GEOG 352

1
GEOG 352 Day 14
2
Announcements and Housekeeping Items

• Did everyone have a good reading break?
• There is some uncertainty about what will be
  happening over the next few weeks. The faculty
  union has called a strike for next Thursday, but
  it may not happen. Hopefully a strike will be
  averted, but there is no guarantee.
• I will hand back the mid-terms today.
• We also have Andrea and Jeff presenting today,
  and were supposed to have had Paul S. before
  reading week, so maybe he will go today.
• We also have two debates scheduled carbon
  markets and rising tide. We will likely have to
  push one back.

3
Human Capital

• Chapter 8 deals with human capital. The
  importance of education has increased
  dramatically with the surging importance of the
  quaternary or 'knowledge economy.' Education
  enhances human capital, but often in lopsided
  ways, i.e. not educating the whole human being.
  Would you agree?
• Porritt defines human capital as the physical,
  intellectual, emotional, and spiritual capacities
  of the individual (pp. 163-164). How widely
  applicable is this concept? Do we think of our
  children or partners as units of human capital?
  What are the economic and social consequences of
  having a quarter or more of the adult population
  infected with HIV/ AIDS, as is the case in three
  southern African countries?

4
Human Capital

• What are the consequences of a new generation
  coming on the scene in North America whose health
  status will likely be worse than its parents?
• What about when the number of seniors rises
  relative to the number of economically active
  adults?
• What about the link, as is being increasingly
  discovered, between the various forms of health
  physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual?
• What constitutes spiritual and emotional health,
  and what conditions help to foster it?
• There is also the issue of ecological justice or
  lack thereof the fact environmental hazards and
  risks (and/or lack of environmental amenities)
  are not evenly distributed, but can be negatively
  correlated with race, class, and ethnicity.

5
Human Capital

• Increases in education ('intellectual capital')
  have been shown to correlate with a variety of
  benefits, including enhanced productivity and
  more effective family planning on the part of
  women.
• Increases in emotional capital (Daniel Goleman's
  emotional intelligence) have been correlated
  with better teaching and leadership skills and
  with reduced conflict.
• Spiritual capital consists of what? How would we
  define it, what would constitute examples, and
  what are some manifestations of its absence? Why
  is it important?
• See p. 172 for a chart on the value of human
  capital to business organizations. A triple
  bottom line approach to business seeks to
  benefit both people and nature.

6
Social Capital

• According to Robert Putnam, the pre-eminent
  theorist of the concept, social capital "refers
  to the collective value of all 'social networks'
  and the inclinations that arise from these
  networks to do things for each other." Trust and
  reciprocity are key elements.
• Putnam distinguishes between bonding and bridging
  forms of social capital. Any ideas as to what
  these refer to?
• According to Porritt, a society characterized by
  high levels of social capital features
• high levels of trust between people
• high membership in civic organizations
• high levels of volunteering and charitable giving
• high levels of participation in politics,
  including membership in political parties
• high levels of participation in religious groups
• high levels of informal socializing

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Benefits of Social Capital

• Putnam argues that social capital has a number of
  benefits
• may facilitate higher levels of GDP
• may facilitate more effective functioning of job
  markets
• may facilitate educational attainment
• may contribute to lower levels of crime
• may lead to better health
• may improve the effectiveness of government
  institutions
• There is some evidence to suggest that the
  presence of nature and the quality of built
  environment can enhance or affect social capital.
  Certain environments seem to foster greater
  trust, serenity, and pride. Can you think of
  possible elements that might do this?

8
How Architecture Transformed a Violent
City 1/28/2010 30604 PM by Danielle
Maestretti Medellin Parque Biblioteca EspanaOver
the past ten or so years, the city of Medellín,
Colombia, has undergone a high-profile
transformation, shedding its reputation as one of
the worlds most violent cities. In an interview
with architect Giancarlo Mazzanti in the art
magazine Bomb, former Medellín mayor Sergio
Fajardo discusses the vital role of architecture
and design in the citys renewal, which he
explains was driven by the concept of the most
beautiful for the most humblea departure, or
rupture, he says, from the notion that
anything you give to the poor is a plus. As we
reported in November, during Fajardos term as
mayor (from 2004 through 2007), any reduction in
violence was immediately supplemented with a
concrete community improvement. So as
Medellíns murder rate plunged, many of the
citys poorest neighborhoods became home to
sparkling new schools, housing, community spaces,
and library parks (the Parque Biblioteca
España, designed by Mazzanti, is pictured above,
at left). From the time I was a child, it was
clear to me what aesthetics meant as a tool for
social transformation, as a message of
inclusion, Fajardo, whose father was an
architect, tells Mazzanti. That is something
that is often misunderstood here. Underneath it
all is the most important word in all of those
urban interventions in which architecture plays
an important role dignity. It was clear to us
that we were going to have to confront a unique
mixture of problems in Colombia social
inequality and deep-rooted violence. How can we
diminish violence every day, but also deliver
social opportunities with each individual
elimination of violence? Many people in our
society have a solid wall in front of them at
one end is a door to enter into the world of
illegality. Drug trafficking has taken on some
extraordinary dimensions, more so in Medellín
than anywhere else. Another door leads to
informality and homelessness. Our challenge has
been to open doors in that sealed wall, doors so
that people can pass through and go on
participating in the construction of hope. What
is hope? When someone in the community sees a
path they can follow. If they are living with
only a wall in front of them and cant see any
options other than illegality and informality,
they have no real alternatives.Medellin Colegio
Las Mercedes At one point, Fajardo says, he was
advised to bring in international consultants to
improve the citys dangerous image. It was
always very clear to me that the problem in
Medellín was not branding, says Fajardo (who, it
should be noted, is running for president in this
year's Colombian elections). We didnt need to
come up with a style campaign Medellín,
life-shaking natural beauty. Our trademark is
the transformation of the conditions we had and
showing that you can take a chance, that were
capable of doing it, building it, and turning it
over, and reaching out to an entire society to
build hope. Only a short excerpt of the
interview is available online (unless you speak
Spanish, in which case you can enjoy the entire
exchange). See http//www.utne.com/Politics/How-A
rchitecture-Transformed-a-Violent-City-Medellin-64
81.aspx
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Manufactured Capital

• Porritt defines it as
• buildings (the built environment of villages,
  towns, and cities)?
• infrastructure (transportation networks, schools,
  hospitals, media and communication, energy,
  sewerage and water systems), and
• technologies (tools, machines, and appliances)
  used to produce goods and services and sustain
  life.
• Under what conditions does manufactured capital
  degrade? (Currently Canada is said to have a 223
  billion 'infrastructure deficit').

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Key Issues w/r/t Manufactured Capital

• Finding the money to replace worn-out
  infrastructure in developed countries
• Creating the infrastructure necessary to
  adequately accommodate burgeoning urban
  populations in the developing world
• Finding the investment funds and creating the
  appropriate policy environment to foster a shift
  towards renewable technologies
• Finding a way to create a better, more
  sustainable interface between the human and
  natural realms creating buildings, technologies
  and built environments that function more like
  nature and have a reduced ecological footprint
  (e.g. eco-efficiency, biomimickry).

11
Financial Capital

• Money, in its various forms, and facilitates
  transactions and investments. (Since it's easier
  to make money when you are already wealthy, a key
  issue is how to get capital into the hands of the
  poor.) Its virtue is its ability mediate between
  very different subjects and objects its vice is
  that it has a tendency to turn everything into a
  commodity (everything has its price). Moreover,
  we often fall victim to the confusion that
  moneywealth.
• With the recent economic meltdown, one major
  criticism that was levelled at investment banks
  and other financial institutions is that their
  stock and trade currency speculation, pyramid
  schemes, and securitized bundling of mortgages
  has become so far removed from reality, from the
  making of real goods and services, that they have
  become agents of destabilization at best, and
  worthless parasites at worst.

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Financial Capital

• In addition, there seems to have developed a
  major disconnect between what people contribute
  and what they earn CEOs whose businesses are
  tanking earn millions in bonuses while teachers
  and daycare workers, shaping the intelligence and
  well-being of future generations, barely scrape
  by.
• Meanwhile, more thoughtful companies like the
  Danish firm, Novo Nordisk, are evaluating their
  economic success not only in terms of profit, but
  also in terms of what they contribute in salaries
  and wages, tax revenues, benefits to stakeholders
  and other multiplier effects. This is in contrast
  to individuals and companies who spirit as much
  wealth as they can out of their respective
  countries into tax havens like the Bahamas, thus
  depriving their nations of essential tax dollars
  for social and environmental programs.