Cognitive psychology tells us that the image we have of place and ourselves either limits or expands our possibilities.
As made famous in the turn-around of New York City, the Broken Windows theory operates from this principle: if a person’s surroundings are filled with negative images – broken windows, blight, graffiti – crime is higher and the ability to transcend these urban ills is diminished. By finding the existing positive images of their communities, and re-envisioning areas of need, residents expand their cognitive maps – and expand their potentials. Where before youth saw a dead-end, now they can truly see possibility come alive beneath their own fingers. They learn problem solving skills and, more importantly, their image changes, creating a blueprint of options.
From social psychology, we know that negative beliefs or fear toward outside groups is a self-perpetuating process. Fear creates avoidance and increases negative beliefs and the need to emphasize differences to maintain a sense of identity. Lack of interaction between groups reinforces perceived differences. Cognitive mapping studies have shown that when people draw out their local areas, those belonging to out-groups are rarely noted on the maps. When out-group locations are included, they are diminished in size compared to real-life geographic boundaries. One of the most powerful means of addressing negative stereotypes and beliefs is to increase knowledge and familiarity between groups. Bridging interaction between disparate communities is difficult to achieve in the real world— virtually it becomes a reality, and a first step toward bridging differences and avoiding conflict in the real world. Research on Internet use shows that behaviors learned and practiced in a virtual environment, such as social networks, translate into real-life behavior changes.
The virtual re-imagining that occurs in Imagined Communities can translate into real-life neighborhood enrichment. Previous neighborhood improvement projects have shown that one improvement in a community, such as painting a single building or the installation of one community garden, inspires neighbors to engage in self-driven improvements as well. These improvements don’t occur one-to-one, but one to many, due to the halo effect that impacts the area all around the improvement.
An important part of Imagined Communities is bridge building. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen argues that conflict is the natural result of narrow and rigid identities. Inspired by the success of projects such as The Big Egg, a play which allowed Israeli and Palestinian children to perform together across the Middle East, Imagined Communities brings virtual cross-neighborhood interactions into the real-world through the real-life installation of the winning design, requiring all neighborhood participants to assist in the realization efforts.
