Patterns & Metaphors
Geography and movement
Template:
The habitable land surface is the result of a long process of gases cooling into magma, solidification of such magma, and the emergence of lifeforms. This provides a context of land surface, water and air subject to a variety of dynamic processes due to gravitational forces and solar heat. Within this context, and according to the nature of the animal species, movement is hindered or facilitated by mountain barriers, seas and rivers, wind patterns and the nourishment available. Artefacts may be constructed by humans to sail over the sea, to bridge a river or to fly through the air.
Metaphor:
An ordered social context emerges as the result of a sufficient decrease in intensity of interaction to allow structures to remain stable and processes to fall into patterns providing continuity. Such a context has some domains characterized as solid and enduring, others characterized as fluid and over-changing, and yet others which are insubstantial although capable of exerting an appreciable pressure. Forces external to the context engender processes within it that ensure ongoing interaction between such different domains. Individuals and groups within the context, according to their nature, find their movement within it hindered or facilitated by structural barriers, domains of uncertainty or fluidity, the pressure of prevailing public opinion, or the lack of appropriate support. Social innovation may be devised to traverse domains of uncertainty, to provide a solid structural link between two domains separated by the currents of uncertainty, or to use the rising currents of public opinion to provide the necessary lift to permit movement over both enduring and ever-changing domains.
[Features] The range of detailed (but well-known) features and processes and the manner in which they interweave. The relationship between natural features and the range of artefacts which have been developed in response to them.
[Contrast] Although many features of the natural environment are used as a guide to understanding social change, no attempt has been made to use them together as a means of interpreting the social context. The mediaeval world view may be an exception to this as is the case with the animistic world view.
[Keys] Most geogrphical features and phenomena (e.g. storms, tides, mountain formation, deserts, swamps, etc). The characteristics of species associated with different environments.<
