David Herbert

LITERARY PLACES, TOURISM AND THE HERITAGE EXPERIENCE

Abstract Literary places can be defined in various ways, but principally they acquire meaning from links with writers and the settings of their novels. Such places attract tourists and form part of the landscape of heritage tourism. Several key concepts involving heritage are applicable to literary places, and empirical studies allow a greater understanding of their relevance. Research questions of this paper include how much awareness of literature tourists possess and what kinds of satisfaction they derive from their visit; how many literary pilgrims, and more general tourists, there are; and how relevant issues of authenticity and conservation are to this experience.

Modifying the built environment: the impact of improved street lighting

Abstract With the increase in recorded crime and evidence of greater fear of crime in many cities, the issue of community safety has become of great significance. There are many ways in which crime prevention can be implemented and experiments with different measures have had varying levels of success. One approach is to modify the built environment in which people live on the assumption that there are design features which reduce an areas vulnerability to crime. Street lighting is one facet of the built environment and a nationwide initiative involving six cities examined the impact of improved street lighting upon crime and community safety. A comparative study of two of those cities, Hull and Cardiff, shows some of the results of this experiment. Whereas the impact upon crime per se was difficult to assess, there were clear indicators that improved street lighting led to higher levels of community safety amongst residents of the two study areas. Fear of crime was diminished and the fact that street lighting had been improved was seen as a positive investment in the two areas which achieved real and recognizable gains.

Cultural policy and place promotion: Swansea and Dylan Thomas

Abstract As former industrial cities have experienced radical changes to the bases of their economies, the imperatives of finding new roles and functions has often led to the adoption of cultural policies. These are diverse and partial but have become part of place promotion policies designed to attract visitors and investors. The connection with a literary figure offers one exploitable quality and this paper explores the adoption of Dylan Thomas, poet and writer, as an icon for Swansea. What emerges is the existence of a diversity of interested individuals and groups, who start from different positions but work towards a common goal. The tensions about the life and works of the poet, evident over the 50 years since his death are still there but the key players, including the City and County of Swansea, are finding ways of reconciling their differences in the ‘production’ of Dylan Thomas. This use of a writer and his local connections forms part of the more general process of making a cultural policy for the city.

Area-based policies for crime prevention

Abstract The new emphasis upon crime prevention which has appeared in recent years has led to realignments in policing policy in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Although by no means leading to the abandonment of the more traditional forms of policing, schemes such as Neighbourhood Watch and the wider concept of community policing involve far greater levels of interaction between the police and the public. Area-based policies have appeared in numerous forms and have proved convenient ways for crime control resources to be organized. Early experiments in policing practice have not produced clear answers on the effectiveness of various strategies and there are wider issues of crime identification and control to be considered. A number of schemes of different kinds, ranging from target-hardening projects which increase physical security in particular areas, to attempts to involve communities in more effective social control are reviewed, and it is argued that the established methodologies of urban geography have much to offer in the monitoring and evaluation of crime prevention schemes of this kind.

‘Good to Think’: Social Constructions of Celtic Heritage in Wales

The adoption of Celtic themes in the presentation of heritage sites in Wales builds upon identifiable features of British history and the belief that ‘Celtic-ness’ has some basic appeal to modern visitors. Whereas such presentations have significant economic impacts, particularly through tourism, they rest more firmly on the bases of myth and nostalgia rather than upon any dynamic vision of a Welsh heritage. Visitors, who are often not Welsh, are drawn to such places as a means of knowing the past and encounter an experience that engenders interest and may help them relate to their own identity, Visiting heritage places is a meaningful act of consumption which asserts the importance of roots and the attractions of a representable past.

Crime, Geography of

The geography of crime has been recognized for a considerable time but has only in relatively recent years moved into a more central position as a significant part of criminology. There is a strong academic strand that has examined concepts such as crime areas and vulnerable areas and has developed theories to account for their existence in cities. These studies have drawn on geographical concepts such as the importance of place and the dynamics of spatial analysis but have also related to established social science benchmarks such as social disorganization and deviant subcultures. Additionally, a strong applied approach has developed that centers around the concept of geographical profiling and the application of techniques and algorithms of geographical information systems (GIS) to crime data.

Book Review: Sociable cities: the legacy of Ebenezer Howard

This book celebrates the centenary year of the UK’s Town and Country Planning Association, established in 1899 with Ebenezer Howard as a founding member. Its two aims are to recount the story of the first century of Howard’s movement and to consider the continuing relevance of his ideas to the creation of sustainable new communities in the twenty-first century. The organization of the book into two parts, ‘The first century’ and ‘The coming century’, reflects these aims. The first part of the book covers familiar ground in the sense that many volumes have been written both on the major players in the development of town and country planning in Britain, such as Howard, Osborn and Abercrombie, and on the key concepts, such as garden cities, green belts and new towns. The achievements of the text here are to condense complex histories, circumstances and ideas into a succinct and legible summary. Strong strands emerge on both the characters and the concepts, which hold together and illuminate an important and influential story. The biographical details on Howard, Osborn and the others are of great interest and relevance, as are the accounts of the ways in which they worked to pursue the causes in which they had such commitment and belief. At times there is the sense that what we read has been written by committed admirers of the key figures. The first clue to this is Figure 1, where the face of Ebenezer Howard is said to display ‘passion and determination’ when the image could easily be interpreted as sadness and resignation. There are many clear insights and a welcome tendency to order the key factors in a rational and comprehensive way. The links through from garden cities to new towns, the variants in European applications (or not) of the concept and the measures of success are all well argued. The chapter on plotlands opened up a theme that perhaps deserves more attention in its own right. The second part of the book broadens the terms of reference considerably, and the Town and Country Planning Association’s own basic principles on future development provide the main unifying theme. These principles are stated on p. 115, with the premise that ‘all decisions to develop land should be based on a common and agreed framework of environmental considerations’. They are followed by the recognition of basic constraints that include the continuing dominance of private cars, lack of significant financial inputs and ongoing decentralization. The major challenges are stated on p. 171, and cover sustainability, infrastructure, structures and affordable housing. Without doubt, the ideas originating with Howard, Osborn and the others carry through and have continu354 Book reviews

Learning to think the past: heritage, identity and state education in Wales

Abstract Despite its problematic nature, the term Celtic is often linked with Wales and its history. Commonly regarded as a Celtic nation, the concept has been used to engender a sense of identity and also a sense of difference between Wales and other parts of the British Isles, particularly with England. As the national curriculum has been adapted to the needs of schools in Wales, some of these aims and objectives have been made explicit in many parts of the syllabus. Heritage sites in Wales also relate their history and present archaeology to a Celtic past and a case study of a specific site in Pembrokeshire is used to exemplify this approach. There is evidence that children find these portrayals of their past, as contained in the teaching in schools and site visits, interesting and informative. The dangers lie in the over‐simplification of the contested concept of Celticity and in the shortage of good evaluative assessments of these learning to think approaches.