Words to the wise

Help at hand for the terminologically challenged

The Dictionary of Urbanism has declared war on jargon. Robert Cowan’s impressive tome sets out to provide irreverent, sometimes humorous explanations of the phrases which everyone from councillors to developers to community activists can stumble over. When does suburbia become slurbia? Who are the new urbanists?

And just what is a sustainable community anyway? The urbanwords website won’t just sell you the book, it will also enlist your help in the ongoing quest for appropriate new entries. If you really are drowning in an alphabet soup of acronyms, then here’s something else to latch on to: the Glossary of Regeneration & Local Economic Development, available to order from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES). - Hannah Bullock

6 January 2006

Hannah Bullock