Concept (E-Journal)
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Arts, Culture and Community Development (2021 Edited by Rosie Meade and Mae Shaw, Policy Press 272 pages ISBN 978-1447340515, £26.99
Full text linkThis book shows the many ways in which the arts provide the means and spaces of engagement for people to collectively \u27make sense of, re-imagine, or seek to change the personal, cultural, social, economic, political or territorial conditions of their lives\u27 (p. 1). To do so, academics and practitioners from six continents discuss and explore a range of aesthetic forms including song, music, muralism, theatre, dance, and circus arts based on examples from Finland, Lebanon, Latin America, China, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka and beyond. It comprises 13 chapters and an Afterword and is divided into two parts: \u27making and sharing collective meanings\u27 and \u27negotiating policy and practice\u27. The first part captures how collective hopes, frustrations and fears are addressed through song, dance, etched on walls or conveyed through puppets and theatre leading to allegiances and memories that illustrate how \u27community development is reflected in what is said, done, made, and created by people together\u27 (p. 13). The second part is about the conditions of possibility for community-based arts and media, where the focus is on addressing the consequences of structural violence, inequality, and oppression. Here, the authors explore how cultural practices are conceptualised and negotiated in a wide range of countries and settings
Folk - Music
Full text linkThis photographic essay is offered as a reflective gallery space among the text-based debate, ideas, arguments, and opinions in this special edition.
On 14 August 1985, I had a falling out with my friend and fellow musician and musicologist David Johnson (1942-2009), on account of a review I had written of his seminal book Scottish Fiddle Music in the Eighteenth Century for the journal Cencrastus. I remember the precise date, as David chose to challenge me on the matter while we sat together waiting nervously in the green room at the Queens Hall, minutes before we were to take the stage in Mr Menuhin’s Delight, an Edinburgh International Festival concert of Scottish fiddle music
Learning for Democracy: The Transformative Power of Music
Full text linkThe sustainability of any democratic polity relies on the active participation of its citizens in civic and political affairs. Therefore, if we value democracy, it is important to be clear about how people become active participants so it can be sustained and developed. There are a range of conceptual ideas that social scientists use to explain how people develop an interest in politics and become political actors. In this article I will draw on my doctoral thesis to explore one of these ideas, the concept of political socialisation, and to highlight the key role that music played in helping some young people become politically active and critically conscious citizens. I will conclude by arguing that educators should recognise and harness the transformative power of music to help people learn about democracy and their role in it
The Old Oak
Full text linkThis film is the third in a trilogy of films set in the Northeast of England from Director, Ken Loach and Scriptwriter, Paul Laverty. All three films give voice to the experience of working-class communities dealing with the devastating and lasting impact of policy over the last four decades, which has preserved the interests of an elite at the expense of the interests of a much wider public. The first film I Daniel Blake highlighted the punitive cruelty of the current welfare system, no longer protecting people in adversity from poverty, homelessness or hunger. The second Sorry We Missed You highlighted the rise of the gig economy, and the erosion of terms and conditions which protect workers in employment. This third film explores the struggle to maintain hope and solidarity in working-class communities in the context of relentless attacks on living standards and quality of life. This is illuminated through the relationship of TJ, a pub landlord struggling to maintain his rundown business, and Yara, a Syrian refugee placed in the community with her family, along with other refugee families, by local authorities
Editorial - Arts & Culture for All (Special Issue)
No full textWe are living in a troubled and troubling world: globally, locally and, increasingly, personally. A world of violence, insecurity and fear. Palestinian author Isabella Hammad\u27s concern that \u27violence can make art-making seem futile and feeble, easily crushed\u27 (2023) must resonate for many of those who work with people experiencing increasingly harsh living conditions. Her conclusion, however, is instructive: \u27It\u27s easy to feel useless, and from there it\u27s a short leap to despair. But I don\u27t believe we can afford to despair, nor do I think despair is ethical\u27. This sense of a duty to resist despair is a striking reminder of the critical task of educators and activists, and of the role that arts and culture can play in sustaining energy, determination and defiance in the face of despair. In this special issue of Concept, authors draw attention to some of the ways that people collectively make sense of, re-imagine or seek to change, the conditions of their lives by using the arts as a means and space of engagement. 
Arts and Culture for all in Public Libraries: Reflections from the front-line
Full text linkI have worked in community library services for the past 27 years and have seen the role of libraries in promoting and supporting cultural activity change and develop significantly over the period. All libraries are generally defined as a physical space that holds specific resources for use by its members. A typical definition of a public library can be found at collinsdictionary.com: \u27a building where things such as books, newspapers, videos and music are kept for people to read, use or borrow\u27. When I began working in public libraries, much of my role supported this simple definition. The majority of my work involved the maintenance and development of library collections and the ways in which they could be more easily accessed by users. Over the years, the priorities of front-line staff in libraries have moved away from a collection-centred approach towards an approach that is more community-centred. There have been a number of factors that have contributed to this change in emphasis but, from my perspective, they all have their roots in libraries adjusting to community demand
I want more: Learning at L.A.S.T.
Full text linkLothian Apprenticeship Scheme Trust (L.A.S.T.) was established nearly thirty years ago at the Moray House Institute of Education (now part of the University of Edinburgh), with the first participants beginning their degrees in 1995. An innovative project for its time, it aimed to enable community activists lacking formal educational qualifications, and from predominantly working-class, disabled and minority ethnic communities, to gain a professional qualification in Community Education. Because all participants were simultaneously working, and in order to reinforce the link with employment, they were referred to as apprentices, studying part-time on a 40-week-a-year basis rather than the usual 30. In effect, they were undertaking an accelerated degree whilst at the same time working in their own communities. Nearly three decades later, we set out to explore the long-term impact of this unique programme on a small group of former apprentices
Laura Bates (2022) Fix the System, Not the Women. London: Simon and Schuster, hardback, 208 pp., ISBN 9781398514331.
Full text linkIn Fix the System, Not the Women, Laura Bates charts the pervasive sexism in society that shapes womens’ experiences from childhood to adulthood. Shequestions and dissects the widely held and accepted notion that women are responsible for their own protection. This book is an excellent exploration and articulation of years of seemingly disparate yet interconnected experiences of sexism from around the globe and how they impact our daily lives
Darren McGarvey (2022) The Social Distance Between Us. London: Ebury Press, hardback, 400 pp., ISBN 9781529104080
Full text linkDarren McGarvey’s latest book The Social Distance Between Us: How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain explores the idea that ‘proximity dictates how we identify and relate to society and the problems it faces - ultimately dictating how, and whether, we strive to resolve them’. Darren does this exploration in a book consisting of an introduction, two acts with an interlude between them and then a coda
Radical: Free or Token? Darren McGarvey (2022) The Social Distance Between Us. London: Ebury Press, hardback, 400 pp., ISBN 9781529104080
Full text linkIntroductionFew other recent events encapsulate the gulf between the ruling class and disenfranchised more fully than the Grenfell Fire of 2017. Tantamount to social murder rather than disaster, the litany is now well known: a rentier class fat on public contracts and cost-cutting on basic safety measures, with the full knowledge of a Chelsea and Kensington Council more concerned with generating commercial income from the sale of public assets, and a Prime Minister unwilling or afraid to console survivors. Even the Editorial Board (2017) of the New York Times saw that a British state “infatuated with austerity and deregulation” had “gone too far in shedding its fundamental duties to protect public health and safety”