RE: [ba-unrev-talk] Lewis Mumford
I told you people already, there *is* no Scottish intellectual history. Now
just move along, nothing to see here. (01)
Seriously, Geddes is fairly well known, I believe, in city planning circles
in South America and continental Europe, but quite obliterated in the
English speaking world. (Although until 1962 his estate got a penny every
time someone said "synergy".) (02)
The google link works for me, but here are some quotes
<quote>
"Geddes is significant today because with a rapid growth in population
world-wide and an obsession with the gadgets and the tangibles of 'material
progress', he saw a steadily deteriorating public environment - air, water,
and land pollution - and a decay in the quality of urban living. The private
environment is expanding while the public environment goes steadily down
hill. Geddes understood there is only one environment, and that, without a
meaningful public environment, the creation and maintenance of a
self-contained environment is an illusion which will destroy
mankind".(Marshall Stalley) (03)
Geddes avoided the trap that many contemporary environmentalists fall into,
of either being convinced that 'technical fixes' will solve ecological
problems, or believing that technology is inherently anti-ecological, and
somehow floats above social and political forces. Instead, Geddes's argument
about technics were socially embedded. Stalley again writes: "Geddes
understood the fallacy of the 'growth' concept - of more and more people
consuming more and more material products without reference to the quality
of living. He saw the failure of an overcommercialised and money-dominated
society. In his use of the terms paleotechnic and neotechnic he was
identifying the old unworkable production -oriented society and describing
the potential of the new liveable society".
</quote>
(Marshal Salley was writing in his 1972 biography of Geddes 'Patrick Geddes:
Spokesman for Man and the Environment' it is, of course, out of print.) (04)
Incidentally, Mumford named one of his children after Geddes. (05)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-unrev-talk@bootstrap.org
[mailto:owner-ba-unrev-talk@bootstrap.org]On Behalf Of Eric Armstrong
Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 12:51 AM
To: ba-unrev-talk@bootstrap.org
Subject: Re: [ba-unrev-talk] Lewis Mumford (06)
Graham Stalker-Wilde wrote: (07)
> > for those in a Mumford state of mind, his predecessor & teacher, Patrick
> > Geddis, is worth a look.
> >...
> > there is a somewhat bizarre cached version at
> >
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:Lifv-V1oNE0C:www.cce.ed.ac.uk/geddes/pg
> > ev.htm++patrick+geddes+mumford&hl=en&ie=UTF8 (08)
Unfortunately, Google's cached page appears to have expired, as well. (09)