Urban conservation and urban development: Why retain the past?

Speaker: Rebecca Madgin (University of Glasgow)

Abstract: What role do emotion and emotional attachments to historic places play within the decision-making preferences of the urban development sector? Often the story told is one of decision-making processes, based on a set of rational criteria that are conditioned by a set of competing and conflicting priorities with little or no place for emotion.

This talk, based on a paper of the same title, will present the findings of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Leadership Fellows project that sought to examine the role of emotion within urban conservation and development in the UK.

More specifically, it focuses on the ways in which a range of urban actors, including developers, investors, planners and architects, consider emotion and emotional attachments to historic places within their decision-making processes and how these influence urban development projects across England and Scotland.

In so doing, it opens up a discussion of why the past matters during the process of urban change and also the extent to and ways in which people’s everyday experiences and emotions shape future development plans.

This seminar will be followed by a drinks reception.

*If you are external to King's and would like to attend this event, please contact the event organiser directly.

Rebecca Madgin is a Professor of Urban Studies at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow.

Her research examines the emotional and economic values of heritage in the context of urban development and management. Her Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded PhD focused on the role of industrial heritage in the process of place-making and, in particular, how decisions concerning the demolition or re-use of historic buildings were made.

Central to this was an understanding of how historic places were ascribed meaning and value during the process of urban regeneration from the 1970s to the early 2000s, and involved an in-depth analysis of community attachments to threatened historic spaces, a sense of place, and place marketing.