Cities, as seats
of civilization, have always been sites of focused cultural energy and
powerful cultural memory. The historical role of high culture (literature,
art, music, ballet) in St. Petersburg is especially strong because the
imperial capital served as the point of entry for European art forms;
its museums have been a major repository for traditional Russian arts
as well. This makes Petersburg a good case study for the importance
of cultural elements within the ecological balance sheet of a city.
On the negative side of that sheet are a vast array of calamitous factors,
from the initial decision to locate the city on flood-prone swampland
not far south of the Arctic circle, to the terrible effects of river
channelization on water quality and public health, to the arrogant industrialization
of the country in the early Soviet era, to the terrible deprivations
during the blockade, to more recent, misguided efforts to provide for
the city with nearby nuclear power plants and an ineptly-executed dam
near the mouth of the river. On the positive side are -- well, mostly
intangible assets like beautiful vistas, the white nights of June, national
pride, nostalgia, and a brilliant cultural heritage. And, in keeping
with the city’s paradoxical nature, all the past tragedies contribute
to present greatness through cultural memory and Petersburg’s official
status as a “hero-city.” Without these claims to greatness
and loyalty, Petersburg would have sunk back into the swamp a long time
ago.
When ecologists study the dynamics of an ecosystem, they generally concern
themselves with observable, ongoing processes (energy flow in, energy
flow out; extent and connectivity of green spaces, water quality, traffic
patterns, structures of economic exchange, and so on). The notion of
memory, especially cultural memory (that is, memory of things we never
experienced directly, passed on through generations by word of mouth
or through art and history) is more or less alien to ecological thinking.
Clearly, however, cultural memory contributes to the sustainability
of cities. I hope that urban ecologists will be able to find ways to
incorporate this and other fundamentally humanistic concepts into the
interdisciplinary web that makes up their complex discipline.