JohnElkinton.com - timelines

Wave 1 (1961-1973, peak 1969-1972)

Our early days are covered in our family tree. Elaine and I met at the University of Essex early in 1968, in a lay-by while hitchhiking. Elaine was there 1965-68, while my time was 1967-70. At the time, the university was on the fringes, but it erupted into the national headlines during 1968, when student demonstrations occurred around the world. In retrospect, one of the most powerful learning experiences of our lives.

Elaine's degree was in English and North American Literature, mine in Sociology and Social Psychology. My thesis - somewhat to the surprise of the university authorities, who had expected a project on Latin American militarism - focused on the parallels between the experiences provided by hallucinogenic drugs, those experienced by people undergoing nervous breakdowns, and those reported by devotees of ecstatic religions.

Elaine moved to London in 1968, working for a succession of publishers, including Oxford University Press, Heinemann, Michael Joseph and Wildwood House.

From 1970, I did a range of things while working out what I wanted to do with my life, including exporting antique gold coins to Germany and importing left-hand-drive VWs for use by US students touring Europe. I have to say some of these things were borderline legal, if not actually illegal. I also did long periods of 'temporary' work with Industrial Facts & Forecasting (IFF) and the General Nursing Council. A key attraction of the latter was its location in London's Portland Place, alongside the RIBA and RTPI libraries, which I used to explore ways into the environmental world.

In 1972, I began an M. Phil. Degree at the School of Environmental Studies, University College London (UCL). I was awarded a UCL travelling fellowship in 1973 and was awarded my M. Phil in 1974. My thesis, again to the surprise of the examiners (who apparently wondered what the subject had to do with planning), focused on the economic, social and psychological links between people and their built environments - and the implications for urban regeneration.

I used the opportunity to visit alternative technology communities, particularly Biotechnic Research & Development (BRAD), founded by Robin Clarke, previously editor of what was to become New Scientist, and Arcosanti in the Arizona desert, founded by architect Paolo Soleri. My first published article focused on Arcosanti and appeared in the Architectural Association Quarterly in 1974.