Colin Ward
British anarchist, writer, editor, architect. Born 1924, Essex, England.
He was an editor of the anarchist newspaper Freedom and the anarchist journal Anarchy.
He also worked the Education Officer in the Town and Country Planning Association, and was later a professor at the London School of Economics.
I first came across Colin Ward through the publication Autonomy: the cover designs of Anarchy, 1961–1970 by Daniel Poyner (editor), published by Hyphen Press. I immediately became interested in him through the essays in the book and started out by reading Talking to Architects – 10 lectures by Colin Ward.
Followed by The Child in the City by Colin Ward and The Child in the Country by Colin Ward.
His small book Influences – Voices of creative dissent by Colin Ward led me to other influential writers like:
- Paul Goodman
- Mary Woolstonecraft
- Peter Kropotkin
Colin Ward came from a different anarchist tradition, one which saw social change emerging not from violence and revolution, but from expanding social cooperation and mutual aid in everyday life. … Here was the idea that social change was not about new laws, governments, or policies, but about creating a revolution of human relationships from the bottom up, and shifting the way individuals treated one another. (Emphasis mine)
– Colin Ward – an obituary and appreciation of the chuckling anarchist