Thursday 16 October, 5pm
University of Strathclyde, Department of Geography & Sociology
Room 5.04, Graham Hills Building, 50 George Street, Glasgow

Thursday 30 October, 2 pm
Word Power's Radical Book Fair
Blue Drill Hall, off Leith Walk, Edinburgh

About the book: Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality is a Schumacher Briefing co-sponsored by the Centre for Human Ecology and WWF International. The publication also features a dozen pieces of research undertaken mainly by MSc Human Ecology students, collected and edited by CHE graduate Sam Harrison, funded by a research and development grant from Strathclyde University that was procured by Professor David Miller.

You can buy a copy online from Word Power, Scotland's only independent bookshop: http://www.word-power.co.uk/books/rekindling-community-I9781900322386/

The International Association for Community Development is a volunteer-led, Scottish-based organisation committed to building a global network of people and organisations working toward social & environmental justice through a community development approach. They have recently launched a new initiative called The Global Village project, which CHE graduate Tara O'Leary is working on.

It is often said that the world has become a global village. We are able to communicate with people at the other side of the world in an instant and many of us in Scotland have been lucky enough to see far-flung places & meet new cultures first hand. At international gatherings, conferences and events Community Development activists are often deeply moved and motivated by face to face meetings with international partners... Our experience tells us that there is a hunger for deeper learning and exchange between communities here and overseas.

To respond to this enthusiasm, IACD is developing ‘global village’ residencies in 2008/9, supporting communities in the UK or Ireland to host an international visitor or small team of visitors who might share dialogue and experiences, tackle practical problems, run workshops/training sessions, undertake community arts work or be part of the development efforts in that community.  

CHE graduate Maire McCormack is involved in organizing a Green Islands Network conference with the Scottish Green Party and the European Parliament, entitled Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? CHE Fellow Alastair McIntosh will also be speaking there.

The conference will deal with issues of identity, the nation state, and global changes. Using stories and images to encourage an examination of personal and national identity, the event will seek to inform future policy making and define a clear Green vision on questions of independence, nationalism, movement and migration.

It will take place Saturday 15 November, 9:00 am - 9:30 pm, at the Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh. More details available on the flyer: http://www.che.ac.uk/mambo/media/green_islands_network_conference.pdf

In September Alastair addressed 30 industrialists on WWF's One Planet Leaders programme in England, and subsequently in Baveno, Italy, 200 leaders of the cement industry - a sector that is responsible for at least 5% of world CO2 emissions. In Wales as part of the launch events for Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition, he spoke on climate change and spirituality to an invited audience of activists at Howie's Do, and in London he spoke at the Mayor's Thames Festival and the Irish Cultural Centre. An edited video of the Howie's event is online at http://www.thedolectures.com/speakers/alastair-mcintosh. The Scotsman's review of Hell and High Water is at http://living.scotsman.com/outdoors/Book-review--Hell-and.4395430.jp

To close, an excerpt from a poem read by Nick Wilding at the CHE graduation ceremony, 13 September 2008 - Common Sense by Paul Williams.

We have been born
into a moment
of unprecedented danger and opportunity.

. . .

I am speaking today of a great possibility
a chance to return to life
a chance to create a world for our children
not worse than the one we have

. . .

The truth is, we have the skills
and we have the courage
if we could only keep our minds
on what we really want.

. . .

How to prevent world catastrophe:

1) Admit that it could happen.
2) Decide that it will not happen.
3) Commit your vision and energy to number two

without ever forgetting number one.

To choose to build a bridge
is the essential act of love.
 

After a break of eight years, I have stepped forward again to join the Board at the AGM in January, and at our last meeting I was elected Chair, taking over from Aydin Kurt-Elli after his significant spell in the role.

On 25 June 2008, Graduate and Director Ewen Hardie embarked on a barefoot walk from Edinburgh to London to raise funds for the Burma Education Scholarship Trust and raise awareness of the plight of Burma's internally displaced people -- refugees from the cyclone as well as from the actions of the military Junta.

Along the way, he is relying entirely on the kindness of strangers, and has received enthusiastic support from many people, along with a fair amount of press coverage. By now he'll have reached the Grand Union Canal, which he'll follow to London -- check his blog for details of his adventures, and current whereabouts -- companions are always welcome! barefeetforburma.blogspot.com.

Explaining the rationale behind his walk, Ewen writes: It is now over seven months since I shaved my head and began walking barefoot in the wake of the brutal suppression of Burma’s saffron revolution. It has been a truly amazing and enriching experience for me, from the first few months when everybody wanted to know what was happening and I received daily messages from well wishers, to now, when for me and almost everybody else, it has taken on a sense of normality.

Action Research (AR) is one of CHE's most popular short courses. In addition to providing a grounding in the AR field, the focus of the course is on practical skills, case studies, and particularly learning-by-doing. Action Research is an umbrella term that covers a vast range of participatory and emancipatory approaches to 'research in the real world'. It is ideally suited to professionals and activists who want to develop their leadership, facilitation and research skills by focussing on their ongoing priorities through the three months of the programme.

Because programmes of this depth and quality are rare, we have been oversubscribed every year. Past participants have included PhD students who have sought AR guidance not available in their own departments; teams from NGOs looking for support to step up their effectiveness as critical friends and community researchers; professionals from health, business and education; and of course a healthy number of MSc Human Ecology students.

“Your energy, passion and honesty worked really well for me throughout the sessions” - course participant feedback

More details available here: http://www.che.ac.uk/mambo/content/view/180/188/.