C O N T E X T 1 3 3 : M A R C H 2 0 1 4 55 Vox pop Rebecca Madgin, guest commissioning editor for this issue of Context, is a senior lecturer in urban development and management at the University of Glasgow. Who has been your greatest inspiration? In terms of urban conservation there are far too many to mention but they include David Lowenthal, Jane Jacobs, Jan Gehl and Michael Miller. They each had a people-first approach to understanding why the past matters and how cities function. Lowenthal, Jacobs and Gehl will be well known to urbanists and conservationists, but Michael Miller may not. His conviction, ideas and meticulous approach to gathering evidence shaped my thoughts on how people relate to their environment and the importance of continuity within urban change. What has been your best idea? I hope my best idea is the one I am working on at the moment. I am seeking to examine how and why people develop emotional connections to their historic urban environment, and the extent to which this can influence the economic development of cities. The process of turning this idea into a book causes habitual crises of confidence. I believe that understanding how people feel about historic buildings is as important as how they look or who built them. Outside of this, my best idea was my spontaneous decision to spend some time studying in Copenhagen as part of my undergraduate degree. This wonderful experience has profoundly influenced the rest of my life, given that through it I developed an interest in urban conservation. What would you like to have been if you had not become a conservationist? With hindsight I would have liked to have trained to be an architect. I like the thought of sitting in a room with colleagues and clients, conjuring up new ideas for buildings and then seeing them as you walk down the street. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? If it is one with other academics, the dreaded question ‘what do you work on?’ provokes fear and panic. I attempt to say as little as possible about my current research and try to relax, drink wine and not discuss the complexities of my latest project. At any other kind of party I mumble that I work at a university and am writing a book about why the past matters. Depending on the location of the party, I always try to follow-up with an example from somewhere they may know. The re-use of the Albert Docks, Merchant City, Covent Garden and the Jewellery Quarter have all, on occasion, saved me from further interrogation. What would you like to be doing in five years time? Enjoying living and working in Glasgow with a completed book on the value of the urban past in press. What is your favourite building? Surprisingly, given that I teach, read and write about buildings, I find this a really difficult question. My instinct is to say that I focus more on settings and neighbourhood dynamics rather than individual buildings. However, I am interested in the symbolic power of buildings. As such I could pick any of the northern 19th-century town halls as symbols of wealth and authority. I will plump for a slightly obscure choice: Motte-Bossut in Roubaix, northern France. I researched its history and adaptive re-use in the 1980s. Each stage of its adaptation tells a different story about power relations on a local, national and international level. Your favourite place? Given that I’ve moved back here, it has to be Scotland. The environment, both urban and rural, has so much to offer, from the vibrancy of Glasgow and the aesthetics of Edinburgh to the heritage of the small towns.Within one hour from my doorstep I can be in a capital city, the lower reaches of the Highlands or on a beach. Your favourite book? It is impossible to choose between David Lowenthal’s The Past is a Foreign Country and Michael Miller’s The Representation of Place: urban planning and protest in France and Great Britain, 1950–90. Outside of work I recently read Quiet by Susan Cain, which felt timely given a world that seems to privilege short-term gains based on superficial evidence. What do you do in your spare time? I am a keen footballer, which has given me some of the most pleasure (and pain) in my life. I have been lucky enough to enjoy a long career and have played for some great clubs in England, Scotland, Denmark and Sweden. My intention is to retire when my knees tell me to, which is usually every Monday morning following Sunday’s match. But the boots have not been hung up yet. What organisations are you a member of? Urban History Group, European Urban History Association, Royal Town Planning Institute, INTBAU and the New Glasgow Society. Which one issue would you particularly like the IHBC to campaign on? I would like the wider planning system (and politicians) to fully appreciate the myriad reasons why the historic environment is valuable to people who live, work and enjoy those spaces. The National Archives of theWorkingWorld are housed in the historic Motte-Bossut cotton mill, Roubaix, France (Photo:Velvet,Wikimedia Commons)
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