Ward was born inWanstead,Essex, to Arnold and Ruby Ward (née West). Arnold was a teacher and Ruby a clerical worker.[3]: 19 His parents were activeLabour Party supporters. Ward attendedIlford County High School, leaving school aged 15. After leaving school he worked as an assistant to a builder, then for West Ham Council, before working as adraughtsman atSidney Caulfield's architectural practice.[3]: 22–23
In 1942, aged 18, Ward was conscripted into the army as asapper, going on to work as a draughtsman in theRoyal Engineers.[3]: 30 Based in Glasgow during the war, Ward began attending Glasgow Anarchist Group events. As a soldier he subscribed to theanti-militarist anarchist newspaperWar Commentary, and in 1945 Ward was called as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of the paper's editors,John Hewetson,Vernon Richards andPhilip Sansom.[1][4] Shortly after the trial he was transferred to Orkney.[3]: 40
After being demobbed in 1946 he returned to working for Sidney Caulfield and began contributing toFreedom Press.[1][3]: 72 In 1947 he began editing the anarchist newspaperFreedom – successor toWar Commentary. He remained an editor ofFreedom until 1960. He was the founder and editor of the monthlyanarchist journalAnarchy from 1961 to 1970.[5]
Until 1961, Ward worked as an architect's assistant. In 1964 undertook teacher training atGarnett College where he met his future wife, Harriet Unwin, and he subsequently began teaching atWandsworth Technical College.[3]: 166
Ward's philosophy aimed at removingauthoritarian forms ofsocial organisation and replacing them withself-managed, non-hierarchical forms. This is based upon the principle that, as Ward put it, "in small face-to-face groups, thebureaucratising andhierarchical tendencies inherent in organisations have least opportunity to develop".[8]
Anarchism for Ward is "a description of a mode of human organization, rooted in the experience of everyday life, which operates side by side with, and in spite of, the dominant authoritarian trends of our society".[9] In contrast to many anarchist philosophers and practitioners, Ward holds that "anarchism in all its guises is an assertion of human dignity and responsibility. It is not a programme for political change but an act of social self-determination".[10]
Colin Ward in his main theoretical publicationAnarchy in Action (1973) in a chapter called "Schools No Longer" "discusses the genealogy of education and schooling, in particular examining the writings ofEverett Reimer andIvan Illich, and the beliefs of anarchist educatorPaul Goodman. Many of Colin’s writings in the 1970s, in particularStreetwork: The Exploding School (1973, with Anthony Fyson), focused on learning practices and spaces outside of the school building. In introducingStreetwork, Ward writes, "[this] is a book about ideas: ideas of the environment as the educational resource, ideas of the enquiring school, the school without walls...”. In the same year, Ward contributed toEducation Without Schools (edited by Peter Buckman) discussing 'the role of the state'. He argued that "one significant role of the state in the national education systems of the world is to perpetuate social and economic injustice".[11]
InThe Child in the City (1978), and laterThe Child in the Country (1988), Ward "examined the everyday spaces of young people’s lives and how they can negotiate and re-articulate the various environments they inhabit. In his earlier text, the more famous of the two, Colin Ward explores the creativity and uniqueness of children and how they cultivate 'the art of making the city work'. He argued that through play, appropriation and imagination, children can counter adult-based intentions and interpretations of the built environment. His later text, The Child in the Country, inspired a number of social scientists, notably geographerChris Philo (1992), to call for more attention to be paid to young people as a 'hidden' and marginalised group in society."[11]
^« in small face-to-face groups, the bureaucratising and hierarchical tendencies inherent in organisations have least opportunity to develop », Colin Ward,Anarchism as a Theory of Organization, 1966.
^Colin Ward,Anarchism as a Theory of Organization, Freedom Press, London, 1988, p. 14
^Colin Ward,Anarchism as a Theory of Organization, Freedom Press, London, 1988, p. 143
^Hawley, Josuha (2019).Villages in Cities: Community Land Ownership and Cooperative Housing in Milton Parc and Beyond.Black Rose Books. pp. 85–86.ISBN9781551646893.
Bradshaw, Ross; Ward, Ben; Ward, Harriet; Worpole, Ken, eds. (2011).Remembering Colin Ward: 1924-2010. Nottingham: Five Leaves Publications.ISBN978-1-907869-28-0.OCLC707825526.
Crouch, David (2017). "Lived Spaces of Anarchy: Colin Ward's Social Anarchy in Action". In Ferretti, Federico; Torre, Gerónimo Barrera de la; Ince, Anthony; Toro, Francisco (eds.).Historical Geographies of Anarchism: Early Critical Geographers and Present-Day Scientific Challenges. Routledge. pp. 153–164.ISBN978-1-315-30753-4.
