POST WAR RECONSTRUCTION
Laurie Taylor talks to one of the world's leading experts on post-war reconstruction, Dr Sultan Barakat, founding director of the Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit at the University of York. Dr Barakat trained originally as an architect -- but as a second generation Palestinian refugee, born in Kuwait and now holding a British passport, he was naturally interested in how healing can be brought to conflicted and war-torn societies. Early on he came to the conclusion that building for building sake's in the aftermath of war doesn't solve any real problems and in some cases can make them worse. From a gigantic empty city in Southern Iraq to the peace lines of Belfast to training civil servants in Afghanistan, Sultan Barakat outlines his journey from architect to founder of a masters course which in the last ten years has produced many of today's leading lights in the field of reconstruction and development.
THE EDGELANDS
Also this week, with green field development plans once again dominating the news, Laurie delves into the world of social geography and hears about what one expert has dubbed 'The Edgelands'. Neither rural nor urban, these are the places policy makers mostly ignore and as a result they have an untamed quality largely lacking in the rest of Britain's landscape. Laurie focuses on this unique landscape with writer and lecturer Marion Shoard, author of The Right to Roam, and Guy Robinson, Professor of Human Geography at Kingston University and author of Conflict and Change in the Countryside. Laurie and his guests question this landscape's readiness for development or if it should simply be cherished for its own sake.
Additional information:
A Right to Roam by Marion Shoard (Oxford Paperbacks ISBN: 0192880160)
Conflict and Change in the Countryside edited by Guy Robinson (John Wiley and Sons Ltd ISBN: 0471947652)
Essay on edgelands by Marion Shoard in:
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