Making our own collective future in Scotland
Making our own collective future in Scotland Gerry Hassan Sunday National, January 3rd 2021 Until it arrived, 2020 was seen by many as a symbol of the future. It was a benchmark and distant date with destiny – aided by phrases like ‘2020 vision’. But 2020 didn’t feel like the future that had been predicted - or like any other year. This is a salutary lesson. Much of the future is always surprising, unimagined and unpredictable - while other parts are predictable or ‘inevitable surprises’. To think, dream and conceive of the future is part of what
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Scotland 2020: The Power of Hope
'an enticing mixture of fiction and commentary in the model of a 'European' cultural production'. Richard Parry, Scottish Affairs Scotland 2020: The Power of Hope Gerry Hassan and Eddie Gibb A unique feature of human consciousness is its inclusion of the future. Expectations strongly affect all aspects of human functioning. . . . Hope inspires a feeling of well-being and is a spur to action. Hopelessness, the inability to imagine a tolerable future, is a powerful motive for suicide. Jerome Frank, ‘The role of hope in psychotherapy’ (1) Introduction Scotland is a nation of narrators
That was Then and This is Now: Imagining new stories about a northern nation
That was Then and This is Now: Imagining new stories about a northern nation Gerry Hassan Scotland has changed in the last 20 years. It has been transformed economically, socially, culturally and politically. It has a degree of self-government and a new set of political institutions. However, the way we think of and describe Scotland has not undergone a similar change; instead it is still rooted in a romanticised rose-tinted view of a past Scotland that is now long since gone. This chapter looks at the extent of change in Scotland over this period and the kind of changes
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Scotland’s ‘Velvet Revolution’
Scotland’s ‘Velvet Revolution’ Carol Craig in conversation with Tom Devine Published in Gerry Hassan, Eddie Gibb and Lydia Howland (eds), Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation, Demos 2005. CC: I would like to start with a general discussion about Scotland and transformational change. The author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, argues that people tend to see change as slow and incremental when in fact it is often rapid and transformatory. He argues that snow is a good example of this. When snow falls the temperature change is often minimal yet within minutes the world looks different. As
Happiness, Well-Being and Economic Prosperity
Happiness, Well-Being and Economic Prosperity David Bell in conversation with Clive Hamilton Published in Gerry Hassan, Eddie Gibb and Lydia Howland (eds), Scotland 2020: Hopeful Stories for a Northern Nation, Demos 2005 Stirling September 27th 2004 Dear Clive, I enclose my opening gambit to you. 1. The growth record of the Scottish economy is somewhat below that of the UK as a whole. Nevertheless, during the 1990s and early part of the new century, the UK has experienced higher rates of growth than most of the other G8 countries with the exception of the USA. Scottish GDP per
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