The Complexity Culture and Material Concept of Landscape in LA - Term Paper Example

How is social difference expressed in the landscape of contemporary Los Angeles?  Attention to the key elements of space in the urban setting clearly illustrates how the social differences and social inequalities are collected and reproduced. In this particular review essay, I draw upon urban social research to illustrate the relevance and utility of the spatial analysis in the cities, by focusing on dimension of class, race, gender and sexuality. I present a conceptual framework for analyzing intersection of the landscape, social difference and social inequalities. The concept of culture landscape today suffers a series of more enrichment and transformations, thus we find the acquired character of culture and the process of production as well as attribution which culture is an instrument in the entire study and analysis of the complexity of the social contemporary societies (Gower, 1990, p. 45). Therefore, in this paper, I will engage with the large body of mainstream sociological research which views landscape as being divided, segregated and patterned by inequalities in a measurable way and objectively defined way such as quantitative rate of urban residential segregation as well as inevitable boundaries that separate poor neighborhoods from gentrifying area. The next section of the paper is to analyze the landscape, economics, and politics identities. I also turn to look at the city street as a site for the micro-social interaction patterned with structural relationships of social difference and inequalities, Then finally I present a more subjectivist perspective, which highlight the role of space in the social production of inequalities, at this point, the neighborhood is shown to act as both a cultural and a special form. The habitues of many residents in impoverished neighborhoods is seen as both a mechanism and a product for reproduction of isolation and poverty from mainstream society. Analytical review of city landscape: Throughout time, social culture differences that have been stimulated by a series of major events are identified as being essential in the process of evolution and shaping of spaces that exists today. In this context of two major forces of globalization and new economy, Los Angeles city has found a new way to survive and collaborate through creativity and technology. This particular revolution is referred to as social cultural moment, whereby, the past paradigms of social developments are replaced with new culture development, diversity and fragmentation. To find out the acquired character as well as present culture, we carried out a field work analysis of the complexity culture and material concept of landscape in LA. Therefore, this paper shall discus the social differences expressed in the landscapes of contemporary Los Angeles. One of America’s iconic landscape, Los Angeles strip stretches from the south of Hollywood Hills, down town LA, all the way to the Pacific Ocean 18 miles in length. It cuts across different landscapes, residential areas, and commercial and entertainment amenities; making it the diverse city that it is today. Without a doubt, a ride from Bell Air to downtown LA reveals the diverse physical landscape that clearly separates the various social segments from one part of the town to another. As the bus approached towards Beverly Hills, I could see the change in street signs and signal structures. From Blue shabby signs to white crisp indicators, I was beginning to feel the contrast from campus already. The aligned green trees welcomed us as we traversed into the residential areas. The huge houses, mansion to be exact, evidently said something about the people that resided within. With manicured lawns and polished driveways, these starters offered an exotic menu for the eyes. The aesthetic value attributable by these trees not only acts as beautiful scenery, but also as a natural heritage as well as for environmental nourishment as they make the climate to be cool and conducive for the residents as well as the tourists. 240px-Beverly_Hills_hires.jp (2011), en.wkipedia.org 250*163 Taken at Wilshire Boulevard Gliding through the beautiful estates, I noticed something peculiar about the streets that traced along Beverly Hills. The absence of sidewalks and pedestrians zings triggered a sense of separation between those who owned the means of transport to those who didn’t. Was this done consciously to remove the sight of less fortunate people or was this just to further beautify Beverly Hills? Either way, this absence shows the physical limitation of people that don’t live in that Porsche area. “The serene nature of these landscapes is emphasized by the fact that their streets have no sidewalks.”(Margolis) The absence of walkways served as a starting point for my journey through this contrasted city. The very absence of physical landscape acts as an inhibitor for the fusion of the two social extremes therefore increasing the social difference gap. Drawing my attention to landscape and nature as one of the elements which makes its own contractedness since it is popularly thought to be what is real as well as outside our selves. This gives an objective dimension a subjective dimension. What is so important with nature is our personal experience and how people’s lifestyle represents nature, it is so subjective and shaped within a unified field of culture and social forces. Therefore, this cultural landscape is referred to as a language of modern society which effectively transmits the any spiritual dimension of individuals, thus expressing the value of the society (Gower, 1990, pp. 52). 240px_Beverly_forest_hires.jp (2011) _252*162 en.wkipedia.org, landscape: swaying palm trees There are untapped benefits attributable to tresses that are not tapped due to the segregation that is experienced in this particular region, Therefore things such as. Environmental aesthetical are not enjoyed by those who are living in this particular region. Not forgetting the benefit of tapping rainfall as one of the key advantages of forest when properly maintained. These are the long-term benefits of nature as a whole. The city’s beauty was further amplified by the existence of lush green parks. Parks in this area seemed like a symbol of power and high status. Eliminating the visit of the general public, the parks were opened to only those who owned property in Beverly Hills. This served us an eye-opener for immense amount of social separation on the basis of class that existed in this city. 220px_Beverly_private property_hires.jp (2011) _240*150 en.wkipedia.org restricted access As our bus halted to a stop, I noticed the benches that served as a temporary place to that simultaneously eliminated the chance of any homeless person to sleep on. This yet again ensures the removal of any sight of the people of the other class. Of a sight that ‘spoils’ their upper society. It is an unfortunate placement of landscape that terrorizes the very existence of the poor and the needy. The urban space is a site and object of struggle between the social groups and over control of resources. It is the landscape on which social inequalities are developed and created, often through a process of social struggle. This urban landscape brings about asocial struggle for the urban poor as they seek to earn a living and establish residence. These marginalized social groups do strive to carve out space in the cities sphere to reproduce themselves while those who are established seek to minimize their public visibility, This particular special practice of the city poor dwellers have been shown to challenge the special order of planned urban space, interfering with the intended uses of space by authorities and contesting a coherent of the city share. Different classes of people are characterized by the nature of lifestyle exhibited by them and the prospect for diversity into an improved social class as many would wish to be. 220px_Sunset Boulevard photo_hires.jp (2011) _240*145, en.wkipedia.org, modern facility While the fame, of Sunset Boulevard is not debatable, as the mile and a half stretch between Hollywood and Beverly Hills, dubbed ‘The Sunset Strip’, is arguably the best-known potion of the boulevard. The strip has a prime collection of the best rock clubs, restaurants, Hollywood night sports, and boutiques. A few minutes into the night, this strips turns into a lively slash of flashy neon, as young elites pile up on a traffic jam signifying the lively culture. This strip gives a sense of the lifestyles of the rich which is satisfied by these various entertainment facilities. The trademark of the Sunset Strip are huge, handmade billboards carrying colorful advertisements purportedly to catch the attention of Hollywood deal-makers and producers as they drive to work in Hollywood from their palatial Beverly Hills homes. The entire strip is us to have an easier way of grasping beauty of the cities as seen immediately we entered the Mulholland drive from where I got a fantastic view over the city as well as being able to grasp at the luxury houses of the star. And since time permitted we were able to drive out to Santa Monica along route no 66 so as to enjoy the ocean and the beaches around. In addition, the various communities are ecologically isolated and resembling a “holding pen for economically immobile”, here in the geographical region where more concentration of people who are very socially is located from the mainstream labor market. When I clearly observed this persistent social and economical condition within the area is reflects the development of the inner-city street culture, which do entails a complex web of symbols, beliefs, values, modes of interaction and ideologies (Daniel 1984, p. 13). The culture capital of inner city street social culture is non-transferable to legitimate capital market. Vastly sets a cultural capital economy for success within the legal economy and the underground economy. This disjuncture in the applicability of cultural capital from within the cities ghetto to contexts external to the other neighborhood operates as a linchpin in the reproduction of social inequality. The main logic of inner-city neighborhood, as social and economically isolated entities, which imparts a certain form of culture capital and knowledge to its inhabitants, thereby serves to reproduce this social isolation. A single region that happen to separated by geographical boarder which brings the choice of appropriate chronological and spatial scale to explain and describe the emergency of post-border culture, In spatial terms, these boarders are not confined to Los Angele nor even to the border states but it is in all- pervasive and bi-national phenomenon. My personal response to the presence of adequate comparative data is to establish a heuristic device which is capable of describing the geographical and principle historical dimension of the places as well as the process under review. Such Heuristic may never fully traceable or understood in empirical term but they serve as a structure what otherwise would have been electronic data-retrieval exercise having very little comparative insight. My template of social and geographical comparative dynamics seems well- suited to this era of globalization and helps to serve as methodological need for the multi scale and flexible analysis. As argued by Young’s, it appears that the extent to which isolation within the neighborhood is, has a crucial impact ones knowledge about the entire social world (Daniel 1984, p. 15). The region is then a special construct of knowledge where description and physically bounded special forms that includes parameters which define formal boundaries and streets but it is simultaneously a social construct to influence ones life chances. In downtown LA there is an increase in polarization which existing between the poor and rich, between powerful and powerless, the different ethics, racial and religious grouping, between genders, is one of the major things which is greatly increasing the social and geographical differences in all these cities. The fragmentation as well as reconstitution of materials a congestive life inspired by regional migration including the collapse of the conventional communities and identities are some of the things that I can’t forget when analyzing these differences which are experienced in the entire cities. The lesson of Los Angeles clearly tells me more about the future of social science than about the city itself. Looking at the traditional maps which characterizes the truth of modernist geography seems grossly not so sufficient to cover the existing social reality, but my study as well as analysis represents all the essential information which is deemed necessary understands the reality happening in the ground. As seen, the complex transformation of all parameters of human conditions that leads to ramification and polarization of social culture, where the society relates to different evolution levels of civilization, thereby making the whole city to represents open path of opportunities and connected realities. There are specific behaviors and practices that makes up what I referred to as “social class emulated”, acquired or even avoided depending on its effect to those who are related to it either directly or indirectly. According to (Boudieu, 1994) who undertook a massive study of different culture preference of people living in Los Angeles based on their way of life in terms of their class positions either lower level middle class or high class level of lifestyle, he concluded that each different class embodied a specific cultural practices. In this critical analysis he argued that, the internalized behaviors and specific tests acts as a form of symbolic property through which different people distinguishes them from others and tries to evaluate their class status. This contemporary landscape shows a space where identities are being created, and formed. The entire process of social life is directly integrated socially. I would refer to it as architectural landscape, which takes part to construct an identity as one of the components of culture landscape through mental sensitivity as well as the space and living social life adds. City residents resist more than others people, assimilation, clinging so tight to foreign ways of life to the extent of personifying there cultural diversity which is brought about by modernization that dissolve solidarity. In general culture diversity here rests very less on ethnics’ heterogeneity as compared to the emergency of new organization around different classes, subculture, religion, lifestyles and other interest as well as identities perhaps due to the modernity (Daniel 1984, p. 22). The mechanism through which social reproduction occurs in the habitues mediates between structure and practices within the inner city residents by consistently generating schemes of perception, actins and thought that rare in synch with ones social conditions. In some parts of downtown, lifestyle is so devastating and there is greater need for the government to consider coming up with proper incentives and plans to improve the state of people living in this place, or else the condition might be more worse to the extent that the gap between the poor and the rich in the city might never be minimized. The gap between poor and riche people is greatly brought about by lack of proper incentive to cube the situation and developing the essential things which are important. 220px_Downtown photo_ hires.jp (2011) _220* 140, en.wkipedia.org, showing nature of lifestyle Some of the things residents are not accessed to are, social amenities, like hospitals, roods and schools, even if they are there, most of them are unable to either access or afford them. As seen in the above photo which shows how people living here are going through hard time, by being unable to feed themselves and even go for medication incase they get unwell as opposed to the city life, where there are availability of all the human essentials as well as luxuries. This could be due to racial discrimination brought about by non-existence of minority cultures in the society. Personal identity is a key element that defines and emphasizes any difference that exists regarding landscape and individuals. The notion of place and memory are very important in decoding symbol instruments at different culture levels when defining a community. The culture landscape is a theoretical stage, full of symbols where violation of power takes place especially through political influence. I therefore, perceived this landscape as being a real representative and existence of magnitude relation as having full culture. Though, that being the case, I was able to observe segregation in employment sector. Based on my personal analysis on the way majority of young people were idle, this could clearly reflect the real situation that exists. While for those who are employed, the amount paid as salaries paid by their employer was too les compared to the value of product they produce, this is a clear illustration of how congregative the economic sector is. The economic difference is not so natural but it is a product of working class and moral disregards witnessed here (Jean, 1995, p. 28). Immediately reaching downtown, I was able to study of men in ghettos which echoed the same social processes, providing an additional wrinkle to the real evidence that connects social reproduction to structure. Clear observation reveals that men have little exposure to the world outside ghetto as their framing of issues has to with class and social inequality. The degree of exposure that these men have had to the entire world beyond the near West side develops as key to understanding the various differences in depth and breath of their worldviews, whereby such exposures might have come as a result of only a few months having worked in downtown fast food restaurants while foe others through interaction in the penal institutions. Whatever the nature and circumstances, such exposure provides an open opportunity for these men to independently interact across class and racial lines. Under geographical aspect of social difference, there are variety of things which are so essential necessities to facilitate the lifestyle of any particular human being, though this is the ordinary and the expected life that most people would wish to have, but as seen in the lower parts of the city, most of those who are living there are unable to own them. Inside the city, especially Los Angeles where structures shows  the real architecture used to come up with specious houses, this is contrary to Beverly  Hill which doesn’t have such advanced architectural structures: which not only gives an impression of geographical landscape that has a greater impact on the social life, but also indicate how much investments the government has used to come up with this modern furnished structures at the expense of the low income earners in the rural areas who commit their small income to pay tax and such developments doest reach them, thus this loose stringent applied by the state brings about the greater gap which exists between these separate social classes. Furthermore, it would be better if I point out what exactly Ian Black stated as to the method of architectural culture to landscape interpretation as well as how this would be so sensitive to context. Based on Black argument “in shot, to analyze the force behind production of any particular society, there is need to arrange data sources not only the landscape point of view. This argument is criticized by Jean who argues that; “the advancement of new technology lead to direct transformation of inter-human and industrial revolution due to rapid changes in the urban landscape”, therefore, the urban landscape evidence what Robert Park stated “moral and cultural order” or according to (Jean, 1995, p. 29) statement “Los Angeles landscape of power”. Who argues that culture landscape is as habitual as nature can be, which is a simple vision of social life dominated by power, whose elements are religion art, education, behavior and language that have lead to this social difference that exists. At the end of the trip I compiled the review and was able to realize that all the scheduled activities were successful based on the budgeted time as well as budgeted amount. Conclusion: At the end of the trip, I learnt that cities are dissected by line of social difference that is at play within the broad economical, political and cultural field. As I have demonstrated in my study. The landscape is ultimately used as a site for practice of marginalized identities and a place for capitalist reproduction and even creation of communities. It does operate as a stand-in for radical, class categories and mechanism for reproducing patterns of social inequalities through embodiment of place. These cities have both the objective boundaries, which can in dependently be measured and quantified. Also I have critically analyzed all the social and geographical differences which are exhibited in various cities showing the way people are distributed, and the general attribute of both economical, political and social that has on the lifestyle of people inhabiting these key places, therefore, I have been able to analyze and summarize the postmodern culture by focusing on (Daniel 1984, p. 24), the theory of post structure modernism and their sociological reliance; Annual review of sociology reality is increasingly regulated and shaped representation. Signs, texts, artistic photographs, structure of feeling and fictions which are the links of economic relation to reflect how social difference is express through landscape. Therefore, my study has endeavors various arguments on landscape with meanings from our own personal lives to reflect certain values and structural feeling from one personality to another based on their characters. This is because language is not just words and texts to be relied upon; rather, it is a way of organizing wider relationships that exists between different social cultural lives in different geographical landscape. References: Bourdieu, P, (1994). The field of cultural production in polity reader on cultural theory Polity; Cambridge Press, London, UK Daniel, L., (1991), Critical theory, Post structure Modernism: Their Sociological Reliance, Annual review of sociology 17; 105-31. Gower, V, (1990). The Impact of Alternative Ideology on Landscape: The Back to the Land Movement in Social Life, University of Columbia Press, New York Jean, L, C, (1995).Strategy or Identity: The New Theory of Sociology and Contemporary Social Movement. Social Research.52 (4) Read More