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The Challenges of Community Planning for the Community and Voluntary Sector in the Current Climate: A Road Well Travelled?
Get PDFThis topic is of particular interest in Scotland, but the localism approach which it represents has become a key policy priority, particularly at local level, across the UK and beyond. My response draws on relevant policy literature, and my own knowledge of the field; but I also refer to the work of two former students who were employed as Community Planning Officers in two different local authorities near Edinburgh and who have written about their dilemmas in reconciling policy and practice in community development work (Fraser, 2012; Scott, 2012). I am going to summarise what appear to be the main concerns, criticisms and challenges of localist approaches to policy, although these are by no means exhaustive and relate to the Scottish context in particular. I will then place this approach within the wider context and look at how these challenges might be addressed. In relation to the metaphor of ‘the road, which is the title of this talk, the question arises as to whether this the road already well-travelled or is it uncharted territory? If it looks like the road we know, but it turns out not to be, we may lose our way without realizing it until too late
Review: Nick Srnicek, and Alex Williams (2015) Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work
Get PDFMy desire to read ‘Inventing the future’ emerged after happening upon a short provocation called the ‘Accelerationist Manifesto’, also written by this book’s authors (political theorist Nick Srnicek and sociologist Alex Williams) in 2013. These are both polemical works which, whilst not directly about education, surface a number of debates pertinent to educators working for social justice. Accelerationism—a peculiar mix of sci-fi and political theory—starts from the premise that a moribund left must learn to let go of its anachronistic tendencies (the authors label these tendencies ‘folk politics’), by counter-intuitively embracing the breakneck speed of life and labour under neoliberal techno-capitalism. This, as I understand it, is a speculative response to capitalism’s ‘moving contradiction’ of labour, ‘both source of value, and squeezed out by the machine’ (Noys, 2014, p. 97), which it attempts to burst through by embracing full-automation as one necessary condition of a post-capitalist, post-work utopia
Community Engagement: What’s the Problem?
Get PDFTranscript of the introduction to a Seminar and Launch on 22 September 2017 at the University of Edinburgh
Today’s seminar is both a launch of the Community Engagement: A Critical Guide for Practitioners and an opportunity to consider the problematic nature of community engagement in practice. It is not an information or motivational day on how to do community engagement; nor a decision-making or strategy-forming forum, though it may provoke some follow up activity. Neither is it representative of any particular interests or arguments.It is intended as a forum for questioning, critique and the expression of constructive skepticism; a chance for people to come together in what we hope will be a stimulating and convivial atmosphere; an opportunity to meet friends, old and new, and allies – to feel refreshed and renewed
Community Development and Co-production: Thinking Critically About Parameters and Power
Get PDFAs the work of community development practitioners is to some degree influenced by social policy, it is important to think critically about the parameters a particular policy discourse may construct. In this paper I propose using Gaventa’s (2006) ‘power cube’ as a framework for analysing the possible parameters which co-production constructs for community development workers, specifically where it situates them in terms of the power they have access to. Firstly, I will explore where one might initially assume community development finds itself situated in the context of co-production and will highlight some of the opportunities this offers practitioners, specifically the potential for renewing democracy, using an asset-based approach and the opportunities to facilitate empowerment. I will then pose a more critical analysis of the parameters that co-production creates by exploring an alternative view of where co-production might situate community development and the dilemma this may pose – that of furthering the global reach of neoliberal ideology. I will conclude by suggesting the ways in which community development workers can continue to carry out meaningful, radical work – regardless of the parameters created for them by a particular policy discourse – by continuing to be critically reflective
Whither Adult Education in the Learning Paradigm? Some Personal Reflections
Get PDFThe Scottish Government is currently in the process of making some significant changes to the governance of education in Scotland (see Crowther in this volume). This is likely to have major implications for community education work in Scotland, shifting its focus and purpose. These changes are also creating unease amongst many practitioners. However these changes and what lies behind them – increased managerialism and technical rationality, the narrowing of the scope of the work to emphasise attainment and employability, and more State targeting of who we work with – will have resonance beyond Scotland. Due to this renewed focus on the purpose of community education work, we thought it would be helpful for those trying to make sense of the current context to publish a paper by Ian Martin from 2008. With a focus on adult education, Martin explores some of the key traditions, ideas and challenges, which have helped shape what adult education is today, and reasserts the need for political and social purpose in this work
Review: Laurence Cox and Alf Gunvald Nilsen (2014) We Make Our Own History: Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism
Get PDFThis is a book about social movements. Unlike most such books, it seeks to understand the phenomenon of social movements with a view to assist them (us) in discerning a way forward in the current political context of neoliberalism. The authors, who are both movement activists and academics, argue that neoliberalism is mortally wounded and seemingly unable to reinvent capitalism. This presents an opportunity for social movements. What they provide is not a blueprint or road map but rather a tool kit - a set of analytical resources which movement activists can use collectively to consider how to act, and which strategies might help to deliver another world
A Genealogy of Youth Work’s Languages: Shapers
Get PDFIn this article I return to the work Bright (2015), Dawes (1975), Eagar (1953), Percival (1951), and Springhall (1977); to youth work’s second generation, born in or after 1856. I have named them youth work’s shapers: who translated youth work’s foundational Christian language beyond its initial tongue. Before providing a short biographical summary of these shapers I give a description of the most significant translations in youth work language; the move from its original Christian language into mono-theism and then into providential deism. I have called these, minor translations. Minor translations occur when a language’s motifs remain the same: ‘God’, ‘religion’, ‘spiritual’, ‘salvation’, ‘belief’, ‘worship’ but their application changes. The understanding of God, for example, extends beyond a Christian understanding, to an identifiable acknowledgement of a ‘deity’. Similarly, there remains a commitment to faith, but what faith means changes. I go on to show the nature of these translations before concluding that, despite these changes, youth work maintained differing forms of its foundational Christian language
Mason, P. (2015) PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future.
Get PDFPaul Mason is an interesting figure. UK’s former Chancellor, George Osborne, recently described him as ‘revolutionary Marxist’ and compared him with Micky Mouse in a speech to the House of Commons . Trying to read this positively, Mason is undoubtedly a very progressive and energetic figure on the left in the UK. At a time when journalists claim to be independent and value-free and are simultaneously unable to conduct proper and informative interviews with politicians due to their pseudo-critical and aggressive style , it is refreshing to see journalists like Paul Mason in the arena. He is able to conduct critical, investigative and in-depth journalism and has proven his ability for many years at the BBC and until recently as Economics Editor at Channel 4 News. In order ‘to escape the constraints of impartiality rules governing broadcasters’ and to engage more fully in the debates of the political left, Mason decided to leave Channel 4 News and now works as a freelance journalist . Mason is quite active and well-known on the political left. He recently produced an independent documentary about the crisis in Greece (#ThisIsACoup) , hosts talks with people like Yanis Varoufakis in front of a massive audience , contributes to Labour’s new economics series and is followed by more than 400,000 people on Twitter
Review: Peter McLaren, (2015) Pedagogy of Insurrection
Get PDFWhen Stalin and the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union saw Shotakovich’s Lady Macbeth at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre in 1936 they got so upset and finally outraged that the opera was crushed and condemned the next morning in the Party’s official newspaper Pravda. The second blast came a decade or so later in the Zhdanov Resolution, in which the famous composer was accused of rotten formalism. Shostakovich learnt the hard lesson and thereafter composed his symphonies - so to speak - for Stalin and the Politburo. Eventually he was forced to join the Communist Party and pretend to follow its doctrines
Poem: United Colours of Cumnock
Get PDFThis poem is about the changes to my hometown after the coal mines shut down