ABSTRACT
THE LEGACY OF GEDDES’ LIFE WORK IS NO STRAIGHT-forward matter. The preceding chapters have analysed his activities and charted his frequent failures. Yet Geddes’ contribution was of a kind which, despite disasters, continued and continues to have relevance in many ways. The outstanding quality that Mumford and others have seen in him was due to the unique perspective that he cultivated on modern society and its development. By concentrating on a generalist, synthetic approach to current knowledge, Geddes was able to sharpen his perception of social changes. He gained for himself an independent viewpoint from which he could assess and criticise the assumptions and prejudices of others.1 This did not mean he was free from his own assumptions and prejudices. But he was able to look freshly at key areas of social life such as the education of children and adults and the control and enhancement of the urban environment. This was his greatest gift and the legacy that he has left to subsequent generations. Not the least significant element of this legacy was the freedom he left for others, in his generalist approach, to take from his ideas only those which were relevant or useful to them at the time. The actual use of his ideas has thus depended very much on the intentions of those who have drawn upon them.
