My research interests are interdisciplinary, I have a PhD in Fine Art which explored social engaged arts practice in the context of policies for social inclusion and disability theory.
I have developed in interest in public engagement, collective agency and citizenship. I have undertaken a range of research projects for public sector organisations such as Police Scotland and voluntary sector organisations including, Govanhill Baths, Inspiring Scotland and West of Scotland Regional Equality Council. I am particularly interested in post-foundational theory which connects the social and material constitution of experience.
The title I have given this book, 交流kōryū, is a Japanese word that can be broadly translated into... more The title I have given this book, 交流kōryū, is a Japanese word that can be broadly translated into English as ‘exchange(s)’. Its meanings correspond to the breadth of meaning ‘exchange’ offers in English, including acts of giving and receiving (often in kind), exchange visits or an exchange of words, but, as is the case with most if not all acts of translation, the space in-between multiplies the relations – it opens up meaning in different directions, tangentially and metaphorically, in productive ways. Made up of two kanji (Chinese characters), the first, 交, (kō or ka) implies discussion, connection and negotiation, as well as mingling and mixing, coming and going. It is part of 交わすkawasu, for example, which means ‘to exchange messages or greetings’ (though it could also imply an argument) as well as suggesting wider variations on mingling and mixing such as intersecting, crossing, interlacing, and so on. Most pertinent, perhaps, is that adding kawasu to the end of a sentence means...
Recent lifelong learning policies have been criticised for creating an illusion of freedom whilst... more Recent lifelong learning policies have been criticised for creating an illusion of freedom whilst simultaneously reducing choice. The concept of desire permits engagement with the conscious and unconscious drives that underpin individual decision‐making, which direct the life course. Utilising the ideas of Hume and Spinoza, the present article articulates the interrelated nature of desire and learning. Evidence is drawn from
As a central strand of IVM4, Digital Storytelling was represented as a model of participatory res... more As a central strand of IVM4, Digital Storytelling was represented as a model of participatory research with significant potential for emancipatory impact. However, the ways in which digital storytelling is couched within Freire’s, Hegelian teleology generates a range of ethical problems. Freirean approaches rest on a humanist notion of the dialectic of recognition and when translated to the level of the collective, this ends in a problematic model of collective identity, which is ultimately exclusionary and particularistic. More recent thinking on the common by Italian theorists (Esposito, 2010; Hardt and Negri, 2011, Agamben, 1993) continues the struggle for liberation but sidesteps these problems through a rethinking on how the commons is formulated.
Flexibility and change are typically viewed as endemic features of late modernity, leading to inc... more Flexibility and change are typically viewed as endemic features of late modernity, leading to increased emphasis on the importance of transition during the adult life course. The paper examines experiences of transition for eight contributors to a research project that collected and analysed life histories as the basis for an understanding of learning in relation to identity, agency and change in adult life. Four of the interviewees report mired transitions, and four report on transitions that became mobile after a period of immobility. The paper identifies a number of factors which can restrict movement, structural and internal, real and imaginary, that are described in these stories. We then set out our socio-cultural understanding of the ‘betwixt and between’ status that Turner calls liminality, suggesting that many do not experience liminality as wholly emancipatory. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for lifelong learning strategies, which need to attend to the weight of what Alheit calls ‘biographicity’ in understanding learners' lives. While this requires acknowledgement of the role of informal learning, it does not however justify understating the importance of formal adult learning.
British Educational Research Association (BERA), Jun 1, 2007
This paper explores the limitations of the concept of transition in a 'liquid modern age... more This paper explores the limitations of the concept of transition in a 'liquid modern age'(Bauman, 2000). Notions of transition imply linear change where movement occurs along a pre-ordained pathway with fixed sets of gates which must be negotiated. In this paper we draw on the experience of a group of participants in a study of learning, agency and identity. Their stories offer insight into a conceptualisation of the life course not as a linear path but as a plane of experience through which differing emergent influences ...
International Journal of Education and the Arts, 2007
Use of creative processes as a tool for social inclusion has gathered momentum in recent years. T... more Use of creative processes as a tool for social inclusion has gathered momentum in recent years. This article reports the views of education professionals based in Scotland on the use and effects of targeting. While this strategy aims to improve access to those communities considered marginal, it is apparent that some of the effects are detrimental to the development of an equitable approach. Using the framework of social capital we gain insight into strategies which enable difference to become positive and where the top down mechanism of targeting is replaced by a dialogical exchange.
This introduction to the special issue focuses on the messiness of biopolitics. The biopolitical ... more This introduction to the special issue focuses on the messiness of biopolitics. The biopolitical is a composite mixture of heterogeneous, and sometimes conflicting, forces, discourses, institutions, laws, and practices that are embedded in and animated by material social relations. In the now extensive literature on biopolitics, our biopolitical era is characterized by the blending and mixing of what were previously thought of as separate realms: life is biologized, politics is biologized and biology is politicized, life and politics have been economized, and making life is intertwined with making death. This article provides a general overview of two strains of these biopolitical entanglements. It begins by examining the largely French and Italian focus on how politics and life have become economized in contemporary neoliberalism. We then turn to the mainly Anglo-American focus on the biologization of life. It concludes by taking up the central problem that arises from the messines...
The title I have given this book, 交流kōryū, is a Japanese word that can be broadly translated into... more The title I have given this book, 交流kōryū, is a Japanese word that can be broadly translated into English as ‘exchange(s)’. Its meanings correspond to the breadth of meaning ‘exchange’ offers in English, including acts of giving and receiving (often in kind), exchange visits or an exchange of words, but, as is the case with most if not all acts of translation, the space in-between multiplies the relations – it opens up meaning in different directions, tangentially and metaphorically, in productive ways. Made up of two kanji (Chinese characters), the first, 交, (kō or ka) implies discussion, connection and negotiation, as well as mingling and mixing, coming and going. It is part of 交わすkawasu, for example, which means ‘to exchange messages or greetings’ (though it could also imply an argument) as well as suggesting wider variations on mingling and mixing such as intersecting, crossing, interlacing, and so on. Most pertinent, perhaps, is that adding kawasu to the end of a sentence means...
Recent lifelong learning policies have been criticised for creating an illusion of freedom whilst... more Recent lifelong learning policies have been criticised for creating an illusion of freedom whilst simultaneously reducing choice. The concept of desire permits engagement with the conscious and unconscious drives that underpin individual decision‐making, which direct the life course. Utilising the ideas of Hume and Spinoza, the present article articulates the interrelated nature of desire and learning. Evidence is drawn from
As a central strand of IVM4, Digital Storytelling was represented as a model of participatory res... more As a central strand of IVM4, Digital Storytelling was represented as a model of participatory research with significant potential for emancipatory impact. However, the ways in which digital storytelling is couched within Freire’s, Hegelian teleology generates a range of ethical problems. Freirean approaches rest on a humanist notion of the dialectic of recognition and when translated to the level of the collective, this ends in a problematic model of collective identity, which is ultimately exclusionary and particularistic. More recent thinking on the common by Italian theorists (Esposito, 2010; Hardt and Negri, 2011, Agamben, 1993) continues the struggle for liberation but sidesteps these problems through a rethinking on how the commons is formulated.
Flexibility and change are typically viewed as endemic features of late modernity, leading to inc... more Flexibility and change are typically viewed as endemic features of late modernity, leading to increased emphasis on the importance of transition during the adult life course. The paper examines experiences of transition for eight contributors to a research project that collected and analysed life histories as the basis for an understanding of learning in relation to identity, agency and change in adult life. Four of the interviewees report mired transitions, and four report on transitions that became mobile after a period of immobility. The paper identifies a number of factors which can restrict movement, structural and internal, real and imaginary, that are described in these stories. We then set out our socio-cultural understanding of the ‘betwixt and between’ status that Turner calls liminality, suggesting that many do not experience liminality as wholly emancipatory. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for lifelong learning strategies, which need to attend to the weight of what Alheit calls ‘biographicity’ in understanding learners' lives. While this requires acknowledgement of the role of informal learning, it does not however justify understating the importance of formal adult learning.
British Educational Research Association (BERA), Jun 1, 2007
This paper explores the limitations of the concept of transition in a 'liquid modern age... more This paper explores the limitations of the concept of transition in a 'liquid modern age'(Bauman, 2000). Notions of transition imply linear change where movement occurs along a pre-ordained pathway with fixed sets of gates which must be negotiated. In this paper we draw on the experience of a group of participants in a study of learning, agency and identity. Their stories offer insight into a conceptualisation of the life course not as a linear path but as a plane of experience through which differing emergent influences ...
International Journal of Education and the Arts, 2007
Use of creative processes as a tool for social inclusion has gathered momentum in recent years. T... more Use of creative processes as a tool for social inclusion has gathered momentum in recent years. This article reports the views of education professionals based in Scotland on the use and effects of targeting. While this strategy aims to improve access to those communities considered marginal, it is apparent that some of the effects are detrimental to the development of an equitable approach. Using the framework of social capital we gain insight into strategies which enable difference to become positive and where the top down mechanism of targeting is replaced by a dialogical exchange.
This introduction to the special issue focuses on the messiness of biopolitics. The biopolitical ... more This introduction to the special issue focuses on the messiness of biopolitics. The biopolitical is a composite mixture of heterogeneous, and sometimes conflicting, forces, discourses, institutions, laws, and practices that are embedded in and animated by material social relations. In the now extensive literature on biopolitics, our biopolitical era is characterized by the blending and mixing of what were previously thought of as separate realms: life is biologized, politics is biologized and biology is politicized, life and politics have been economized, and making life is intertwined with making death. This article provides a general overview of two strains of these biopolitical entanglements. It begins by examining the largely French and Italian focus on how politics and life have become economized in contemporary neoliberalism. We then turn to the mainly Anglo-American focus on the biologization of life. It concludes by taking up the central problem that arises from the messines...
The title I have given this book, 交流kōryū, is a Japanese word that can be broadly translated into... more The title I have given this book, 交流kōryū, is a Japanese word that can be broadly translated into English as ‘exchange(s)’. Its meanings correspond to the breadth of meaning ‘exchange’ offers in English, including acts of giving and receiving (often in kind), exchange visits or an exchange of words, but, as is the case with most if not all acts of translation, the space in-between multiplies the relations – it opens up meaning in different directions, tangentially and metaphorically, in productive ways. Made up of two kanji (Chinese characters), the first, 交, (kō or ka) implies discussion, connection and negotiation, as well as mingling and mixing, coming and going. It is part of 交わすkawasu, for example, which means ‘to exchange messages or greetings’ (though it could also imply an argument) as well as suggesting wider variations on mingling and mixing such as intersecting, crossing, interlacing, and so on. Most pertinent, perhaps, is that adding kawasu to the end of a sentence means ‘...with one another’ or ‘... to each other’, following the grammatical form of Japanese.This book experiments with forms of exchange, negotiating understandings and practices (or ‘praxis’ as will be explored). One way it does this is by presenting different forms of conversation, ongoing or momentary collaborations with other researchers and artists, working with or between the disciplines of art and anthropology. Here, then, art is ‘on speaking terms’ with anthropology. I understand art as akin to a work of translation, rather than of representation. It was only in the Middle Ages that translation, translatio, became narrowly identified with language; before this it was used to describe processes of transformation, of exchange – movements or transfers of persons, ideas, and objects, metaphorically as well as from medium to medium, or from experience to text, and for me, also invokes a sense of self transformation. These interweaving exchanges can also be seen as works of translation in this broad sense: crossing forms and media, interlacing academic ‘knowledge’. Crucially, art is seen here as form of knowledge, even as a way of doing ‘theory’. In book form, these exchanges are now also directed ‘to’ others, with an awareness of our possible interlocuters, our readers.
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