Patrick Geddes

Class cities: Classics, utopianism and urban planning in early twentieth-century Britain

“…50 Reformers such as Octavia Hill pioneered social and housing work and Hill trained Henrietta Barnett and, indeed, a young Patrick Geddes. 51 Hill was funded by Ruskin and sought a return to the hierarchies of the (imagined) English village, wondering, when entering the court over which she was to exercise authority, 'on what principles was I to rule these people'. 52 Similarly, Arnold Toynbee's university settlements influenced Barnett and Charles Booth and these ideas were later to be adopted by Geddes in Edinburgh.…”

Experts, publics and the environment in the UK: twentieth-century translations

“…37 Typically, it fell to another of Geddes' students to identify and develop the methods by which such synthesis of vegetation could be attained. 38 A further factor in Scotland's pre-eminence was therefore the industry and enthusiasm of Robert Smith. Geddes had secured him a research scholarship of the Franco-Scottish Society, whereby he spent the winter of 1896e1897 accompanying Charles Flahault of the University of Montpellier, on numerous botanical-surveying expeditions.…”

“…He remained an evolutionary biologist in never underestimating the complexity of relationships between processes and the spatial patterns encountered, but that scholarship came increasingly to be expressed through his sociological approach to such questions as urbanisation. 26 If not the person around whom specialist groups might form, do those embraced in such groupings assist their definition? As one biographer expressed it, Geddes was entirely dependent upon there being 'a body of men and women of sufficient calibre to support his ideas, criticise them intelligently when necessary, and help him to carry them out'.…”

A CHILD OF THE EMPIRE: BRITISH SOCIOLOGY AND COLONIALISM, 1940s-1960s

“…Like Herbert Spencer () and the other liberal anti‐imperialists of the era, Geddes understood empires as the source of militarism (Geddes, , p. 100). He held the first sociology professorship in India, at the University of Bombay (1919–1923), where he befriended pro‐independence intellectuals like Tagore (Meller, , p. 223). At the same time, Geddes’ urban planning schemes in India and other British colonies fortified colonial settlement and did not challenge the very existence of the empire (Meller, , p. 299).…”