Information about a conference at the Institute of Archaeology, London on the 21st February 2014

1. urban
paradox:
.
conference
human evolution and
the 21st- century town
Friday 21st February 2014
UCL Institute of Archaeology
The town is not our natural habitat. For most of the last three million years, we evolved as huntergatherers, living off the land in small kin-groups and tribal societies, developing a working
relationship with nature. Culturally, we are still adapting to urbanized living: our technologies,
towns, economies and societies have developed at a remarkable speed. Anatomically, however,
we have not evolved at the same electric pace: genetically, we remain much as we were before
towns developed, or even before large-scale farming was adopted 5,000-10,000 years ago.
Today’s cities accommodate a global population of some 3.4 billion: there is therefore a profound
dichotomy between the world we currently live in, and the one we were genetically, metabolically,
physiologically and psychologically designed for. We can’t uninvent towns, nor do we wish to, but
city life is, superficially, the very antithesis of the hunter-gatherers’ world.
There is a possible solution, however. It lies in the adoption of proxy behaviours, environments
and townscapes that mimic elements of the nutrition, daily activity, social interaction and
engagement with the environment that best fit the evolutionary demands of our minds and bodies.
Through applied studies, such proxy behaviours could be brought together to form a coherent
protocol applied to 21st-century townscapes and urban life-styles. We call this approach the Eden
Protocol, a short-hand term for the Evolutionary Determinants of health, social interaction and
urban wellbeing. By facilitating the associated behavourial changes, urban wellbeing and social
cohesion might be quantifiably improved, and National Health Service costs diminished. The
better our urban and societal surroundings simulate our “natural habitat”, and the better our
behaviours match our biology, the healthier we urban creatures will be.
There is no charge for delegates, but places are limited and so pre-booking is ESSENTIAL:
to book your seat: Eventbrite EDEN Protocol
For further information on the Evolutionary Determinants of Health programme see:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/edenprotocol
Further information on the conference, contact EDENinfo@ucl.ac.uk
or Charlotte Frearson c.frearson@ucl.ac.uk

2. urban
conference programme
paradox:
human evolution and the 21st- century town
Session 1 summarises the Evolutionary Determinants of Health project, reviews its relationship to the Social
Determinants of Health, looks at personal health behaviours, urban gangs and the promotion of positive
behavioural change. Session 2 looks at healthy cities and the architecture of urban wellbeing, considers
physiological, psychological, biological and societal importance of urban greenspace; then at how buildings
can be designed and town plans reconfigured to facilitate and encourage ‘evolutionary’ health behaviours.
1
2
3
 9.15 – 9.50am
registration
 10am
welcome
brave old world: evolutionary determinants of health in the 21st -century town
Gustav Milne
UCL Institute of Archaeology
becoming human: deep evolutionary perspectives on human behaviour
Matt Pope
UCL Institute of Archaeology
backwards and forwards: towards a “palaeolithically-correct” behavioural science
Ben Gardner
UCL Health Behaviour Research Centre

11.15-11.45am
discussion/ coffee
4
school dinners: introducing an evolutionary perspective in inner-city schools
Emma Karoune
UCL Institute of Archaeology
5
play time: football, crime and urban gangs
Samir Singh
Arsenal in the Community
6
building for people: architecture from a human perspective
Bob Allies
Allies & Morrison Architects: London SE1
 1-1.45pm
lunch
healthy cities: urban design from a human evolutionary perspective
Ian Scott
UCL Grand Challenges
7
8
greening the city: a physiological and psychological necessity
Jemima Stockton
UCL Dept of Public Health and Epidemiology
9
greening the city: a biological necessity
Graham Rook
UCL Dept of Microbiology
 3-3.30pm
discussion/ tea
a life less sedentary: making the office work harder
Abi Fisher
UCL Active Buildings project
10
11
access all areas? social inequality and urban transport issues
Nicola Christie
UCL Transport Institute
12
streets ahead: community engagement, human locomotion and the DIY street
Paola Spivach
Senior Urban Designer, SUSTRANS
 5pm
reception
The conference is supported by the Ove Arup Foundation
and by UCL Grand Challenges