Category Archives: Articles Posted On Hilary’s Professional Website
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), Britain’s Foremost Black Classical Composer: The Centenary Legacy
Just a few days after this year’s Slavery Remembrance Day, on 23 August, we mark also the centenary legacy of the black British music composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who died one hundred years ago, on 1 September 1912.
What follows is a version of the article which, as Executive Chair of the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation, I posted on the Huffington Post UK website to acknowledge this significant milestone.
To read more about Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s legacy, or to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here, or the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation website, here.
Beating The Safe Water Deadline In Rural Malawi: WaterAid’s ‘Big Dig’
One of the most memorable stories I ever heard was from a civil engineer who was asked about the achievement of which he was most proud. He immediately said it was being invited to first turn on the tap which he had installed to deliver clean running water to an African village where there had previously been no supply. And now Water Aid has decided to share in real time their account of an even more ambitious project in Malawi, set against demanding deadlines…
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
Shaping The Future (North West Wales)
I was pleased recently to be invited to become an Ambassador for the Shaping the Future programme in North West Wales. This programme aims to ‘put human potential at the heart of regional development’ – an aim with which I immediately felt aligned; as I did also with the intention to create sustainable economic diversity by encouraging skills development, with retraining and redeployment for the highly-skilled employees of the Wylfa and Trawsynydd nuclear power sites as their careers are threatened by decommissioning.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
The Spirit Level Documentary Film Campaign
The Spirit Level, a book by Professors Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, has already had a profound effect on the debate about equality (or the lack of it) in modern societies; and now the printed page is to be followed by a documentary film. The money is needed very soon. Given the significance of this timely development in the equality debate, I have attached below the message inviting interest, received today from the Equality Trust, an organisation set up by Wilkinson and Pickett. Do support this venture in any way you can.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
Understanding How The Pakistani Community in Blackburn Relates To Public And Private Institutions
Blackburn on a Saturday afternoon… and an invitation to join discussions with business, mosque and council leaders from the Pakistani community, as the Insight Out project comes to an end, with dedicated time to face outwards and engage additional concerned citizens. It was a wide-ranging, open-hearted debate about what Pakistani heritage Blackburn residents might do to improve the outlook for both their own and their neighbours’ communities. The move towards real action, I sensed, has begun.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
Sociology, Democracy And The Economic Crisis
Aditya Chakrabortty of The Guardian has just (8 May 2012) published his second commentary about ‘the dearth of sociologists and other non-economists analysing how we got into’ the current economic crisis. This silence, he says, is in vivid contrast to the (dramatic but ineffectual) protests of academic social scientists when monetarists reigned supreme whilst Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. But, sadly older and wiser, this time we need to focus on a more encompassing agenda of transaction, impact and meaning.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
Liverpool Economic Forum 2012
The Liverpool Economic Forum 2012, hosted on 15 May at Radisson Blu Hotel by North West Business Insider, offered important pointers to the future. Positively, a lot now hinges on new City Major Joe Anderson’s delivering his pledges to bring investment, cruise liners and much else to Liverpool. More problematically, whilst all agree the city now punches above its weight, concerns remain about whether Liverpool can deliver a coherent offer to potential investors. And still discussion of real sustainability and inclusion is absent.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
FGM: The Difficult Debates
Female genital mutilation (FGM/‘cutting’) is an inherently difficult subject. The clash of social mores, clamours of righteousness from all quarters, vast contradictions evident in legal and child protection and the sheer sensitivities of the topic, contrasting personal vulnerability and grotesque practice, all make intervention perilous. And beyond that there are the demands for clarity about male circumcision and appropriate modes of action in the UK and elsewhere. But still 50+ UK children daily are at risk of abuse.
If you have a Twitter account and would like to draw more attention to this issue, please use the hashtag #NoFGM and follow @NoFGM1. Thank you.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here.
Call The Midwife… Then, Now And In The Future
Summary: We might think that a book about midwifery in London in the 1950s is of little practical relevance today; but how wrong could we be? The true tales which Jennifer Worth (1935- 2011) relates in her Call the Midwife trilogy, now being televised by the BBC, are not as some suppose stories removed from the realities of the present time. They connect very directly with our current lives for at least two critically important reasons.
To read more of this article and to comment, please visit Hilary’s professional website here; or visit the article above on this website to continue comment and discussion of Call The Midwife: A BBC1 Triumph For Real People.
Sociology In Your Career
Summary: I visited Kingston University yesterday, to talk about the many occupational routes open to Sociology graduates. The list of possibilities is in reality almost infinite. Alongside academic learning, Sociology courses instil a great many skills and a lot of knowledge which can be applied generically, so this was an excellent opportunity to exchange views and understandings of available opportunities with a new generation of Sociology degree finalists and their teachers.
Read more about this visit and the discussion around Sociology and Careers here.
Dreaming Realist 