Slow Cities - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 555

Chapter 15
Slow Cities

Susan Ball

Slow living … is not an escape from global culture into an
ossified past but rather it is part of contemporary arguments
about how we are to live now and in the future. The idea of slow
living represents a contemporary interpretation of the past of
places and communities and a mobilization of their traditions,
principles and values in order to critique the present and
provide alternatives for the future.
Parkins and Craig 2006 , p. 78

15﻽1 Introduction

One of the eternally fascinating features of urban places is the fact that they are so
marvellously different, with such a variety of historical forms, sights, sounds and
ways of life. Yet the rapid homogenizing effects of contemporary globalization have
been threatening to make many urban places similar to one another, which some fear
will rapidly eradicate centuries of historic and cultural differences, in morphologies
and life-styles especially. This will destroy much of the pleasure and delight that
many find in the particular character of urban places and reduce our range of sen-
sory experiences in cities that classic urban commentators (Mumford 1961 ) saw as
an enhancement of our human condition. Critics of this homogenizing trend, such
as Radstrom ( 2011 ), have argued that towns and cities need to counter these pres-
sures and develop 'place-sustaining' policies to preserve and expand the uniqueness
of urban places, not simply for themselves, but within the wider context of contem-
porary forces and the homogenizing forces of globalization. The recently develop-
ing Cittaslow or Slow City movement, composed of towns and cities from around
the world who stress the importance of slow living and sustainable development,