Patrick Geddes: Founder of Environmental Sociology

Abstract

On the basis of a close reading of two early articles by Patrick Geddes, which form the basis of his later approach to sociology, it is argued that Geddes should be reclaimed by sociologists from the geographers and the town planners, as the founder of a distinctive environmental sociology in Britain at around the turn of the last century. Certain of Geddes' arguments are seen to be comparable with those of Durkheim, in particular, and Marx to a somewhat lesser extent. Moreover, his work contains a distinctively sociological account of the 'structuring' of social (and environmental) reality via the creative agency of human beings actively working in a variety of environments. Geddes' naïve optimism may make him as much Utopian as sociological, but does not invalidate his contribution to the development of a classical environmental sociology.

Demythologizing the machine: Patrick geddes, lewis mumford, and classical sociological theory

“…Contrary to those who maintain that he failed to separate the subject from other sciences (Meller, 2000, p. 39), we will show that Geddes possessed a systematic framework of sociology. In this respect, our argument shares common ground with the work of Maggie Studholme, who has recently called for Geddes to be reclaimed by sociologists as one of their own (Studholme, 2007). However, our account differs from Studholme's through its systematic consideration of the underlying features of Geddes's writings, particularly his ontology of the social, which parallel those of sociology's classical canon.…”

The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain

“…However, those themes also filtered through into discussions about British sociology's past, which was the subject of renewed interest during the centenary of the discipline's first chair and journal. This was most evident in discussions about the Scottish biologist and sociologist, Patrick Geddes, a leading candidate for the first British chair of sociology, which turned into a highly controversial debate -the kind in which the Nazis feature -about what exactly evolutionism meant a little over 100 years ago (Fuller, 2007;Studholme, 2007;Scott and Husbands, 2007;Studholme et al, 2007).…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2007

“…He asserts that sociological debates informed many aspects of academic and political debate in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and that this very success militated against the establishment of a separate academic discipline in Britain. Studholme argues that Patrick Geddes should be seen as an important environmental sociologist, and dismisses recent critiques of his work as anachronistic and unfair. She identifies similarities with Durkheim, especially in Geddes's earlier work, on which his ideas about ‘civics’ were based.…”