Think Global, Act Local

Town planning. Interest-led, open-minded education. Preservation of buildings with historical worth. Community gardens. All are so central to modern society that our age tends to claim these notions as its own. In fact they were first visualised by Sir Patrick Geddes, a largely forgotten Victorian Scot and one of the greatest forward thinkers in history. In turns a gardener, biologist, conservationist, social evolutionist, peace warrior, and town planner, he spent many years conserving and restoring Edinburgh's historic Royal Mile at a time when most decaying buildings were simply torn down. With these plans of renovation came the importance of education as the development of the Outlook Tower, his numerous summer schools and his College des Ecossais in Montpellier illustrate. It is in India where his name is most widely known. It was here that possibly the greatest example of Geddes' belief in people planning can be seen and which took the form of pedestrian zones, student accommodation for women, and urban diversification projects. When grandiose schemes of urban renewal were in vogue his conservative surgery offered a humane alternative. His influence spread around the world, through the people he met and stimulated, and has survived, after his death. In recent years he has become almost a patron saint of the sustainable development movement. Think Global, Act Local: The Life and Legacy of Patrick Geddes examines not only the life of this important man, but also the enduring relevance of his ideas and their place in our world, present and future.

Walter Stephen

Walter Stephen could not proceed beyond Geology I at Edinburgh University due to colour blindness – the analysis of crystals and subtle maps were hidden worlds for him. Degrees in Geography, Economic History and Education qualified him as an academic jack-of-all-trades with a lifelong devotion to environmental awareness and understanding. One of his achievements was the establishment and operation for twenty years of Castlehill Urban Studies Centre, the first successful Urban Studies Centre in Britain.

A former Chairman of the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust, he has been responsible for Learning from the Lasses, A Vigorous Institution and Think Global, Act Local, collections of essays on Patrick Geddes. In his introduction to the new edition of A Herd of Red Deer he brought out the importance of Frank Fraser Darling as the founder of ecology and forerunner of David Attenborough. In The Evolution of Evolution Walter Stephen sets Darwin at the centre of a circle of Interesting Victorians. All six books, plus his biography of Willie Park Junior: The Man who took Golf to the World and Walter’s Wiggles were published by Luath Press.