Virginia Tech professor introduces new approach to human-environment interconnection
Tim Baird isn’t only a professor. He’s a neighbor and a “weak tie.”
Baird, associate professor in the Department of Geography in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, is connecting past research on Tanzanian social networks to his current campus residence.
“I want to be one of your weak ties,” Baird told his students and neighbors in the Creativity and Innovation District, a 600-student residence hall where he serves as faculty principal and where he and his family live.
Baird teaches the concept of social networks and how they are composed of, and connected by, strong and weak interpersonal ties in his Seeking Sustainability class. His past and present research also focuses on how groups of people live in and interact with their physical environments.
In 2010, Baird lived in northern Tanzania among the Maasai ethnic group to study how their interactions with the savanna influence their societal and economic activities. Specifically, he studied how the implementation of protected areas, such as national parks, affected the social networks of the Maasai. The Maasai historically used the former park land and its resources to survive.
Although Baird moved back to the U.S., he continued to visit Tanzania to investigate the development of weak ties across social networks as a result of mobile phone usage. Now, his exploration of social networks in northern Tanzania is supporting his research and observations in the Creativity and Innovation District and helping him envision a new field of study.
Building relationships that define communities
Much of Baird’s current attention is focused on what he calls the rich “human-environment relationships” that are central to campus life.
Before classes start each fall semester, Baird introduces himself to the first-year students who are his neighbors. “I get a whiteboard and I draw the two different types of social networks,” Baird said. “Part of college is going from this type of network [a network of mostly strong ties] to this type of network [a network of weak ties]. Then I write my name, and I tell them I want to be one of their weak ties.”
A commonality in his experiences in northern Tanzania and in Blacksburg is the role reciprocity plays in communities. Reciprocity is the exchange of goods or actions for the mutual benefit of both parties.
The agropastoralists of the Tanzanian savanna give and receive gifts from each other. They extend and ask for loans from each other. They are strongly tied to each other, and those strong ties spread risk in the community. It’s a way of protecting people. “Social networks function like insurance,” Baird said.
In the Creativity and Innovation District (CID), reciprocity manifests in the daily interactions between Baird and the students. He learns from the students living in the residence hall, and in the absence of other adult figures, such as their parents or family members, the students benefit from his perspective.
“I constantly interact with him, and I think he is more than just a professor,” said student Wyatt Weir. “He has evolved into sort of a role model and mentor.”
Baird and his wife, Kiyah Duffey, director of strategic initiatives at the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, are intentional in developing a relationship between their family and their Hokie neighbors. Every Monday, Baird and his family have dinner at Owens Food Court with a couple dozen students. On Fridays, they invite students to participate in activities and listen to guest speakers in their apartment.
“He invites all the residents in for food and a conversation on Fridays,” Weir said. “I think it separates itself from dorm life, which is good as it serves a unique purpose.”
Neighborly dinners and community conversations are just two ways in which Baird encourages the formation of interpersonal relationships. In his Seeking Sustainability class, Baird discusses sociologist Mark Granovetter’s proposition that weak ties can be more valuable than strong ties.
“When it comes to finding a job, getting news, launching a restaurant, or spreading the latest fad, our weak social ties are more important than our cherished strong friendships,” Granovetter wrote in his work “The Strength of Weak Ties.”
“Professor Baird incorporated his research from Tanzania by comparing it to concepts we were learning in class,” said student Claire Pulver. “Specifically, he designated one class to discuss his work, telling stories, his research with phones, and answering questions. The class discussed weak ties and chance and choice.”
The more connections an individual has to strangers, acquaintances, and even professors, the more knowledge that person can acquire.
“When freshmen come into CID, they come with strong, tightly bonded social networks,” Baird said. “Part of college is to develop a social network that is characterized by more weak ties.’’
Envisioning a new field in geography
Baird is curious about the connection between humans and the land they inhabit. He brought this same curiosity about what he was seeing in the savanna to Blacksburg, where he is incorporating this focus on geography into his new home.
“I have pivoted my research from studying stuff in the savanna to stuff within this building,” said Baird. “It’s a new field of geography that I’m trying to create: indoor geography.
“I was interested in the interaction between humans and their environment and how can we study this house becoming a home.”
Working with a team of researchers, Baird is investigating the ways in which physical spaces acquire meaning and how cultures develop within these environments. Reciprocity appears again. His work illustrates how physical space shapes human behavior and how human behavior gives meaning to physical space. Interactions between students and the building are mutually influential.
“We are using sensors to collect data on where people move and where they pause,” Baird said as he pulled out his phone and placed it screen-down on the table. The back of the phone displayed a small map of Creativity and Innovation District’s public spaces. “This area on the map [pointing to area two] is not nearly as effective at building community, in my estimation from watching this building for 2 1/2 years, as three. Area three is a great space where groups gather.”
Movement, and pauses in movement, create meaning between individuals and the space they occupy.
“We are paused right here,” Baird said as he surveyed the common space in New Classroom Building where his Seeking Sustainability class ended 20 minutes prior. “We are connecting, and we are making a little bit of meaning.”
The designers of the classroom building created it this way, but they’re unable to anticipate all the ways in which people will interact in the space at any given time in the day. That’s what Baird hopes to figure out on this research journey.
Ashley Falat is a sophomore communication major in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She wrote this piece to fulfill an assignment for her Media Writing class.
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