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Playgrounds and bombsites: post-war Britain’s ruined landscapes

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 16:03 authored by Ben HighmoreBen Highmore
This essay argues that bombsites in Britain were a vivid component of a social imaginary that informed the post-war social settlement. Post-war reconstruction, which often involved additional demolition, also produced ruined landscapes that were complexly associated with war damage. The bombsite-demolition site as an accidental or purposeful playground for children added to the vacillating meanings of these ruined landscapes, as they signalled both the destructive power of modern industrial violence, and the resilient and resourceful power of children and play to reconstitute and repair such landscapes. The image of children playing amongst ruins joined these two meanings together making the bombsite into a habitat for “feral” youth – the imagined threat that haunts the Welfare State. By attending to the material and symbolic landscapes of post-war ruins we can see a cultural politics struggling with internal anxieties and ruinous identifications.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Cultural Politics

ISSN

1743-2197

Publisher

Duke University Press

Issue

3

Volume

9

Page range

323-336

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-10-19

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-10-19

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-10-19

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