Tommorow, I will have the rare opportunity of hearing Peter Newman speak at our School of Design and Environment.Unlike many other academician speakers who carry a bit of a halo, Prof Newman is not widely known in the lay management-a-minute community. That and the venue should keep the pop-management followers at bay.
Prof Newman is one of the most influential urban thinkers of our time and I believe he should rank up there with Anthony Geddes and Lewis Mumford, among others. His concept of automobile dependency may sound quite sane today but less than 10 years ago or even three years ago, people might have thought it to be another ivory-tower abstraction. Yet in his observations of the impact of cars on social life(and not just the oft-cited fossil fuel argument), he has touched the critical aspect of urban human ecology. The study of the environment from a sociological or cross-disciplinary standpoint is often ignored, as has often been the field of communications. Peter Newman, Thorsten Velbein, James Carey-these are the men who point to a more inclusive paradigm of scholarly thought.
Tags: Cars, environment, James Carey, Peter Newman, Pollution
