There’s a line in Robert Burns poem, A man’s a man, about ‘the man o’ independent mind’. Judging by the number of times it’s quoted, not least on Burns Night, this is something Scots value. But men, and women, o’ independent mind are in short supply, in Scotland and beyond. The man o' independent mind He looks an' laughs at a' that We’re now living in a world that’s … [Read more...] about Man O’ Independent Mind: Darren McGarvey’s Poverty Safari
Reviews
Scotland’s lost architectural futures
The unexpectedly bitter controversy over the proposal to demolish Glasgow’s Red Road Flats during the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony was symbolic of Scotland’s complex relationship with the legacy of post-war Modernist architecture.For nearly half a century the six 31-storey towers stood as sentinels on the Glasgow horizon, anticipating some future utopian … [Read more...] about Scotland’s lost architectural futures
European solidarity or national responsibility?
“The idea of Europe is in retreat and the European Union is at an advanced state of disintegration“. This is how the preliminary version of DiEM25's white paper on a new vision for Europe begins.DiEM25 is an initiative of, amongst others, Yanis Varoufakis, who was finance minister in Greece for five months at the height of its economic crisis in 2015.The white paper … [Read more...] about European solidarity or national responsibility?
T2 Trainspotting: back to what future?
The problems with sequels are well trodden; and for a sequel to a film like Trainspotting, they are magnified tenfold.Trainspotting defined an era. A fin de siècle of those that could be summarised down to a 12-song playlist, with some level of accuracy. Of a century at large that was marked with identifiable trends and movements split into convenient, decade-long chunks. … [Read more...] about T2 Trainspotting: back to what future?
2017 and the idea of utopia
Billed as a year of imagination and possibility to mark the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia, 2016 didn’t quite work out that way.2017 offers another opportunity to consider the meaning and value of the idea of utopia, marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution, the most significant utopian enterprise since the American and French revolutions.For most, the … [Read more...] about 2017 and the idea of utopia