developed, complex urban areas and suburbs.)
5. Stage 5 (Decline/Ageing): Death rates slightly exceed low birth rates. Population begins to shrink and age (Ageing Populations).

Why DTT Matters Here: Stage 2 is crucial. When death rates drop but birth rates remain high, there are suddenly millions more people needing homes, infrastructure, and jobs—forcing huge numbers to migrate from overcrowded rural areas to cities, driving the rapid, often chaotic growth of megacities and informal housing.