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Towns for People
Worpole, Ken
Publisher: Open University PressYear Published: 1992 Pages: 113pp ISBN: 0-335-09964-5 Library of Congress Number: HT170.W675 1992 Dewey: 307.76--dc20 Resource Type: Book Cx Number: CX6610 Examines the pressures, lifestyle changes, and social factors that contributed to the decline in urban public life in the late 20th century. Abstract: Based largely on the results of a Summary Report concerning the way twelve British towns and cities were perceived, Ken Worpole's Towns for People examines the pressures, lifestyle changes, and social factors that contributed to the decline in urban public life in the late 20th century. Town centres were once the most characteristic, distinguishing features of any city. In Britain in the early 1990s however, they served as nothing more than shopping districts by day and were all but abandoned by night. According to Worpole, this decline in the use of town centres was the result of poor urban planning and illustrates the impact that urban policy can have on British citizens' lives. Towns were evaluated in exclusively quantitative terms such as income and land usage. This has contributed to a focus on economics instead of culture on the part of urban planners. Thus, more emphasis is placed on improving a town's efficiency (e.g. by creating more efficient transit systems) than on improving a town's actual destinations (e.g. theatres). Additionally, local governments prioritize the promotion of events and facilities they provide while ignoring events hosted by independent groups. This often results in many groups of city dwellers, young people in particular, feeling as if their cultural interests have been "at best ignored, at worst derided." Government-run institutions that do see widespread use, such as libraries and museums, paradoxically tend to be those that receive the least government funding and attention. The existing discrepancies between what citizens want and what towns currently provide have produced towns to which people can no longer relate. Worpole concludes by stating that improving urban "cultural policy" could help towns better reflect social concerns. This would involve fostering a new "culture of hope" by emphasizing that "attitudes are as important as buildings; individual and social relationships as important as material goods." [Abstract by Oliver Mao] Table of Contents: Introduction 1. What went wrong? Starting points: arrivals and departures Traffic in towns The retail revolution The privatization of leisure 2. Time and space in the modern town Historical determinants Privileging of time over space Time Space Transitional spaces The street Walking and Promenading Ribbons and lines rather than circles and squares 3. Safety in numbers: towards women-friendly cities Law and order paradigm Town-centre crime Women in Woolwich Women and transport Lighting Children Women in cities: the double bind 4. Licensed space Drinking and disorder Which young people? Drinking time All-day opening Pub architecture Changing names The pub repertoire Public transport and locational issues Police attitudes The economics and demographics of drinking in Britain 5. The invisible web The revolutionary and self-organized tradition Participation: the national picture Participation: a Southend case study Amateur and professional arts Libraries, theatres, galleries and museums Adult education Festivals The politics of identity 6. The form of civic renewal The changing role of local authorities Economic development and tourism The planning debate Contract culture: the growth of 'post-democratic' agencies Civic culture and citizenship Bibliography Index Subject Headings
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