For this special bonus edition of Recovering Community, Les Back travels south of the border, to Sheffield to look at how rethinking the relationship between heritage and local communities can make them more inclusive, particularly for the most marginalised.  

Here, the Roots and Futures project is listening to the perspectives of under-served communities, particularly Sheffield's Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in seven locations across the city.   

The project is informing city-level heritage strategies in partnership with Joined Up Heritage Sheffield, Sheffield City Council, University of Sheffield, and community partners including Zest, SOAR, Sheffield and District African Caribbean Community Association, Care for Young People’s Future, ChilyPep, Manor and Castle Development Trust, and Heeley City Farm. This all might seem like a long way from Glasgow but Roots and Futures is part of the AHRC’s Place-Based Research Programme which is based at the University of Glasgow.   

People rooted in local communities are absolutely essential to this kind of co-production and Les spends time with just a few of the people involved in this ambitious project:

Aisha Jones has lived in Sheffield for over 20 years and is a dedicated community volunteer

Lizzy Craig-Atkins is Professor of Human Osteology at the University of Sheffield and the principal investigator of Roots and Futures. 

Rhonda Allen, is a Research Associate in the Roots and Futures Project in the DSchool of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Humanities 

Izzy Carter is a historian and the co-investigator of Roots and Futures. Much of her work is connected to place and working with communities. 

And Robin Hughes, who is a trustee of Joined Up Heritage Sheffield

Many thanks to them all for sharing their time and expertise. Find out more about Roots and Futures here

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/roots-and-futures

 

We’re already working on plans for our next episodes, but your feedback, comments and questions are always so welcome. You can get in touch with Les via X https://x.com/AcademicDiary

If you’re interested in podcasting as part of your academic research, please do share your work or what you’re listening to, we are interested to hear what other people are working on.

Thanks to the staff in the School of Social and Political Sciences and the College of Social Sciences who helped with this project.

Recovering Community is produced by Freya Hellier.

 

Les Back meets with Dr Susan Batchelor, Dr Caitlin Gormley and Jim Thomson to learn more about a new piece of research exploring repeat violence in Scotland.

To be homeless is more than not having a roof over your head.  It is also about a denial of being, a person out of place to look away from, to ignore and not make eye contact with them as you pass busily through Glasgow's Central Station. 

The numbers of people living precariously in the city is increasing (a recent article in the Glasgow Herald says they have doubled recently).  This is a story of a deep crisis not only in housing, but it also reveals the symbiotic relationship between social inequalities,  homelessness, violence, and the drug economy

And it’s a story that many people and organisations are trying to rewrite. One of them is Glasgow City Council who has been putting up Rough Sleepers and Vulnerable People or RSVPs in a number of city centre hotels for a few years now. For an overstretched local authority struggling to meet demand, this has been a controversial and troubled solution to a very complicated issue. 

Another organisation working in this field is Simon Community Scotland; a charity providing information, advice, care, support and accommodation to people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness. 

The Simon Community has a wealth of expertise and lived experience within its teams of staff and volunteers, one of them is Jim Thomson, who - at the time of our interview - was the coordinator of We See You, a project run from the Simon Community’s access hub in the city centre.

Jim and the Simon Community partnered with my colleagues Susan Batchelor and Caitlin Gormley as part of a major research project on Repeat Violence in Scotland. 

It’s a piece of work that is urgently important so Les met up with Susan, a senior lecturer in sociology and Caitlin, a lecturer in criminology - who are both based in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and Jim to learn more. 

Thank you to Jim Thomson  and The Simon Community Scotland for hosting this recording

You can read the report on repeat violence in Scotland here

https://www.gov.scot/publications/repeat-violence-scotland-qualitative-approach/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier

 

Les Back visits the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow to talk about history, and how it impacts our lives and relationships in the 21st century. He meets with Hunterian Curator of Discomfort Zandra Yeaman and Dr Jay Sarkar to learn more about why history is so important when it comes to meaningful and respectful connection and cohabitation. 

Glasgow is famous for its museums and galleries - from The Burrell Collection in the Southside, to Kelvingrove in the West End. But as you wander around these grand, serene places, do you ever think about how these traces of the past got here and what museums are actually for? 

Perhaps they’re to inspire, to educate, to memorialise our shared history. Or maybe to help us relax on a Sunday or enjoy a nice coffee and piece of cake, but could there, or should there be the possibility that museums can make us uncomfortable?

It’s a question that’s in the minds of the curators and community at The Hunterian - the museum right at the heart of the University of Glasgow’s main building. The Hunterian is home to a beautiful and important collection of art and objects, bequeathed to the University in 1783 by the pioneering obstetrician Dr William Hunter, who was a former student. 

A collection tells a story about the collector; it also tells us a lot about the society, politics and trends of the time it was formed. But when we think carefully about how the collection was put together, it also tells us a lot about power, wealth and privilege  - and that’s where the stories can start to get uncomfortable. 

Discomfort is closely related to confronting the legacy of empire in our culture.  The museum exhibits often provide symbols or clues about the unspoken or glossed damage and violence within the historical record.  Reckoning with that imperial past involves ‘decolonisation’ an idea that’s in the minds of many people who think about history - from teachers and activists, to artists, curators and writers.

Learn more about the Curating Discomfort here

https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/about/achangingmuseum/curatingdiscomfort/

And you can learn more about Decolonisation Through Archives, including the podcast here

https://www.decolonisationthrougharchives.scot/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier

 

Les Back swaps his desk for the kitchen table as he travels to Castlemilk in the south of Glasgow to meet a group of remarkable women working together to feed their community.

Is there a more powerful symbol of community than the soup pot?  It is both a distinctive part of Scottish working-class experience and at the same time a universal ritual of solidarity in hard times. Eating a home cooked meal is a kind of communion with others.  But what happens to a family, or even a whole society, when the basic necessity of food is out of reach?

The huge demand on food banks in recent years is a stark reminder of just how big of a problem food poverty is, and it’s a highly politicised problem that brings out the best - and worst - in us.

But what if we were to think about food solidarity instead of food poverty? If we think about sharing a meal with some sitting next to you at the table rather than crumbs of charity handed by the privileged to ease our conscience.  

Les first met the women of Castlemilk’s Food Solidarity Soup'erheroes at the University of Glasgow through his colleague Kait Loughlin who is a Community Knowledge Exchange Lead.  Kait runs a programme called ‘Community Matters’ that trains researchers how to work with communities, and the insights of the Soup'erheroes have been part of this process of educating researchers.  

These heroes don’t wear capes, their ‘souper power’ comes in the form of fresh fruit and veg, bags of lentils, free music events and hope and solidarity by the pound delivered every week in Castlemilk. 

Cathy Milligan is a long standing Castlemilk resident and activist, and she welcomed Les to her house along with fellow soup'erheroes; her niece Natali, and Bridget Crossan. We were also joined by Paddy McKenna who is the Community Development Manager for Cassiltoun Housing Association, and Kait Loughlin.

Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone involved in making this podcast possible

Learn more about the work of the Souper heroes

https://m.facebook.com/groups/379205031059351/

You can find the Castlemilk Cooks Up Memories cookbook here

https://www.nemoarts.org/castlemilk-cooks-up-memories/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier

In this episode of Recovering Community, Les Back climbs through a hole in a fence to get right to the foundations of urban life. He meets with Dr Ross Beveridge, and artists Mary Redmond and Jim Colquhoun to talk about the landscape of the city, how it’s valued, and who gets to value it. 

The story of Glasgow’s mixed fortunes is written into its built environment - from the confident grandeur of its Victorian monuments, to the once futuristic, now flaking edifices of post war modernism, to the new smoked glass and steel developments promising growth, longevity and perhaps - with some scepticism - ecological harmony.

Glasgow also bears many scars from the collapse of its once thriving industries. Former warehouses and factories, decaying public buildings and housing; euphemistically termed ‘brownfield sites’ pepper the city. And although Glasgow is rich in this wasteland, these sites are disappearing as developers move in to rebuild the cityscape and harvest profit.

The Wastelands and the City Network is an interdisciplinary research team connecting the University of Glasgow’s College of Social Sciences, and The Glasgow School of Art with artists, ecologists, researchers and archeologists. 

Together, they are thinking about different perspectives on this ‘wasted land’ and how we use it. One of the most productive of options might be to do nothing at all - but that requires a huge leap of imagination and courage.

The Wastelands and the City Research Network and Seminar Series is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow and Glasgow School of Art.

Learn more about the College of Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Theme, Challenges in Changing Cities and Reading Landscape Group at GSA. 

https://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/socialsciences/research/interdisciplinaryresearchthemes/challengesinchangingcities/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier

What does it take to reconfigure our traditional capitalist economic structures so that people, communities and the environment come before profit? That’s the question at the heart of the wellbeing economy movement and the subject of today’s episode.

Gerard McCartney practiced as a GP and trained as an economist before his current role as Professor of Wellbeing Economy at the University of Glasgow. Gerry’s work explores the connections between health outcomes, community, and our working and living environments. 

Gerry and Anne talk to Dr Katherine Trebeck, a political economist and wellbeing economy advocate who co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Katherine has been at the heart of the wellbeing economy movement in Scotland and explains the changes that governments and organisations can make to enable a different, more sustainable economic model.

And Gerry travels to the east end to see just how successfully the wellbeing economy can work in practice. He meets Babs and Leigh from Green City Wholefoods, one of Glasgow’s longest running workers’ co-ops, where each member of staff earns the same salary, shares the profits and decisions are taken collectively. 

For more information:

https://katherinetrebeck.com/

https://www.greencity.coop/

https://weall.org/scotland

https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/gerardmccartney/

How do you build community after the criminal justice system has removed you from society to serve a prison sentence?  

Today’s episode of Recovering Community explores the work of Vox Liminis, a unique organisation, set up to find creative answers to questions about crime, punishment, reintegration, and community.

Vox is for people who have all kinds of experiences of criminal justice; from children with parents in prison, to academic researchers and social workers. It hosts a number of projects from its base in Glasgow’s Gallowgate, and in prisons across Scotland.

Anne Kerr meets 3 lynchpins of the Vox community; Fergus McNeill, Alison Urie, and Iain, to learn about the ways that creative work, embracing difference, and mutual support build the bonds of community, and the foundations for a life beyond prison.

Learn more about Vox Liminis here https://www.voxliminis.co.uk/

Listen to Vox’s latest podcast ‘The Art of Bridging’ here https://www.voxliminis.co.uk/media/?t=podcasts

The 400 mile long Río Atrato is in the Chocó department of northwest Colombia. Chocó is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the country. It’s also one of the poorest, and the river provides essential transport and economic opportunities to the residents.

In today’s episode, Anne Kerr meets her colleagues Mo Hume and Allan Gilles, and artist Jan Nimmo to hear about the project Colombia River Stories.

This interdisciplinary research project, which is a collaboration between the universities of Glasgow, Portsmouth and Nottingham, combines art, song, citizen science and activism to respond to the court ruling T-622, which recognises the River Atrato as a bearer of rights.

The ruling demands actions to address the socio-environmental devastation of conflict-linked, illegal mechanised gold mining in the collective territories of Chocó’s Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities. The project supports the local communities as they push for the full implementation of T-622 in the face of an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region.

The way we control our borders and treat those who want or need to cross them says so much about our national identity. And for the last 25 years, the U.K. Government has - with significant public support - moved to make immigration as difficult as possible. But in contrast, the Scottish government has been more focused on encouraging migration to Scotland to address population decline and contribute to the Scottish economy. 

This episode of Recovering Community begins with the Kenmure Street Protest, when community resistance to a Home Office raid resulted in the release of two men back into their neighbourhood.

Anne Kerr talks to Teresa Piacentini, David Millar, Pinar Aksu and Cetta Mainwaring to consider the ways that community activism in Glasgow sets the city apart from wider UK sentiment towards immigration.

For this first episode of Recovering Community, we’re focusing on Moodiesburn, a former mining town about eight miles north of Glasgow. Moodiesburn was home to the Auchengeich colliery. The danger of mining left its mark on the area. 6 men died in an explosion in 1931. And then, in 1959, the community was struck by disaster when there was a fire in the mine. 

It claimed the lives of 47 men, and Auchengeich became one of the UK's worst mining disasters of the 20th century. 

But during the miner's strike of 84 and 85, striking miners and local people put up a memorial to commemorate the disaster, and they come together each year to mark the anniversary. 

To find out more about how the community has recovered from tragedy, deindustrialisation, and austerity, Anne Kerr and Jim Phillips visit Auchengeich Miners Welfare Club to meet Pat Egan, Willie Doolan, Ian Lowe and Danny Taylor. Together they drive much of the community activity to commemorate the mining disasters which are marked annually on 18th September.

With thanks to the Auchengeich Miners Welfare Club.  Thanks also to staff in the School of Social and Political Sciences and the College of Social Sciences who helped with this project.

All the songs featured in this episode were written by Bill Adair. They have been taken from the album ‘Along The Miners’ Rows’ by Bill Adair and the Bridgend Sessions Band and are used with kind permission. 

Jim Phillips is author of Scottish Coal Miners in the Twentieth Century, published in 2019. Community is also strong theme in Coal County, Ewan Gibbs’s 2021 book on deindustrialisation and memory in Lanarkshire.

Recovering Community is produced by Freya Hellier.