Human-Environment Relationships: Environmental Culture in Chicago Public Housing

Abstract

The relationship between the Earth and humans is dynamic and dialectical, one that should be analyzed with the concepts of human distinctiveness, othering, design and architecture, and creation and destruction. Using Hays’ spectrum of agency and structuralism, the power dynamics within this relationship will be apparent in the everyday uses of the environment’s resources. This includes the availability and capacity for people to harness agency within and against structures.