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.
Introduction: Interpreting Patrick Geddes, a Contemporaneous Task Part 1: The Planning Historiography of Patrick Geddes 1. The Town Planner as a Miracle Worker, 1854-1932 2. 1940s-1960s: Geddes' role in Reconstruction 3. The Humanist perspective: the return of Geddes, 1970s onwards 4. The Appreciation of Patrick Geddes as a Planner Today 5. Discussion: Geddes' Historiography as a Reflection of the History of Town Planning Part 2: Geddes and Geography 6. Geddes' Urban Conceptual Framework 7. Geography and Education: The Planning Tools 8. Geddes' Planning Theory, Critical Evaluations Part 3: Planning in the Colonies 9. The Cities and Town Planning Exhibition: Success and Failure 10. Surveys and Surgeries: Narratives of Old and New 11. The Regional Analysis: Rehabilitating the Mediterranean Basin 12. The Garden in the City: Civic Revival in Indore and Tel-Aviv 13. Civic Centers and Cultural Institutes: Enhancing Local Traditions? 14. Cloisters Between East and West: Incipient universities in Indore and in Jerusalem Part 4: Postcolonial Scrutiny 15. Patrick Geddes and Colonial Town Planning 16. Geddes at the Intersection of Geography, Posctolonialism and Planning 17. The Colonial Planning Gambit: In the Service of Imperial Societies? Conclusion: The Historiography of Town Planning, a Postcolonial Reading Appendix Notes Bibliography Index
Biography
Noah Hysler Rubin is qualified as a town planner and holds a PhD in Geography. She is a research fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University and teaches history and theory of town planning at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.
