UK Youth Climate Coalition
"The UK Youth Climate Coalition works to 'inspire, empower, mobilise and unite young people to take positive action on climate change.'
But what does that actually mean? Put quite simply, we are a group of young people who are working together to create a future for ourselves which is happy, affordable, clean and safe. But we're not just another organisation who points fingers at the bad guys and moans about how rubbish the government is. We believe that to tackle climate change, we need something new. We need an inspiring vision of how we want the world to be in the future and a movement that anyone can feel part of."
(UK Youth Climate Coalition)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Student experiences of disability social networks, in and around higher education
"For many young people social networks such as Facebook are an essential part of their student experience. Other web-based, interactive services like Wikipedia and YouTube are also an important facet of everyday student life. New technologies have always been scrutinized for their capacity to support education and, as social technologies become more pervasive, universities are under increasing pressure to appropriate them for teaching and learning. However, the educational impact of applying these Web 2.0 technologies is uncertain.
Using a Foucauldian perspective, my qualitative study explores the networked experiences of disabled students to examine how dis/ability difference is ascribed and negotiated within social networks. Data comprises 34 internet-enabled interviews with 18 participants from three English universities. Interviews incorporate the internet to expand opportunities for discussion, observation and analysis. Mobile broadband, a remote desktop viewer and screen capture have been flexibly applied together to ensure an accessible interview situation and recognise students' preferences and circumstances. Data is analysed using discourse analysis, with an attention to context framed by activity theory.
Disabled students' networked experiences are found to be complex and diverse. For a proportion, the network shifts the boundaries of disability, creating non-disabled subjectivities. For these students, the network represents the opportunity to mobilise new ways of being, building social capital and mitigating impairment.
Other participants experience the network as punitive and disabling. Disability is socio-technically ascribed by the social networking site and the networked public. Each inducts norms that constitute disability as a visible, deviant and deficit identity. In the highly normative conditions of the network, where every action is open to scrutiny, impairment is subjected to an unequal gaze that produces disabled subjectivities. For some students with unseen impairments, a social experience of disability is inducted for the first time.
As a result, students deploy diverse strategies to retain control and resist deviant status. Self-surveillance, self-discipline and self-advocacy are evoked, each involving numerous social, cognitive and technological tactics for self-determination, including disconnection. I conclude that networks function both as Technologies of the Self and as Technologies of Power. For some disabled students, the network supports 'normal' status. For others, it must be resisted as a form of social domination.
Importantly, in each instance, the network propels students towards disciplinary techniques that mask diversity, rendering disability and the possibility of disability invisible. Consequently, disability is both produced and suppressed by the network."
(Sarah Lewthwaite, Slewth Press)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
KAOSPilot: enterprising leader creating value for you and others
"The KaosPilots was founded in 1991 in Århus, Denmark. It grew out of a youth organization called the Front Runners, a truly novel initiative, who worked with cultural and social projects.
The KaosPilots is a self-governing institution comprised of two parts: the school and a consultancy. The purpose of the KaosPilots is 'positive social change through personal growth'.
The consultancy offers the same capabilities that are offered to the students to companies, NGO’s and public organizations, but adapted to suit their specific need. For examples of clients please click here.
The program is a three-year long education where the focus lies upon learning by doing through client assignments, from entrepreneurs, consultants, leaders and thought leaders.
The program consists of the disciplines Creative Enterprising Design, Creative Project Design, Creative Process Design and Creative Leadership Design and the education is designed around and operates according to the values Streetwise, Risk-taking, Balance, Compassion, Real World and Playful.
Based on the written application approximately 70 individuals are invited to attend a unique three-day workshop in the spring every year. Through a variety of assignments the applicant provides information to the staff and students who in the end will select a diverse team of about 35 aspiring KaosPilots to begin the program in the fall.
According to a comprehensive survey conducted in 2005 approximately 30% of the graduated KaosPilots work as an entrepreneur.
A KaosPilot is an enterprising leader who creates value for themselves and others."
(Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
UK Imagineering Foundation: stimulating the imagination of young designers
"In 1999 a group of engineers in the Midlands [UK region] who were concerned at the rapidly increasing skills shortage in engineering, developed the concept of Imagineering. 'A new initiative, designed to introduce 8-16 year olds to the fascinating world of engineering and manufacturing through fun, hands-on personal experience, targets the engineers of the future at a young age, develops and holds their interest and hopefully, encourages them to consider engineering as a future career.'"
(Imagineering Foundation, UK)
Fig.1 "One young 'imagineer' constructs a working model that he can then programme using simple control technology at the Imagineering Jaguar Land Rover Education Business Partnership Centre, at Gaydon Warwickshire." [http://www.spaghettigazetti.com/2011/11/imagineering-welcomes-new-queen.html#!/2011/11/imagineering-welcomes-new-queen.html]
2). The Imagineering Timeline
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Narratives for Europe: Launderette
"Imagine that you have just got home late from a long day of work only to be confronted by an endless list of chores. You drag yourself and an old bag of dirty clothes to the laundromat around the corner. Suddenly some young film-maker is putting a camera in your face and asking you about your laundry, your life and your ever-fading childhood dreams. At first you want to be left alone-get out of my face! But after a while you relax. It feels good to talk and it feels good to listen. On your way home, you keep thinking about the stories you told and the ones you heard. Your mind just keeps on spinning...
The scenario of the short film ‘Laundrette’ transforms an anonymous public space into a dynamic one where stories are swapped and strangers are given faces. The film also acts as a remarkable metaphor for what Narratives for Europe wants to become: an open space where significant stories can be voiced, echoed and debated. Selected from the media collection of ECF’s Youth and Media programme, ‘Laundrette’ was awarded ‘Best Documentary’ at the BFI Futures Film Festival 2011 in London. You can watch this film and other shorts on ECF’s VIMEOchannel.
The BFI recruited this video and is one of the 6 partners of the Doc Next Network. This network functions as the core of the Youth & Media Programme of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF). Doc Next is a unique movement of independent cultural and media organisations working with young people and media in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and Scandinavia."
(European Cultural Foundation)
"Launderette": Director - Bertie Telezynski, Producer - Johnny Orme, Producer - Mark Davies, Cinematographer - Alex Nevill, Cinematographer - Rachel Lewis, Editor - Louis Rossi, Sound - Liam Cook
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
