ABSTRACT
This chapter details some of Patrick Geddes's socioeconomic views, characterised by his belief in economic and social sustainability, and his critiques of the hegemonic Victorian ideal of liberal finance. Geddes's socioeconomics were underpinned by a desire to counter the unsustainability of Victorian commercialism, and he believed that the adherents of aestheticism and decadence were allied to his pursuit of alternative ways of thinking. The chapter examines Geddes's interest in aestheticism and decadence, and demonstrates how these concepts informed late-Victorian theories of sustainability. Geddes was a slippery and often contradictory man but in his writings people can see that aestheticism and decadence did have a role to play in his civic projects, and the form and styles of The Evergreen reflect this. To achieve the neotechnic economy, which privileged public artistic assets, a radical break had to be made from Geddes's contemporary 'paleotechnic' economy.
