Looking back on the Scotland of 1979 and past visions of the future
Looking back on the Scotland of 1979 and past visions of the future Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, 24 August 2021 Last week I was speaking to a close friend about some of the big things in life - family, childhood, growing up, parents – and the impact all these have on who you become and how you remember and interpret the past. I recalled a photo of myself aged 15 in my home in Edzell Court, Ardler, Dundee (see above) which I had used to illustrate an article in the past year. Sitting on my bedroom floor, I was happy
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A Different Class: Choose Your Side
A Different Class: Choose Your Side Gerry Hassan Sunday National, February 21st 2021 Class is one of the defining concepts of life, Scotland and capitalism – but barely receives much informed analysis on our TV screens. Instead, we are offered unstated but loaded assumptions in news, TV documentaries and countless other programmes, with a distinct bias on how success, aspiration and failure are seen and judged. In today’s environment Darren McGarvey’s Class Wars – a new four-part series on BBC Scotland - is a breath of fresh air; the first two of which have been aired. This is in
What Future is there for Young Working Class Scotland?
What Future is there for Young Working Class Scotland? Gerry Hassan Scottish Review, June 15th 2016 There is something about Scots and class, and in particular about working class identities. Many Scots define themselves when given a choice as working class, yet in terms of occupations and status, on any definition, a majority would be categorised as middle class. Interestingly, in some surveys, a majority of such middle class people reject this term, and call themselves working class (one survey a decade ago saying that 52% of middle class people identified as working class). Some of this is history, tradition
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