Glasgow Centre for Population Health Podcast

Since 2010 the University of Strathclyde, the University of Herat and the NGO PeaceWaves International Network have been collaborating on two projects funded by the British Council. One of these collaborative projects is under the scheme called INSPIRE International Strategic Partnership and started in January 2011. The focus of this project is to run (across three years) two training courses for Afghan practitioners in Person Centred/Experiential Skills plus a final advanced input. The course is experientially co-constructed between tutors and participants on a daily basis, in respect of the local cultural and traditional values and has the long term aim to be training for trainers that can be applied and replicated autonomously at the University of Herat and several other Afghan organisations. In this lecture members of the team will present an overview of their work, together with findings so far and the implications of these for a country living with the consequences of a long period of war and devastation.

Since 2010 the University of Strathclyde, the University of Herat and the NGO PeaceWaves International Network have been collaborating on two projects funded by the British Council. The first, under the scheme called DelPHE and started in September 2010, is a three year collaborative research project titled Afghan Civil Society's opinion and suggestions regarding women's empowerment and children's education in their country. 15 young Afghan researchers have been trained on quantitative and qualitative research methods. Parallel to that, a questionnaire and some focus groups have been developed and are due to be run by the young researchers across the six Afghan Provinces. The aim of this project is to give a voice to Afghan Civil Society regarding two main emergencies in their country (that are also points raised by the Millennium Development Goals, 2009): women's empowerment and children's education. In this lecture members of the team will present an overview of their work, together with findings so far and the implications of these for a country living with the consequences of a long period of war and devastation.

A growing number of people, including millions from Britain, have been entering a global precariat, part of an emerging class structure shaped by globalisation. In this lecture, drawing on his new book, The Precariat: A New Dangerous Class, Professor Standing examined the labour market dynamics that underpin the growth of the precariat and set out the nucleus of a new 'politics of paradise' that is beginning to take shape outside the political mainstream.

Seminar Series 7 concluded on Tuesday 10 May 2011 at St Andrew's in the Square, Glasgow.

The fifth seminar in Series 7 took place on Wednesday 13 April 2011 at the Trades Hall of Glasgow.

The fourth seminar in Series 7 took place on Tuesday 8 March 2011 at the Lighthouse, Glasgow. It has become all too evident in recent months that the world, as well as local society, is being subjected to an increasing pace of shocks. These range from natural events, such as earthquakes, eruptions, super-storms and large scale flooding, to societal shocks including financial crises, budget cuts and unrest with outworn regimes and politics. At the local level we see escalating fuel and food prices, weather stress and degrading public health. These challenges are having the effect of switching the agenda from sustainability towards resilience. The question emergency planners ask is "how can we plan for anything without having to plan for everything?" The essential nature of resilience is to prepare capacity to be able to bounce back from shocks, surprises and contingencies. The task is to get things returned to normal as quickly as possible. But supposing we are entering a future where normal as we know it no longer exists? There may be structural changes taking place in people and planet that are too far gone from the normal that we have become comfortable with. This talk introduced the idea that we need to begin thinking about what it would mean to bounce beyond, to respond to crises as opportunities to change the way we configure life. In the increasing frequency of what Homer-Dixon calls synchronous failure, where our rigid structures are really broken down, we may be able to initiate positive changes that are impossible as 'gentle change' as the current system fights to keep the status quo. This leads us to a new concept called transformative resilience.

The third seminar of Series 7 took place on Tuesday 8 February 2011 at the City Halls in Glasgow.

The first Seminar Series event of 2011 took place on Wednesday 19 January at the Teacher Building, Glasgow. Hazel Henderson spoke live from Florida via webcast.

The first seminar in this Series took place on Thursday 18 November 2010 at the Lighthouse.

Adam Kahane delivered the last seminar from this series. His lecture was based on his assertion that the two methods most frequently employed to solved our toughest social problems - relying on violence and aggression, or submitting to endless negotiation and compromise - are fundamentally flawed and that the seemingly contradictory drives behind these two approaches - power, the desire to achieve one's purpose, and love, the urge to unite with others are actually complimentary.