Livable Proximity: Toward an Economy of Proximity

Toward an Economy of Proximity

There is no reason to believe that modern industrial society will make a greater contribution to human happiness than the simpler, more humble societies that preceded it. On the other hand, there is also little empirical basis for the nostalgia that is so often associated with happier and more humane times" (Simon, 1996, p. 193). overlaps with Manzini, who wrote this book during Covid-19. In this section, with "Chapter 3: Cities that Care" at its core, and with Simon's design of artifacts as an accompaniment, we will look at current practical knowledge and remaining research questions in order to deepen our understanding of the economy of proximity.

The Limits of Service Society through Economies of Scale

　The scene of children playing in a vanished African village cannot be restored, nor is it unfortunate that it is not possible today. Rather, Manzini relies on examples to capture the essential underlying principles that led to this situation. It is that under today's market economy, people could only stay at home when care collapsed. Furthermore, he sees a factor in this problem as the limitation of services as "a specific individual's solution to a specific individual's problem," which was born after the war. This is followed by the aging of people, the declining birth rate, and the expansion of the meaning contained in medical and social care. In other words, when care is viewed from a quantitative perspective, the reality is that it is impossible to provide all needed services to all people. This limitation of resources and the diminishing commons that used to enrich our society are factors in the collapse of traditional care, he points out.　The key to deciphering this situation is Proximity, which is also in the title of the original book (translated as proximity in this book). Proximity includes "functional proximity," which is the physical distance between a service and the place where it takes place, and "relational proximity," which is the interaction between actors. Manzini sees the collapse of care as the result of a market economy, particularly the pursuit of economies of scale in favor of efficiency, which has led to the loss of the rich relationships that were once so close to us, provided by care services, because they have been grouped into large centers that prioritize function. What is poignant is that he, a leading researcher in service design, explains the impasse in the current service system. In other words, the current service economy's pursuit of economies of scale has become a driver of urban desertification by marketizing all services and dividing them into providers and consumers of care. To solve this problem, we begin by redefining the services that underlie the service economy.

Limitations of Service Society through Economies of Scale

Redefining the Service Society

　A useful suggestion for redefining services can be found in the case of social innovation, where Manzini looks back to the past and notes that after the rise of manufacturing, the service economy has emerged as a new manifestation of the industrialized, pre-modern services that demand extreme personalization and efficiency in the mainstream, and the semi-industrialized services that are emerging as a new sign of the future. The service economy that emerged after the rise of manufacturing can be broadly classified into two categories: preindustrial services that demand extreme individualization and efficiency, which are the mainstream, and semi-industrialized services that are emerging as a new sign. Emerging with them is the "at home/from home everything" scenario. This Manzini's dystopian scenario, if anything, downplays the relational profundity of care and turns support into a state of remote neglect. This is what we experienced firsthand at Covid-19. However, it is possible that remote support services without care could be complemented by artifacts such as robots to supplement the tactile aspects that care requires, or by placing remote support on top of existing relationships.　On the other hand, another model that offers suggestions for the revitalization of cities that care is called collaborative services. The foundation of collaborative services lies in the elimination of the distinction between providers and demanders of services, as well as between professionals and non-professionals. In this document, care is divided into three categories: care/1 for attention, care/2 for responsibility, and care/3 as treatment. Care/1 and Care/2 are complementary to Care/3, which is directed to the individual and is disintegrating in a marketized service society. In order to revitalize the Care/1 and Care/2 system, it is necessary to involve many non-professionals and non-professionals. One solution is the case study "Circle," which presents itself as a community of care. This book presents several such examples of social innovation in Europe. Circles embody a process of community building, a finely tuned collaboration service that draws on the capacities of each individual, guarantees the necessary support when problems arise, and brings actors with different capacities and skills into the network. What makes the collaboration service possible is a hybrid of a community of care in physical and relational proximity and a digital platform. On this architecture, people weave the commons, the weft and warp of any engagement, of trust, empathy, and the ability to interact.　Manzini looks forward to the transformation of a service society, "not one in which there are services that make people feel and behave like passive customers, but one in which people are active, able to collaborate, and support their ability to create the commons and care for each other and for the planet." Expectations. This redefined service society is a collaborative and decentralized fabric of services throughout the community. People also become the starting point for those services, activating and utilizing available social resources. Services support the community of care and the proximity to care.

Systematization of service encounters.　

　How is the redesign of the demander, passive and disempowered as a customer by the efficiency of the service economy, and the provider, equally disempowered by the industrialized service system that has taken the initiative? The clue lies in "service encounters," the point of contact between the two, and "collaborative services," the systematization of a redefined service society.　Service encounters are "interactions between people and between people and things that utilize a given set of physical and social resources and result in outcomes that all participants value, that is, outcomes that lead to solutions to problems and access to new opportunities. By effectively designing service encounters, where service exists is a community of place. Members then have the ability and autonomy to organize the activities that interest them, helping each other as needed and activating the necessary professional support. To enable service encounters, attention must be paid to the strong asymmetry between actors that has been a problem in industrialized service systems, and Manzini finds a clue in Sen's capability (Sen, 1999), which he describes as "the ability of each individual to make a difference in the community. He resolves the asymmetry between actors by basing it on the implicit assumption that "each person has a skill, and the service helps that person perform it." Starting from the capability of the individual, it sees people not only as the bearers of the problem, but also as part of the solution. Service encounters originally have this respect for each other at their core. In other words, by designing service encounters, the many actors involved create a community of care in which they contribute their time, energy, attention, knowledge, and care to the achievement of an outcome: a collaborative service, according to Manzini.　Manzini mentions both the soft aspects, which are created from the relationships between people, and the infrastructure that systematizes these activities. For a community of care to work, a digital platform is effective as its infrastructure. A digital platform with various functions such as calendaring, coordination, and support for the activities of the community of care will help the community stakeholders cut through and help them work together. This digital platform will enable new and broadly bootstrapped service systematization to activate social resources and put people in a position to help themselves and each other. Through digital data sharing, interlocking and asynchronous activities, those who are directly affected, those who can be involved for various reasons, and those who have specific professional contributions can become fully capable and deeply motivated to become operational (ENABLE) as a community of care. A useful concept for this is the "hybrid," which we will examine below.

Digital, functional, and role hybrids

　A hybrid is something that has a physical dimension and a digital dimension at the same time, in other words, a physical-digital hybrid. It extends care activities, which are centered on interactions in the physical world, into the digital space, opening up the implications of care. Digital data sharing and the interlocking and desynchronization of activities allow service providers to observe new demands and orient their proposals accordingly or adjust supply according to actual demand.　One application of the physical-digital hybrid is the hybridization of functions, integrating care systems in places where people gather. It is the combination of different activities that traditionally take place in a dedicated location (e.g., adding a civic service function to a café). This hybridization of functional proximity can also be an inspiration for sparsely populated areas of cities that care. In this book, Manzini talks about the need for density in communities of care, as evidenced by cities that care. Let us now look at the possibility of designing for the utility of economies of scope.　Economies of scope generally refer to the managerial benefits of synergies when an organization performs several different activities in one location. For example, consider placing a care service terminal separate from food and beverage in a café with open hours. In this case, the care service provider gains the synergy effect of spending less on location and advertising. We realize that what is more important is not only the managerial advantages as mentioned above, but also the systematization of services to attract people and encourage activity.　To think about this, in addition to the economy of scope perspective, the economy of linkage (Miyazawa, 1998; Shiozawa, 1999) between multiple entities is useful. The "economy of linkages" was proposed by Arthur as a de facto standard mechanism (Arthur, 1997). The "economy of linkage" discussed here differs from that found by Miyazawa (1998) regarding the multiplicity of knowledge and technology in services. By focusing on "people" rather than just the fixed resources of managerial organizations, the effectiveness of digital-enabled hybrids of functions as service systems may be revealed. In this book, Manzini does not address this point, but it is an interesting approach to future proximity economy research.　Yet another hybrid from focusing on people is role hybridization. Care work does not require professional skills and can involve more people in care activities. It is a role hybrid that mixes professional care work with volunteer work and activities among neighbors, friends, and acquaintances. Hybridization of functions and hybridization of roles brings citizens and other social actors together at the local level around common interests and joint activities, resulting in a community that is hybrid and at the same time strongly rooted in the local area. The digital dimension on which this community is based makes it possible to create a network of decentralized services where different activities can coexist and be associated with different service systems. Collaborative services are the systematized elementary elements of community building, interwoven with hybridized digital platforms.

Collaborative services created by cities in close proximity

Designing Cities that Care

　As we have seen earlier, the city of proximity must be fundamentally a city of density, although this may be mitigated somewhat by the use of hybrids. A city is dense horizontally on a plane, consisting of streets, squares, cafes, stores, and public parks. There, it is possible for people to meet each other, and these encounters are likely to develop into conversations and, in turn, collaborative projects and care activities. In the case study "WeMi," a community was created by finding fertile soil in the form of public spaces in close proximity. Drawing on these, Manzini draws from several examples a generalizable prescription for the design of a redefined service economy.　The first is that "the regional organization of care activities and the collaborative services that underlie them is more effective if it conforms to a sufficiently dense proximity system. And that moving toward a sufficiently dense proximity system is an important step for cities that care. To this end, the city will be digitized and functionally hybridized. Citizen services located in cafes will not only be relevant to people's daily lives, but will also create economies of scope and economies of connectedness through the symbiosis of multiple activities that support each other. People become involved in it and hybridize their roles. And they build and utilize the commons of people's trusting interactions.　Second, "services that support care activities are more likely to exist and last longer if they operate within a diverse proximity system. The essence of this is care as a system, service systematization. As de la Belacasa says, "Reciprocity of care is rarely bilateral. The living organization of care is sustained not by the individual giving and receiving, but by a widespread collective effort. Viewing care as a system is a transformation from care as a concrete solution to individual problems to a community of care. By acting attentively and empathetically toward people, we are creating a relational system of care. The advantage of viewing this as a system is that we can utilize a variety of hybrids. In doing so, we gain the benefit of economies of scope and, moreover, economies of linkage. Combining functional hybridization with role hybridization and sustaining it through digital hybridization could be the way forward for a new economy of proximity."　Third, Chapter 4 emphasizes designing environments that make it easier for communities of care to happen; Manzini says that socialization is seen as a creation of the community and cannot be designed directly. What we can and must do is create a positive environment where engagement and community can occur and last. It's like the chair in the middle of Las Ramblas in Barcelona. These chairs break up the flow of tourists and invite them to engage in conversation with the residents. In this way, by creating a favorable environment for socialization, the community becomes rooted in the area, services are reorganized into a co-creative form, and the desired new community of care becomes feasible.　Fourth, SLOC (Small, Local, Open, Connected) is helpful to get people involved in initiatives started by "social heroes/heroines". Start small and local, be open and enjoy diversity, and make it easy to participate and connect; Manzini has already used this SLOC in Design, When Everybody Designs (2015) and will develop it further in Chapter 4.　Finally, to ensure that the community of care remains a place that nurtures rich meaning for all time, we can design a dual connection between "action in proximity" and "action for proximity. "Manzini proposes the concept of "transformative normality" to break through the danger of becoming less transformative and moving toward normativity. Manzini proposes the concept of "transformative normality" to break through the danger of becoming less transformative and more normative. This is related to what Simon calls quasi-decomposability (Simon, 1969), a characteristic of supple systems. To retain transformative normality would be to constantly leave room for the proximate system to design against other proximate systems and the environment. And "an idea very close to the idea that new goals emerge from designing is that one goal of planning is the design activity itself" (Simon, 1969, p. 198). In other words, as long as there is activity of care, the city in proximity will never be completed and stop.

Valuation and Distribution of Care

　Apart from care/3 as a profession, the remaining question is how to recognize the value created by care/1 and care/2, which have never had a monetary value. It is also quite difficult to draw a clear line between care activities and professional care activities, which are blurred on the market economy. Cities that care are ecosystems of different communities where care work is decentralized, involving a wide variety of people, groups, and organizations, from professionals to volunteers, family, friends, and neighbors. The quality of care then arises from the actions taken with care, the complexity of the individual contexts, and the process of responding to them. Time involved in care is generated by functional proximity, and time is used by relational proximity. If we are to take the caring city as our future direction, the centralized, efficiency-oriented time of today needs to be replaced by the diverse time of the caring city. Do we seek a quality that can only be produced and valued over time? If we seek it, how do we value and assess it? And, after all, do we want to slow down?　Manzini, citing the idea of artisanal work proposed by Richard Sennett, says that the value of care work lies primarily in the satisfaction of the person who has done things well, that is, done care work, which can be a good starting point, but a satisfactory answer to our question It is not yet a satisfactory answer to our question, he said. How will collaborative services and the platforms that enable them to operate be transformed to make the evaluation and distribution of care work a real issue for communities of care? And what cities of care will we design?

Questions for the Proximity Economy

Who will create cities of care?

　The final question we would like to discuss is, "Who will create cities of care?" The last question we would like to discuss is: "Who creates cities of care? The economy of proximity, says Manzini, "must not only avoid looking to the past for its function, it must also avoid imagining itself as a linear extension of the evolution to the present. It is social entrepreneurs who are creating the signs of an economy of proximity while "situating themselves in this emerging world.　In designing cities that care, it is important to create services that encourage and support people to form communities of care. For those currently in trouble, it is about helping them break through their isolation and weave a web of connections and relationships to live better. Ultimately, it is about building up a network of relationships that they can use and have with their current resources, knowledge, and what they can do with their lives. Building the network and improving its quality is what we need to do to get out of our difficulties.　In his research on service design, Manzini asks himself again and again what it means to be a designer. There, he suggests a shift from the traditional design of product-oriented design processes, or "objects" (products, services, systems), to "ways of thinking and doing" (methods, tools, approaches, design culture) (Manzini, 2016). The latter, according to Manzini, is "emerging design," or the process of designing solutions to complex and unruly social, environmental, and political problems. And to address the limitations of the previous culture of design, it is not a reductionist/functionalist approach to problem solving, but rather embraces complexity (Solution-ism), includes diverse participants, and tends to be a facilitator (Participation-ism). It asks the question of what designers themselves should essentially be doing.　In this book, Manzini says that designers should transform their role from that of identifying problems and proposing solutions to that of identifying and supporting people's potential capabilities and resources. In this way, they design service encounters and help weave a web of relationships for better living. This is exactly what a social entrepreneur looks like.　For entrepreneurs, the uncertainty of the future is their playground. In the case study "Superblock" and subsequent projects, by turning streets into multifunctional public spaces, home care services have been organized within the community, and the localization of services has been extended to the entire urban infrastructure. As social entrepreneurs, designers are practitioners who, through their design activities, embody that their activities "further create new purposes in the future" (Simon, 1996, p. 196). The designer is a practitioner who, through his or her design activities, embodies "the creation of new purposes for the future" (Simon, 1996, p. 19). In other words, Manzini's designers envision the future through social innovation using design methods that are "tools of action as well as tools of understanding" (Simon, 1996, p. 198). Thus, it is self-evident who will create the city of proximity. Manzini describes a sailing scene as seen by its creators. Let me end with a few words of farewell from Manzini to us

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