What's "Urbanised Knowledge Syndrome"? When brutal development severs a community's relations to nature, their mental horizons narrow
Cto. de Playas de la Costa Verde, Cercado de Lima, Peru. Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash
This is a very technical paper from Nature (at least towards the end), but it has a very stark and clear message: our minds become less flexible, the more that urbanites design themselves away from our encounters with nature.
The paper is titled Urbanized knowledge syndrome—erosion of diversity and systems thinking in urbanites’ mental models (you can download PDF here). From their “discussion” section (we have lightly edited for comprehension, and have retained the article’s hotlinked footnotes):
We use the example of coastal ecosystems and their underlying social-ecological relationships. Our results empirically demonstrate that urbanization and its inherent attributes are positively associated with the homogenization of residents’ mental models, and negatively associated with their degree of systems thinking.
These findings are very important, because homogenized and linear thinking may limit urban coastal residents’ ability to perceive complexities of human-environment interactions. They then consciously choose behaviors that lead to harmony in their relationships with their surrounding natural environments 49.
We claim, though not empirically prove, that:
a reduction in understanding complexity (i.e., limit to systems thinking) may cause people to oversimplify their impacts on, or connection to, the natural ecosystems. This leads to environmentally harmful decisions and counterproductive behavior,
a pattern of homogenization in ways of thinking (i.e., erosion of cognitive diversity) may result in increased rigidity in decision making. It may also reduce resilience to social and environmental change in human communities. This is similar to how increasing rigidity and homogenization reduce economic 36 and ecological systems’ 35 ability to respond and adapt to changes.
Our findings provide insights into better understanding the dynamics of human-environment interactions. On the one hand, our individual decisions - shaped, in part, by our mental models 18 - may trigger changes to the ecological characteristics of our natural environment.
On the other hand, these behaviors may cascade to others through our social connections. These will further transform natural ecosystems16,17,49 and/or feedback to our ecological knowledge, mental models, and decisions, through our environmental connections50,51.
Therefore, the condition of ecological health and the degree to which nature is allowed to function in urban areas can largely be associated with human perceptions, decisions, and practices at the individual or community level through complex feedback dynamics.
People’s ecological knowledge and perceptions (i.e., mental models) may vary across individuals depending on their cultural values, life experiences, professions and socioeconomic status. But they are also affected by broader hierarchical structures, such as community values, norms and rules, cultural identity, and political and economic institutions 52,53.
In urban settings, institutions typically support rules and norms that have a need for general application. They must also foster socioeconomic and political stability (land-use planning, urban design, environmental management, and development policies) 54.
A recent study has provided empirical evidence: When we modify the natural environment, driven by such monocentric land-management practices and human dominance, it has led urban areas across the U.S. to represent similar built environment characteristics and ecological homogenization. This despite the fact that they differ in their regional climate and biophysical characteristics 42.
The authors suggest three ways that the narrowing of mental models in relation to nature, as a result of urban development - which they call “Urbanised Knowledge Syndrome” (or UKS) - can be combatted.
Make the governance of an area more “polycentric” - include voices like activists and community reps in the management of areas, that can break up old assumptions about development
Try to generate “biophilia” or love of nature, by any means: “green space and nature-based solutions within urban settings would ideally be highly connected, of high ecological quality, and widely accessible across socioeconomic sectors”
Encourage citizen science, which “helps residents identify and respond to local environmental issues by way of fostering adaptive learning about human-environment interactions through evidence-based practice”