May 2018: The Work That Reconnects – Finding Hope When Dreams Have Shattered
Central to the Work that Reconnects is the Great Turning from an industrial growth society towards a life-sustaining culture. Participants explored this through a range of practical exercises. Acknowledging and addressing some of our fears and concerns around current challenges and the collective mess we’re in, the workshop aim at tackling overwhelm and helping find new energy.
The workshop was facilitated by Larry Butler, Luke Devlin and Svenja Meyerricks. Larry Butler is a poet and Tai chi teacher who co-founded the Poetry Healing Project out of which he founded and developed Survivors’ Poetry Scotland and Lapidus. Luke Devlin and Svenja Meyerricks are human ecologists and activists who have trained with Joanna Macy.
March to August 2018: Practicing Freedom, a reading group
For the 50th anniversary of the publication of Paolo Freire’s
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, we explored, celebrated & unraveled its relevance for all kinds of practice. The CHE teamed up with
CAMINA to set up a reading group of the influential book
in four sessions.
June 2018: In dialogue: exploring critical pedagogy with Antonia Darder
CHE, The Radical Learning Network, Variant, Plan C and CAMINA organised an evening of dialogue with Antonia Darder and fellow critical educators. The evening will give you the chance to explore the relevance of Pedagogy of the Oppressed today and how we can draw greater value from this important text. This event will offer a space to engage our hearts and minds around the opportunities and challenges for critical pedagogy today as well as hearing about Antonia Darder’s new Student Guide to Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
September 2018: Acting as We Mean It – Participation, Connection and Solidarity
Brexit has exposed huge faultlines in politics, accountability, public life and social attitudes. Following on from our Unbrexable event on caring and connections in European Scotland, Luke Devlin from the CHE will discuss where we are at, one year on. What has changed in the wider political landscape? Where lie the opportunities and challenges for grassroots movements? We invite participants to contribute to the discussion, a chance to reflect on current work, to identify gaps and to forge new connections.
At this open forum, participatory researchers Kye Askins and Sara Kindon shared insights about their work in relation to emotional citizenry and solidarity.
Sara Kindon is Associate Professor at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa.
Kye Askins is a Reader at the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow.
October 2018: Radical Co-operative Education: co-producing it in Glasgow
On Saturday, 6th October 2018 in the Pearce Institute, the CHE Annual General Meeting, and a gathering on the process of turning into a Radical Education institution. At the gathering, Luke Devlin gave an update on how CHE is becoming a co-operative and our involvement with the UK-wide Co-operative University Working Group. The co-operative started with an invitation to join in the design and co-production of a CHE’s new curriculum.
October 2018: An Evening with Michael Albert (ZComm)
On 10th October from 6.30pm – 8.30pm in the Pearce Institute we had a chance to spend an evening with the economist and author, Michael Albert. He introduced his new book Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desired Society (preface by Noam Chomsky and published by PM Press), about building a participatory society and economy in today’s world and commented to its relevance to what is going on in Scotland
Michael Albert has been politically active since the mid 1960s, in the civil rights movement, Vietnam War protests and alternatives to capitalism, including Students for a Democratic Society, Zcommunications and PARECON.
He co-founded South End Press in 1977 & later co- founded ZMagazine & www.zcomm.org.
With Robin Hahnel, he has developed their ideas around participatory economics based on the key values of Self-Management, Justice, Solidarity, Diversity, Efficiency and Sustainability.
November 2018: Becoming Animal at Glasgow Film Theatre (with Q&A)
This was the official UK release screening of Becoming Animal at the Glasgow Film Theatre. This documentary by Emma Davie and Peter Mettler features the environmental philosopher David Abram, who CHE hosted in 2011.
Shot in Grand Teton National Park, this immersive essay film draws together the distinct sensibilities of filmmakers Davie and Mettler and author David Abram to encounter the spaces where humans and animals meet. A subversive nature film in which we pique our senses to witness the so-called natural world — which in turn witnesses us. Moose clash antlers and a snail’s body becomes a vast landscape while the myriad sensory tools of cinema explore our complicity with this “more-than-human world.”
The screening was followed by a Q&A with director Emma Davie and Svenja Meyerricks from the Centre for Human Ecology.
