Jane Jacobs makes us think again

In May 2004, Random House of Canada published a book called Dark Age Ahead. It is not only because of its ominous title that many people will be attracted to the work. Their interest might grow when they learn that the book at hand has been written by Jane Jacobs. Indeed, since the early 1960s this American 'little old lady in tennis shoes', now living and working in Toronto, has been world-famous for her unconventional and sparkling ideas on urban and societal development. Her The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), was a real classic and reshaped the way the urban planning establishment thinks about its profession. Unlike most planners, Jane Jacobs advocated the socio-economic importance of vibrant street life, mixed-use development and dense concentrations of people working and living downtown, a vision she elaborated upon in The Economy of Cities (1969) and Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1984).

In the books Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics (1992) and The Nature of Economies (1999) Jacobs showed how her organic and real-life approach to problems may induce thought-provoking ideas on the organization of our society and economy as well. In Dark Age Ahead, Jacobs attempts to make us think again.

Five pillars

"The purpose of this book", Jacobs writes, "is to help our culture avoid slipping into a dead end", because "we show signs of rushing headlong into a Dark Age". As Jacobs explains in the first chapter of her book, history teaches us that Dark Ages, like the one following the collapse of the Roman Empire, are extremely dangerous: they are characterized by mass amnesia in that people gradually forget the essentials of their cultural values. At the moment, Jacobs warns, such a societal dementia lies in wait again, because in particular five pillars of our culture are in a state of serious decay. These domains in decline include the following: the unit of the family and family life; the higher education system; the traditional independency of science; the system of taxes; the self-regulation by professional groups. According to Jacobs, these institutions are nothing less than the foundations on which the Western civilization is built; as a matter of fact, all problems in society can be related to them.

In the next five chapters of the book the development of each of these pillars is carefully explored on the basis of historical facts, illustrative figures and last but not least Jacobs' own feelings. In this respect, many of today's well-known problematic issues pass in review. As examples of the breakdown of the five cultural pillars Jacobs points to the increasing number of divorces, the fight for students among educational institutions, the growing dependency of universities on externally-financed research, the waning tax morale and the recent accounting scandals of well-known multinational enterprises.

Hybris

As Jacobs sees it, the deterioration of the Western culture is notably visible in the United States and may spread from there over the world. If the current trend continues, she fears that the generations after us will not be aware of the deeply rooted and binding character of the values that shaped our civilization, varying from everyday customs to moral principles - with the unavoidable consequence that society in the end will be disrupted. In order to turn the tide, Jacobs makes a strong appeal in the last chapter of the book. There she pleads for what reminds one of the biblical principle 'Explore many things, but keep the good thing'. Jacobs warns us for today's unbridled progressive thinking and the haughtiness and overestimation of oneself involved. If we do not want to fall victim of what the old Greeks used to call 'hybris' (over-confidence), we should, according to her, cherish our institutions. Jacobs refers to the recent economic rise of Japan and Ireland: both countries have successfully anticipated new developments, while purposefully holding on to their national cultural traditions.

As the key for realising such a global-local interface, Jacobs stresses the need for 'subsidiarity': solutions work best when they are closest to the people that are in need for them. The book ends with a supplement containing all kinds of interesting notes, quotes and comments. This part of the work can be seen as a list of annotated references and an source of inspiration for further reading.

need-to-know

After having read the book, the reader certainly will be enriched with a wealth of new ideas and illuminating insights. This has to do with the typical Jacobian method of referring to anecdotal evidence to illustrate her points. Medieval shipbuilding in China and the development of tax policy and housing problems in Toronto are just as easily staged throughout the book as the history of the boulevard, the recent Enron debacle and the particularities of Irish song culture. The book does not only provide 'nice-to-knows' though; in our view, most of it has a 'need-to-know'-character as well. Despite the rather unsystematic approach of Jacobs in addressing the themes, she is able to draw attention to the pressing problems of our time. To be sure, it may be questioned why precisely the five pillars mentioned by Jacobs will be the very determinants of tomorrow's society. After all, for our future other values like tolerance, care for the environment and trust in politics can be considered important as well. But at the same time, it is not so much for the agreement or disagreement of the argument that Dark Age Ahead deserves a wide read, but for the thought it invokes. As in her other works, Jacobs succeeds in her mission: she makes us think.

Gert-Jan Hospers