The History and Future of Places – Part 7: Conservation and globalisation

Sometime around 1970 there was a shift in how places were made and experienced that is still evolving. Whether it will amount to a radical change remains to be seen. What is clear is that there are substantial differences between the ways that places are treated now and what happened prior to 1970. Then, little attention was given to history, tradition, community or the environmental consequences of development. Places were either ignored or regarded as irrelevant to progress. My main interest here is the remarkable diversity of social trends that have affected places in the time since.

Environmental Conservation, Sustainability and Ecological Awareness

In the 19th and early 20th century, with the notable exception of the creation of National Parks, natural environments were used for mainly for the purposes of waste disposal. Where that wasn’t the case, the natural world was often “improved” by engineers: dams were built, rivers were straightened, hills were levelled. In the 1960s, these practices came under intense criticism as it became increasingly apparent that they were doing immense ecological and environmental damage.

The birth of the modern environmental movement is often said to be the first Earth Day, celebrated across the U.S. in 1970. These popular demonstrations, championing reforms in environmental practices are now observed annually in 180 countries. Perhaps more significant for places was the establishment of the Environment Protection Agency in the US. Since 1970, the EPA has co-ordinated US Federal Government strategies on the condition of environments, and enforced conservation policies. This approach was expanded internationally in 1972 through a United Nations conference in Stockholm and was substantially reinforced in the late 1980s by the UN sponsored Brundtland Commission. And so was introduced the notion of sustainable development.

The significance of sustainable development for places lies in the fact that ecological thinking is at the root of modern conservation. Ecology requires that close attention be paid to the particularities of places because ecosystems are expressions of local geological, topographical and microclimatic conditions. Developments that are environmentally damaging and unsustainable are still undertaken, and the sheer scale of urban development needed to accommodate population growth often outweighs good intentions. Nonetheless, since 1970, conservation and sustainability have come to be widely integrated into plans and policies for places at all scales – from neighbourhoods to nations. It is important to realise that fifty years ago, the environment warranted no special attention; policies for environmental protection scarcely existed.

Heritage Preservation

The growth of interest in heritage preservation and the protection of built environments was almost exactly contemporaneous with the rise of environmental conservation. As an international and widespread concern, heritage preservation is an outcome of a UNESCO convention in 1972 on the protection of cultural legacies and natural assets. This convention led to the designation of World Heritage Sites - protected places of great significance threatened by development. Nations were also encouraged to legislate their own heritage protection policies.

Before 1970, the word ‘heritage’ meant ancestry. Old buildings and districts tended to be regarded as impediments to progress, best removed to allow for urban renewal and economically profitable development. Since then, heritage protection has been given wide legislative authority and implemented through local planning practices. It has become a very powerful force for protecting a sense of the continuity of places almost everywhere. There are now 1100 World Heritage Sites in total, with an average of 25 added each year. Those urban districts and individual buildings that are considered essential to a sense of local or regional history are often zealously protected.

Globalisation and Deindustrialisation

The effect of globalisation on places is less direct and locally apparent than heritage preservation and environmental conservation. The emergence of so called “world cities” that act as the command centres of the global economy seems to be a consequence of the neo-liberal free trade economic model. In such cities, offices and institutions monitor and control international flows of goods, people, ideas and money. These privileged places attract copious amounts of wealth and attention. They are characterized by stock exchanges, corporate headquarters, international institutions, hub airports, and – because they attract immigration – ethnically diverse populations.

London and New York are at the pinnacle of a hierarchical network of perhaps 150 such cities. They are in many ways more connected with fellow world cities, through trade, culture, transport and communications, than they are with the regions and nations in which they are located.

Another, almost opposite, place consequence of globalisation has been deindustrialization. Manufacturing has been moved to wherever production costs, especially costs of labour, are lower. This has created new manufacturing zones in less developed nations, and deindustrialized regions and “rustbelt” cities in developed nations. The latter are disadvantaged places in a globalized world, with closed mines and abandoned factories, and few prospects for sharing in the growth and prosperity of world cities.