KONUTTA İLETİŞİMSEL ETİK

There is more to housing than shelter, because housing itself is but a mean to life long experiences of dwelling, among others, of intimacy and solitude, joy and sorrow trust and fear, Housing may enable people to dwell poetically on earth, but Such isnot always the case the greatest failure of public housing may be that it has fallen short of .allowing its inhabitants the freedom to make sense of their lives in their abodes. Echoing such remarks, one often hears critics denouncing theanomia that reigns in large housing estates. It is indeed even considered as the origin of irresponsible, unpredictable and dramatic behaviors that contribute sometimes to social disruption. Nevertheless one seldom discusses anomia. Observers are easily satisfied with noting its existence, and rarely feel committed to an analysis of its dynamics. That does not help construct social processes leading out of anomia It is our endeavor to show that, whereas shelter and amenity-oriented housing policies are unlikely to help restore social bonds in an anomic neighborhood, a housing policy geared to social-development might. Such a policy should be concerned with providing inhabitants with an experience of group dynamics as well as physical facilities. This discussion of housing policy stems from the pervading critique levelled at 'capitalistic simplification of the process or 40 METU JFA 1994 MICHELCONAN rationalization (to use Weber's terminology)' by Habermas (1981) among many others. His writings on communicative action proceed İroni concerns about the historical process of increasing purposive-instrumental rationalization of the wo rid towards an analysis of the conditions under which human beings might bring the full potential of their reason lo bear on the problems of their social and political existence (White, 1988). Habermas's model of 'communicaiivc ethics' raises fundamental issues about public policy. While avoiding to enter into a purely philosophical discussion, we shall show that fl/io/ii/fl can be taken as a token of l he failure of purposive- instrumental rationality to act as a guide for public housing policy, and that several examples of 'cohousing' are poinling to a variant of Habermas' model thai would enable people to move out of anomia. All members of a social group share judgments or points of view that attribute a value or a common meaning to public acts. Anomia designates the loss of these common orientations (Conan, 1992). It prevails when members ol'a social group feel uncertain about the norms and sanctions of public behavior so that they neither know how they should interact with others, or how their acts will be evaluated and sanctioned or rewarded by other group members. Anomia is the central concept of Durkheim's thesison thedivision of labor. He further developed it in his famous essay on suicide. He takes anomia to result from social processes fostering conflict where cooperation had existed, and doing away with commonly shared values or purposes. Thus when social change destroys social regulations fixed by tradition, or when it lifts collective prohibitions, or when it compels individuals to adapt to a new culture that rips the foundations of tradiiional solidarity, it creates situations of conflict and sources of collective demoralization. According lo these sociological analyses, the quality of individual life depends upon the existence of stable social frameworks that put a limit to individual desires and strivings and that rule social intercourse. Advocates of mass comsumption who think that the satisfaction of individuals results from the pursuit of their selfish interest within the limits set by their resources would strongly disagree. If one follows Durkheim, such a pursuit of selfish interest favors the development of anomia, while limits that shared norms and values imposed on their pursuit shield individuals from the disruptive impact of anomia. At least one may agree with a weaker statement: the pursuit of selfish interests ushered by mass consumption does not foster the development of shared norms and values. One perceives immediately implications of this point of view for a housing policy. Most housing policies aim at providingshelter and at fulfilling related needs such as providing cooking, cleaning and washing facilites, a minimum square-footage per person and sunlight in most rooms fora limited level of costs. This functional approach to housing seeks to provide lower or middle income groups with an equal access to a certain amount of floor space in a physical facility that they might not be able to afford if all housing resulted from privately financed production, and no more. But if housing aims solely at providing satisfaction derived from mass consumption, it cannot be expected to counter the development olanomia. If on the other hand, it contributes lo the development among inhabitants of a community of purposes and values as a group, it may. That does not mean that consumption of housing is supposed to create anomia by itself, but rather that it is certainly not a palliative. Let us consider a counter-example in order to avoid over-simplification. Housing is an object of conspicuous COMMUNICATIVE ETHICS IN HOUSING METU JFA 1994 41 consumption for many people who are not likely victims of anomia. Focusing attention on housing itself in order to understand the development of anomia, one risks losing track of the other disruptive effects of daily life experiences. Thomas and Znaniecki have studied Polish immigrant families in the United States (Habermas, 1981). When thrown amidst social groups whose values, norms and roles differed from theirs, these families went through a period of deep social disorganization. This tended to bring about the demoralization of their members: neither future prospects, nor daily life seemed to have any more. sense for them. The concept of anomia stresses the weakening of reciprocal expectations that provided a social bond. Generally speaking, defining what was just and what was not, what was allowed and what was forbidden, what was favorable and what was harmful to the collectivity of Polish immigrant families grew more and more difficult. Moral issues became increasingly blurred, because each person felt submitted to contradictory influences and felt exposed to uncertainty in its everyday intercourse with other people. The weakening of shared moral obligations and values aroused demoralization and nostalgic over-estimation of ancient solidarity ties based on strong common moral principles. Some sociologists have read this as a warning against social change. They have argued that anomic situations, that could be created by the introduction of social change in a group tightly knit by a set of common norms, mutual expectations, and an established system of rewards and sanctions for public behavior, would restrict their freedom of interaction and create personal feelings of insecurity; hence a call for a conservative pace or change, if any were to be introduced. Yet the analysis of the development of anomia only shows that social transformations do not produce a spontaneous adjustment of moral culture. It invites beyond any analysis of anomia to further study of the redevelopment of a moral culture. The example of a few contemporary endeavours towards organizing residential life will make this point clearer.