ABSTRACT
If the nature conservationists have arrived, bright eyed and bushy-tailed, in our post-modern metropolises, what sort of welcome are they getting from the eclectic mix of urban regeneration professionals or ‘urbanists’? Not much of one – judging by government pronouncements about, and activities related to, the urban renaissance. This seems to be almost entirely focused on social and economic developments. There are references to ‘the physical environment’, a determination to rid towns of eyesores and derelict land, and a desire to improve streets and squares to encourage socialising. Even so, there is no breadth of vision, or depth of understanding, of the relationships which should be recognised and nurtured between people and the natural world.
