Here is a suggestion from reading this and this.
The 1990's was a decade saying whoa; one in which Australians pulled the emergency brake against the rapid social and economic changes in our everyday lives. We applied the emergency brake because we felt that these changes from global flows were wrecking havoc on our urbanscapes, neighbourhoods and wellbeing.
The changes were leading to a corporate urbanscape that was placeless and impersonal. The walking city was deterritorialized. Instead of the city air making us free, the polluted air was making us sick. Were were being rendered senseless by the noise and bombardment of our senses. We suffered abuse in the city as machine and developed a defensive comportment.
The economic changes, which that was justified in terms of progress through the mastery over nature, were at our expense. The effect was a nostalgic sense of a world we have lost and this gave rise to a sense of urbanity---- reclaiming the city as a liveable, meaningful public place.
Environmentalism was not very successful in this. As a grass roots movement turned away from the city to small self-sufficient communities, and it promoted community and rural living of Nimbin.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at November 29, 2003 01:13 PM | TrackBack