community empowerment
Gulliver’s foot and art’s redemptive power
“One by one aspects of what the CFS did were closed down or were taken back under the aegis of the council. The times changed. Austerity, unemployment, and drugs bit hard here. The Festival Society…
Time to rebuild: Edinburgh Reimagined Part 2
During August, a ‘can-do’ attitude from the City of Edinburgh Council and other gatekeepers to cultural provision creates the temporary illusion that any available space in the city can be a venue. Morvern Cunningham makes…
More real than reality TV – the virtual community kitchen
It’s not all doom and gloom. Local communities have found inspiring new opportunities in lockdown. For Sceptical Scot, food writer Jonathan Trew ventures into the heat of a a virtual kitchen bringing cultures together
Edinburgh reimagined: the future will be localised
Arts and culture are at a turning point, says Morvern Cunningham, facing the risk of returning to a kind of normal that we saw pre-pandemic. Only this time, the normal we are heading back to…
The People’s Occupation: no more cuts
As the post-Covid reckoning approaches, who is going to ‘own’ the rebuilding of services, community capacity and employment to which both UK and Scottish governments are formally committed?
Locked down and out: the digital divide
This is not about being a “technophobe” but about material facts of life: many people do not have access to the internet because they can’t afford the equipment or have to choose between find the…
Finding a better way: a frontline view
The reality of life in lockdown hits home in a powerful report by Philippa Kemp, communications manager of the Edinburgh-based charity Multicultural Family Base. But it also raises hope. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Rapid response: social enterprise shows the way
Government could learn from local community enterprises responding with astonishing speed and efficiency to get help and food where it is needed most – including NHS staff on the frontline
Distanced but not divided: digital media helps us define our new normal
What will the new normal feel like when the pandemic is over? Can we come together to look after the most vulnerable, can we continue to use technology ingeniously, interacting to support communities?
Community empowerment or delivering less with less?
‘..with so much promise offered by new economic democratic agendas such as new municipalism, communities can have a key role as partners with the state against the cosh of market liberalism and declining public services.’