Civics: As Applied Sociology - free ebook by Patrick Geddes

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Civics: As Applied Sociology

Patrick Geddes

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Civics: as Applied Sociology

Civics: as Applied Sociology

Read before the Sociological Society at a Meeting in the School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), Clare Market, W.C., at 5 p.m., on Monday, July 18th, 1904; the Rt. Hon. CHARLES BOOTH, F.R.S., in the Chair. This department of sociological studies should evidently be, as far as possible, concrete in treatment. If it is to appeal to practical men and civic workers, it is important that the methods advocated for the systematic study of cities, and as underlying fruitful act

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A—THE GEOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF CITIES

A—THE GEOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF CITIES

Coming to concrete Civic Survey, where shall we begin? Not only in variety and magnitude of civic activities, but, thanks especially to the work of Mr. Charles Booth and his collaborators in actual social survey also, London may naturally claim pre-eminence. Yet even at best, does not this vastest of world cities remain a less or more foggy labyrinth, from which surrounding regions with their smaller cities can be but dimly descried, even with the best intentions of avoiding the cheap generalisa

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B—THE HISTORIC SURVEY OF CITIES

B—THE HISTORIC SURVEY OF CITIES

But a city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time. Though the claim of geography be fundamental our interest in the history of the city is supremely greater; it is obviously no mere geographic circumstances which developed one hill-fort in Judea, and another in Attica, into world centres, to this day more deeply influential and significant than are the vastest modern capitals. This very wealth of historical interests and resources, the corresponding multiplicity of specialisms, mor

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C—THE CITIZEN IN PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT

C—THE CITIZEN IN PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT

Leaving now the external survey of the city by help of its material framework, its characteristic buildings and predominant styles, for the deeper psychological survey of the citizens themselves, we may conveniently begin with these also in their process of development—in fact, our method compels us to this course. We enter then a school; and if we bring fresh eyes we may soon be agreed that the extraordinary babel of studies its time-table and curriculum reveal, is intelligible from no single o

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D—THE APPLIED SOCIOLOGY OF THE PRESENT

D—THE APPLIED SOCIOLOGY OF THE PRESENT

The city and its children thus historically present a thoroughly parallel accumulation of survivals or recapitulations of the past in the present. Few types nowadays are pure, that is, keep strictly to their period; we are all more or less mixed and modernised. Still, whether by temporal or spiritual compulsion, whether for the sake of bread or honour, each mainly and practically stands by his order, and acts with the social formation he belongs to. Thus now the question of the practical civics,

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E—CITIES, PRESENT AND FUTURE

E—CITIES, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Hence, after a Liberal and an Imperial generation, each happy in their respective visions of wealth and expanding greatness , the current renewal of civic interests naturally takes the form of an awakening survey of our actual environment. First, a literal mapping of its regional elements, and then an historic interpretation of these—not, alas, merely or mainly in terms of the cities of sacred or classic tradition, nor of the Mediaeval or Renaissance cities which followed these, but as stupendou

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F—LITERATURE OF CIVICS

F—LITERATURE OF CIVICS

No discussion of the preliminaries and fundamentals of Civics can omit some consideration of the vast and ever growing literature of cities. But how are we to utilise this? How continue it? How co-ordinate it with the needed independent and first-hand survey of city by city? And how apply this whole knowledge of past and present towards civic action? The answer must plainly be a concrete one. Every city however small, has already a copious literature of its topography and history in the past; on

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DISCUSSION

DISCUSSION

The Chairman (MR. CHARLES BOOTH) in opening the discussion said: The paper we have just heard read is one of the most complete and charming papers on a great and interesting subject I have ever heard. I think you will all agree in this, and I hope the discussion which follows will emphasise and, if that is possible, add to the wealth of ideas that this paper contains. MR EBENEZER HOWARD (Founder of the Garden City Association) said: I have read and re-read—in the proof forwarded to me—Professor

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WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS

WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS

From PROF. BALDWIN BROWN (Professor of Fine Art in the University of Edinburgh) I am glad of this opportunity of saying how cordially I agree with the method adopted by my friend Professor Geddes in dealing with the life of cities. He treats the modern community and its material shell as things of organic growth, with a past and a future as well as a present, whereas we too often see these wider considerations ignored in favour of some exigency of the moment. A historic British town has recently

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PRESS COMMENTS

PRESS COMMENTS

The Times (July 20, 1904) in a leading article, said: In the paper read on Monday at a meeting of the Sociological Society by Professor GEDDES—an abstract of which we print—are contained ideas of practical value to be recommended to the study of ambitious municipalities. This is the age of cities, and all the world is city-building. Almost everywhere is a flow from the country town-ward. China and India may be still, in the main, lands of villages. But the West, Russia perhaps excepted, is more

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A—INTRODUCTION: THE NEED OF CIVIC SURVEYS

A—INTRODUCTION: THE NEED OF CIVIC SURVEYS

To the previous discussion of this subject [2] the first portion of this present title, "Civics as Concrete Sociology," would have been more suitable than the second, (that of "Civics as Applied Sociology") actually used. For its aim was essentially to plead for the concrete survey and study of cities, their observation and interpretation on lines essentially similar to those of the natural sciences. Since Comte's demonstration of the necessity of the preliminary sciences to social studies, and

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B—INITIAL METHODS OF CONCRETE SURVEY

B—INITIAL METHODS OF CONCRETE SURVEY

Hence our civic studies began (vol. 1, p. 105 ) with the survey of a valley region inhabited by its characteristic types—hunter and shepherd, peasant and fisher—each on his own level, each evolving or degenerating within his own region. Hence the concrete picture of such a typical valley section with its types of occupation cannot be brought too clearly before our minds. [3] What now of the causes of progress or decay? Are not these first of all the qualities and defects inherent in that particu

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D—NEED OF ABSTRACT METHOD FOR NOTATION AND FOR INTERPRETATION

D—NEED OF ABSTRACT METHOD FOR NOTATION AND FOR INTERPRETATION

Not only such general geographical studies, but such social interpretations as those above indicated have long been in progress: witness the labours of whole schools of historians and critics, among whom Montsquieu and his immediate following, or in more recent times Buckle and Taine, are but the most prominent; witness the works of geographers like Humboldt, Ritter, Reclus, or of developmental technologists like Boucher de Perthes and regional economists like Le Play. The main lines of a concre

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E—THE CITY-COMPLEX AND ITS USUAL ANALYSIS

E—THE CITY-COMPLEX AND ITS USUAL ANALYSIS

In the everyday world, in the city as we find it, what is the working classification of ideas, the method of thought of its citizens? That the citizens no more think of themselves as using any particular sociological method than did M. Jourdain of talking prose does not really matter, save that it makes our observation, both of them and it, easier and more trustworthy. They are speaking and thinking for the most part of People and of Affairs; much less of places. In the category of People, we ob

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F—PROPOSED METHODICAL ANALYSIS

F—PROPOSED METHODICAL ANALYSIS

More fully to understand this two-fold development of Town and School we have first of all apparently to run counter to the preceding popular view, which is here, as in so many cases, the precise opposite of that reached from the side of science. This, as we have already so fully insisted, must set out with geography, thus literally replacing People and Affairs in our scheme above. Starting then once more with the simple biological formula: ENVIRONMENT ... CONDITIONS ... ORGANISM this has but to

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G—ANALYSIS CONTINUED.—(2) THE SCHOOL

G—ANALYSIS CONTINUED.—(2) THE SCHOOL

Once and again we have noted how from the everyday life of action—the Town proper of our terminology—there arises the corresponding subjective world—the Schools of thought, which may express itself sooner or later in schools of education. The types of people, their kinds and styles of work, their whole environment, all become represented in the mind of the community, and these react upon the individuals, their activities, their place itself. Thus (the more plainly the more the community is a sim

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H—TOWN AND SCHOOL COMPARED

H—TOWN AND SCHOOL COMPARED

We may now summarise and tabulate our comparison of Town and School, [10] and on the schema ( p. 75 ) it will be seen that each element of the second is printed in the position of a mirror-reflection of the first. This gives but the merest outline, which is ready, however, to be applied in various ways and filled up accordingly. A step towards this is made in the next and fuller version of the scheme ( p. 77 ). It will be noted in this that the lower portion of the diagram, that of School, is mo

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I—DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL, AND ITS REACTION UPON TOWN

I—DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL, AND ITS REACTION UPON TOWN

The reactions of the School upon the Town are observed in practice to be of very different values;—how are these differences to be explained? From the very first the school is essentially one of memory, the impress of the town-life, even at its best and highest individual quality and impressiveness, as in the work of a great master, the observation and memory of which may long give his stamp to the work of his followers. The fading of this into dullness, yet the fixing of it as a convention, is

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J—FROM "SCHOOL" TO "CLOISTER"

J—FROM "SCHOOL" TO "CLOISTER"

The preceding view is, as yet, too purely determinist. The due place of ideals, individual and corporate, in their reaction upon the function and the structure of the city, and even upon its material environment, has next to be recognised. For where the town merely makes and fixes its industry and makes its corresponding schools, where its habits and customs become its laws, even its morality, the community, as we have just seen, sinks into routine, and therefore decay. To prevent this a twofold

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K—THE CITY PROPER

K—THE CITY PROPER

Now, "at long last," we are ready to enter the city proper. This is not merely the Town of place and work and folk, even were this at their economic best. It is not enough to add the School, even at its completest; nor the cloister, though with this a yet greater step towards the city proper is made. For though this is not itself the City, its ideals of human relations, its theory of the universe and man, its artistic expression and portrayal of all these, ever sooner or later react upon the gen

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L—THE CITY COMPLIED: TOWN, SCHOOL, CLOISTER, AND CITY PROPER

L—THE CITY COMPLIED: TOWN, SCHOOL, CLOISTER, AND CITY PROPER

In course of this fourfold analysis, it is plain that we have reached the very converse—or at all events the complement—of that geographical determinism with which we started, and that we have returned to a view corresponding to the popular one (of "People, Affairs, Places," p. 69 ), which we then set aside for the reasons given. The "great man theory" of history, at best less crudely stated, thus reappears; in short, to the initial thesis we have now the distinct antithesis. It is time, therefo

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M—THE HISTORIC CITY-COMPLEX

M—THE HISTORIC CITY-COMPLEX

The criticism may have already arisen in the reader's mind that the "Town" and "School" of our analysis are by no means so simple as we have assumed them. Our surveys of antique towns ever disclose the material survivals, at least the vestiges, of the cloister or the acropolis of the past, of its cathedral or its forum. The processes of our industries, in what is now their daily artisan routine, include, repeat, condense, what were yesterday or longer ago living inventions, each instinct with Pr

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N—THE EVILS OF THE CITY Disease, defect, vice and crime

N—THE EVILS OF THE CITY Disease, defect, vice and crime

I have spoken little of town evils, and much of town ideals, primarily for the reason that even to recognise, much less treat, the abnormal, we must know something of the normal course of evolution. Hence, the old and useful phrase by which physiology used to be known, that of "the institutes of medicine." Sociology has thus to become "the institutes of citizenship." Often though philanthropists forget this, diagnosis should precede treatment. The evils of the city, by the very nature of our hyp

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O—A CIVIC SYMBOL AND ITS MEANING

O—A CIVIC SYMBOL AND ITS MEANING

But such books of the city, whether of the new and observant type, from Baedeker to Booth, or of the old and interpretative Dantean one, are too vast and varied to keep open before us. Even the preceding open page of diagram is complex enough with its twofold, indeed four-fold city; and we are called back to our daily work in the first of these divisions, that of the everyday town. Since its subjective aspects of school and cloister may fade from memory, its higher aspect also, that of city prop

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Q—GLASGOW AS TYPICAL OF CIVIC TRANSITION—FROM "PALEOTECHNIC" TO "NEOTECHNIC"

Q—GLASGOW AS TYPICAL OF CIVIC TRANSITION—FROM "PALEOTECHNIC" TO "NEOTECHNIC"

My own appreciation of the significance of Glasgow was first really awakened over twenty years ago by William Morris, who in his vivid way pointed out to me how, despite the traditional culture—superiority of Edinburgh, Glasgow was not only the Scottish capital, but, in his view, in real progressiveness the leading and initiative city of the whole United Kingdom. And this for him was not merely or mainly in its municipal enterprise, then merely in its infancy—although he expressed this developme

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R—A PRACTICAL PROPOSAL—A CIVIC EXHIBITION

R—A PRACTICAL PROPOSAL—A CIVIC EXHIBITION

How shall we more fully correlate our theoretic civics, i.e., our observations of cities interpreted as above, with our moral ideas and our practical policy—i.e., our Applied Civics. Our ideals have to be selected, our ideas defined, our plans matured; and the whole of these applied; that is realised, in polity, in culture, and in art. But if this be indeed the due correlation of civic survey and civic service, how may we now best promote the diffusion and the advancement of both? At this stage

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DISCUSSION

DISCUSSION

The Chairman (THE RT. HON. CHARLES BOOTH) said: I feel always the inspiring character of Professor Geddes' addresses. He seems to widen and deepen the point of view, and to widen and deepen one's own ideas, and enables us to hold them more firmly and better than one can do without the aid of the kind of insight Professor Geddes has given into the methods of his own mind. I believe that we all hold our conceptions by some sort of tenure. I am afraid I hold mine by columns and statistics much unde

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