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Title: Civics: as Applied Sociology

Author: Patrick Geddes

Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13205]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_Civics: as Applied Sociology_

by Patrick Geddes

Read before the Sociological Society at a Meeting in the School of
Economics and Political Science (University of London), Clare Market,
W.C., at 5 p.m., on Monday, July 18th, 1904; the Rt. Hon. CHARLES BOOTH,
F.R.S., in the Chair.

INTRODUCTION

This department of sociological studies should evidently be, as far as
possible, concrete in treatment. If it is to appeal to practical men and
civic workers, it is important that the methods advocated for the
systematic study of cities, and as underlying fruitful action, be not
merely the product of the study, but rather be those which may be
acquired in course of local observation and practical effort. My problem
is thus to outline such general ideas as may naturally crystallise from
the experience of any moderately-travelled observer of varied interests;
so that his observation of city after city, now panoramic and
impressionist, again detailed, should gradually develop towards an
orderly Regional Survey. This point of view has next to be correlated
with the corresponding practical experience, that which may be acquired
through some varied experiences of citizenship, and thence rise toward a
larger and more orderly conception of civic action--as Regional Service.
In a word, then, Applied Sociology in general, or [Page: 104] Civics, as
one of its main departments, may be defined as the application of Social
Survey to Social Service.

In this complex field of study as in simpler preliminary ones, our
everyday experiences and commonsense interpretations gradually become
more systematic, that is, begin to assume a scientific character; while
our activities, in becoming more orderly and comprehensive, similarly
approximate towards art. Th