Patrick Geddes's Intellectual Origins


Book Description

Patrick Geddes is one of Scotland's most remarkable thinkers of the late-nineteenth century. His environmental and cultural message endures today, yet the distinctively Scottish context to his thinking has not been properly acknowledged. This book situates Geddes within his own intellectual background (described by George Davie as 'the democratic intellect') and explores the relevance of that background to Geddes's substantial national and international achievements across a truly impressive range of disciplines. Key Features:Explores Patrick Geddes Scottish intellectual background in depth for the first time;Highlights Geddes's insistence on the importance of arts to sciences and vice versa, and the distinctively Scottish context of this approach;Considers the interdisciplinary achievements of Geddes in Edinburgh, Dundee, Paris, London and India;Pays particular attention to his leadership of the Celtic Revival both from a Scottish perspective and with respect to international links, in particular with Indian cultural revivalists such as Ananda Coomaraswamy.




Patrick Geddes's Intellectual Origins


Book Description

Patrick Geddes is one of Scotland's most remarkable thinkers of the late-nineteenth century. His environmental and cultural message endures today, yet the distinctively Scottish context to his thinking has not been properly acknowledged. This book situates Geddes within his own intellectual background (described by George Davie as 'the democratic intellect') and explores the relevance of that background to Geddes's substantial national and international achievements across a truly impressive range of disciplines. Key Features:Explores Patrick Geddes Scottish intellectual background in depth for the first time;Highlights Geddes's insistence on the importance of arts to sciences and vice versa, and the distinctively Scottish context of this approach;Considers the interdisciplinary achievements of Geddes in Edinburgh, Dundee, Paris, London and India;Pays particular attention to his leadership of the Celtic Revival both from a Scottish perspective and with respect to international links, in particular with Indian cultural revivalists such as Ananda Coomaraswamy.




Patrick Geddes and Town Planning


Book Description

Patrick Geddes is considered a forefather of the modern urban planning movement. This book studies the various, and even opposing ways, in which Geddes has been interpreted up to this day, providing a new reading of his life, writing and plans. Geddes' scrutiny is presented as a case study for Town Planning as a whole. Tying together for the first time key concepts in cultural geography and colonial urbanism, the book proposes a more vigorous historiography, exposing hidden narratives and past agendas still dominating the disciplinary discourse. Written by a cultural geographer and a town planner, this book offers a rounded, full-length analysis of Geddes' vision and its material manifestation, functioning also as a much needed critical tool to evaluate Modern Town Planning as an academic and practical discipline. The book also includes a long overdue model of his urban theory.




Think Global, Act Local


Book Description

Statement of responsibility partially taken from cover.




Biopolis


Book Description

An examination of the work and influence of Scottish urban planner and theorist Patrick Geddes. The Scottish urbanist and biologist Patrick Geddes (1854-1932) is perhaps best known for introducing the concept of "region" to architecture and planning. At the turn of the twentieth century, he was one of the strongest advocates of town planning and an active participant in debates about the future of the city. He was arguably the first planner to recognize the importance of historic city centers, and his renewal work in Edinburgh's Old Town is visible and impressive to this day. Geddes's famous analytical triad—place, work, and folk, corresponding to the geographical, historical, and spiritual aspects of the city—provides the basic structure of this examination of his urban theory. Volker Welter examines Geddes's ideas in the light of nineteenth-century biology—in which Geddes received his academic training—showing Geddes's use of biological concepts to be far more sophisticated than popular images of the city as an organic entity. His urbanism was informed by his lifelong interest in the theory of evolution and in ecology, cutting-edge areas in the late nineteenth century. Balancing Geddes's biological thought is his interest in the historical Greek concept of polis, usually translated as city-state but implying a view of the city as a cultural and spiritual phenomenon. Although Geddes's work was far-ranging, the city provided the unifying focus of nearly all of his theoretical and practical work. Throughout the book, Welter relates Geddes's theory of the city to contemporary European debates about architecture and urbanism.




Patrick Geddes’ Contribution to Sociology and Urban Planning


Book Description

This book explores Patrick Geddes’ significant contributions to urban planning and sociology. His vision of the city, rooted in the principles of social development and preservation of cultural and ecological resources, has inspired generations of urban planners, architects and social scientists engaged with contemporary urban issues. The book discusses Geddes’ early experiments with urban renewal in Edinburgh, the famous Cities and Town Planning Exhibition and his work in India for the improvement of cities and towns with minimal financial and human cost. It examines the theoretical underpinnings of his ideas in relation to issues such as better housing and health; the preservation of history and culture; the role of a citizen; university and urban renewal; and the contemporary urban ecological crisis among others. Furthermore, it looks at the question of sustainability in the context of Geddes’ vision of a more humane, social, natural and aesthetic town and city. A comprehensive review of Patrick Geddes’ ideas, this book underlines the relevance of his work to contemporary urban concerns and issues, especially in India. It will be of interest to scholars and researchers of sociology, urban studies, city planning, urban sociology, architecture, human geography, urban geography, settlement studies, development studies and environmental sustainability.




Lewis Mumford and Patrick Geddes


Book Description

First published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Cities in Evolution


Book Description




The Oxford Handbook of Robert Burns


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Robert Burns treats the extensive writing of and culture surrounding Scotland's national 'bard'. Robert Burns (1759-96) was a producer of lyrical verse, satirical poetry, in English and Scots, a song-writer and song-collector, a writer of bawdry, journals, commonplace books and correspondence. Sculpting his own image, his untutored rusticity was a sincere persona as much as it was not entirely accurate. Burns was an antiquarian, national patriot, pioneer of what today we would call 'folk culture', and a man of the Enlightenment and Romanticism. The Handbook considers Burns's reception in his own time and beyond, extending to his iconic status as a world-writer. Burns was important to the English Romantic poets, in the context of debates about Abolition in the US, in the Victorian era he was widely utilised as a model for different kinds of popular poetry and he has been utilised as a contestant in debates surrounding Scottish and, indeed, British politics, in peacetime and in wartime down to the present day. The writer's afterlife includes not only a large number of biographies but a whole culture of commemoration in art, architecture, fiction, material culture, museum-exhibition and even forged manuscripts and memorabilia as well as appearances, apparently, via Spiritualist seances. The politics of his work channel the fierce debates of late eighteenth-century Scottish ecclesiastical controversy as well as the ages of American, Agrarian and French revolutions. All of this ground is traversed in this Handbook, the largest critical compendium ever assembled about Robert Burns.




Jerusalem Transformed


Book Description

The symposium that kicks off the latest volume of Studies in Contemporary Jewry focuses on the city that is at the very center of contemporary Jewish life, both geographically and culturally. Jerusalem is an extremely engaging and beautiful city as well as a source of continual controversy and contestation. The authors in the symposium discuss a wide range of topics, with a focus on politics and culture, offering readers provocative views on the city over the last 120 years. Essays by historians and cultural scholars in the volume engage with such issues as visions of the city among Jews and non-Jews and musical and literary imaginings of the city, while other scholars bring original interpretations of the city's political evolution in the past century that will both surprise and intrigue readers. The extensive book review section illustrates the consistent interest in modern Jewish history and culture.