Expanding Horizons: History, the City and the Web
Professor Helen Meller
is an urban and planning historian engaged in comparative studies between UK
and European cities. Her research has focused on three overarching and
interconnected themes: (1) British and European urban history with an
emphasis on cultural issues such as leisure and gender; (2) planning history
and the introduction of planning ideas in European cities in the early
twentieth century; and (3) the history of green open spaces in cities, from
the mid nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century.
Professor Meller's earliest work was directed towards finding out how people
experienced mass urbanisation in Britain and the way in which class, gender,
culture and commerce shaped a new context for social life in the city (H. Meller
(1976)
Leisure and the Changing City 1870-1914 London: Routledge).
She moved on to investigate the role of the modern town planning movement in its
formative years and then to explore how modern urban life might be shaped by the
manipulation of the environment. The life and work of Sir Patrick Geddes was the
lens for the latter study and led to H. Meller (1990)
Patrick Geddes: social evolutionist
and city planner (London: Routledge. Reprinted in paperback 1993).
Following on from her Geddes' research, Professor Meller focused on European
cities and how the introduction of modern planning in non-capital cities was
shaped by history and culture. A major outcome of her investigations was H.
Meller (2001) European Cities 1890-1930s:
history, culture and the built environment (London and New York: John Wiley and
Sons). Currently, as a spin off from this work, she is engaged in a history of
green open spaces in European cities.
Professor Meller is the editor of
Planning Perspectives: an international journal of history, planning and
the environment published by
Taylor and Francis (Routledge) and devoted to urban and environmental issues.