Concept (E-Journal)
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Understanding the world through accessible cultural resources
Full text linkUsing accessible cultural resources to understand the world is not a new concept. It is, however, a complex and multi-layered activity with historical routes in many different aspects of the sciences. The activity is clearly subjective, both in terms of the research subject and the cultural resources accessed. My cultural reflections span a period from the early 1960s to the present. I will try to structure this article by firstly outlining some of the personal cultural inflection points that influenced my choice of subject matter to research, and give a brief outline of the areas I spent time researching. Secondly, I will outline the type of cultural resources that I used for my research and, to conclude, I will reflect on how accessing cultural resources has, and still does, positively influenced my life
We Care: Perspectives on young carers in Edinburgh
Full text linkWhen discussing the Special Issue on care, I leapt at the chance to include a piece on young carers. Mae Shaw and I arranged interviews with colleagues at Edinburgh Young Carers in order to gain insight into their thoughts about young carers - the tensions and opportunities. Needless to say, what started as a simple exercise involving 3 questions evolved into a far more stimulating experience for us all. 
Guid Fer A Laugh: A seriously fun look at Scottish comedy for those who take fun seriously
Full text linkGuid Fer A Laugh has always sought to place itself as part of what Mikhail Bakhtin calls \u27the open-ended dialogue that enters into the dialogic fabric of human life\u27 (Morson & Emerson, 1990). It places a central value on the contributions of the participants and the active discourse that they create. As Buber (1965) states \u27[it is only] when we meet in the narrow ridge of the between\u27 that we discover for ourselves new discourse, new knowledge and truth. This ‘meeting in dialogue’, especially applies to laughter
Storytelling for Each Weaves a Blanket for All
Full text linkThe United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (Unicef, 1989), amongst other things, names the right to identity, the right to play and the right to a voice. Storytelling weaves together all three. Stories are carried through song, sculpture, weavings, drawings and the told word. To celebrate and nourish them is central to human health and to the work many of us do regardless of our job designations, wherever being a good listener is the primary skill we hone
Homelands: The history of a friendship Edinburgh
Full text linkAccording to its cover, Homelands is a memoir about two unlikely friends. One (the author) was born in 1970s Britain to Indian immigrant parents. The other, Henry Wuga, a young Jewish boy who fled persecution in Nazi Germany in 1939. While the book covers many important topics including migration, racism, family, belonging, love, and loss, it is not in any obvious way just the story of a friendship. Instead, the author chronicles Henry\u27s life and times, its triumphs and tribulations, its highs and lows. Henry escapes almost certain death in coming to Britain on the Kindertransport. He lives with a sponsor family before being interned as an alien, and eventually released in Glasgow where he meets Ingrid his future wife, who also arrived via the Kindertransport. Henry becomes a highly successful chef and caterer but over time his main contribution is as a curator of the truth about the Holocaust. His life says much about what it means to be a survivor, to overcome grief, and to negotiate the move from one country and culture to another. These themes are elaborated by Ramaswamy as she reflects on the experience of her own immigrant family and, indeed, her own life
It\u27s OK to be angry about capitalism
Full text linkAt a time when most politicians are wary of the phrase "working class", Bernie Sanders has no such qualms. It recurs countless times in this book, most of which is devoted to detailing the current plight of the American working class, its causes and the remedies needed. Sanders does not mince his words: the American working class lives a precarious, underpaid existence and suffers abysmal health care and poor education. Attempts at unionisation are aggressively put down. The force oppressing the working class, the Sanders narrative continues, is a handful of billionaires, who make massive donations to America\u27s two major political parties (sometimes to both at once), by which means they are able to block policy changes threatening their own financial interests. He expresses, at length, a quite personal loathing for these people and their values. Sanders informs us that the Democrats have more billionaire donors than the Republicans but he is justly proud that he did not solicit or receive any funding from them for his own campaign for nomination as the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 2020 (and when they read his book they won\u27t be giving him a cent in the future)
A green referral
Full text linkThis is about my journey finding meaning after loss. It is a personal account and though I refer to fellow travellers and facilitators I am speaking from my point of view, and my peers will have their own observations. I have been a teacher, parent, partner, carer (and, many years ago, an artist)
London Edinburgh Weekend Group (2020) In and Against the State, London, Pluto Press, pbk, 192 pages, 9780745341811, £14.99
Full text linkIn and Against the State began as a pamphlet published in 1979 on the eve of the election of the Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher. It was thenpublished as a book by Pluto Press a year later. The 2021 edition is both a reprint of the Pluto Press book and a look at how its arguments still hold up in a very different context. The writers of the book were a group of socialists working within the state who were questioning the contradictions and potential opportunities of their position. The members of the group travelled between Edinburgh and London and hence the group name, The London Edinburgh Weekend Return Group.The 2021 edition updates the book with a forward by John Holloway, one of the London Edinburgh Weekend Return Group, an introduction by editor Seth Wheeler and an interview with John McDonnell. McDonnell was part of the Greater London Council until its demise in 1986 and is now a Labour MP who was in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet
Emma Dowling (2022) The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? London: Verso, paperback 288pp, ISBN 9781786630353 £9.99
Full text linkUniversity of Vienna professor of sociology Emma Dowling presents a cogent exploration of how austerity measures and the privatisation of social welfare and healthservices in the UK have resulted in a lack of suitable options for those in need. She notes that women are more likely than men to lose income as a result of caring forchildren; that people of colour are disproportionately harmed by government cuts in spending on social care; and that migrants make up a significant proportion of care workers and are often paid below the minimum wage. Since the 1990s, Dowling explains, local authorities have been encouraged to contract out care services to private providers, supposedly with the goal of offering more personalised care. Corporate takeovers, however, have resulted in a focus on shareholder profits ratherthan effective provision. Her proposed solutions include reducing privatisation, “publicly funding new and innovative models for care,” and improving workingconditions for health-care employees. Blending sociological research and in-depth interviews, Dowling touches on many issues faced by both the recipients of care and the providers of care in the UK and the US, presenting a lucid and alarming picture of how political decisions have place obstacles in the way of progress towards better care. Readers on both sides of the Atlantic will appreciate this passionate and persuasive call for reform
Welcoming Work
Full text linkIn this article, I aim to provide an overview of the Welcoming Association, my ownexperiences and the causes of forced human displacement.I was born to a working-class family in 1960s Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. My fatherdied when I was nine years old and I was brought up by my courageous mother,supported by my uncles. Throughout my secondary school education, I wasbrainwashed by Marxism, Leninism and Maoism. I was taught about the evolution ofsystems from primitive communal society to 20th century communist systems in mymother tongue, Tigrinya