I approached lecturers and PhD students in my own department (Sociology) first, but then tried to find people in other departments. I was informed by a fellow People&Planet member that Metallurgy & Materials was one of the departments most involved with corporate funding, so I sent out emails to all the lecturers and research fellows in this department, and one agreed to meet me. I was also lucky to have access to a PhD student in the Astrophysics department because of his involvement with People&Planet. It’s really useful to ask whoever you find whether they can recommend anyone else for you to speak to.

I arranged mutually convenient times to conduct the interviews, went along with a dictaphone, a pad and paper, and the list of questions. It’s important to make sure that the interviewee is comfortable with being recorded by the dictaphone, and I did this before even taking it out of my bag so that it was less awkward for them to refuse. Only one interviewee did refuse, however. I tried to be professional yet friendly in my interviewing style, explained that the interviewee may not feel they could answer all questions, and that if there was anything outside of the questions asked that they wanted to talk about I would like to hear it.

Apart from actually answering the questions, my verbal role consisted of asking for clarification of what had been said, and probing for further information if the interviewee hinted at anything that sounded particularly interesting. In some of the interviews, the interviewee became much more relaxed part way through and from this point provided much more rich, detailed and interesting answers. I learned that it is very important to recognise that it is your responsibility to put the interviewee at their ease. If you are friendly and professional, this should pretty much come naturally. I wrote up my notes as soon as I got back from each interview, and listened to the dictaphone recording to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, although I would say that the dictaphone is really not that essential.

All in all I believe my interviews went well. It was extremely valuable experience for me, and it gave me a rare chance to converse with lecturers and research fellows outside of the teacher-student relationship. It has built up my confidence and I can highly recommend getting involved, not least because of the valuable information you can provide for People & Planet’s campaign.

Visit www.peopleandplanet.org/reclaimresearch/getinvolved for everything you need to take part.

In today’s society we have merely become a generation that believes that females should stay young forever with consent bombardment by both broadcasting and print media for anti-ageing creams, lotions and tips. Some-one whom hasn’t conformed to such obsession is Julie Andrews.

Julie Andrews is well known for her lead roles as Maria in the Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews has certainly climbed every mountain; an on screen legend and a key inspiration for me and many others whom have been fans for decades. Like many other stars of the era she has merely become a larger and life representation of an array of different contemporary clinches. For some she is a symbol of old fashioned goody-goody showbiz, for others she represents a lost generation of virtue and kindness, then again for quite a few she is a much-loved gay icon. For me she is a glamorous, glorious and graceful lady whom made me love musicals.

She has now become a representation of something altogether less glamorous and glorious with the media tarnish her long anticipated comeback; an evening with Julie Andrews. The Sunday Telegraph called it a “theatrically tragic spectacle”. The Guardian found it “creaky” and “cheesy”, dismissing the second half as “dismayingly indulgent”. Meanwhile, London’s Evening Standard conceded the veteran diva’s “hunger to perform was certainly admirable, but the musical rations were nowhere near satisfying”. The Daily Mirror quipped “How do you solve a problem like getting your money back after a Julie Andrews concert?”

In all fairness, what else could they expect? Julie Andrews never concealed her on going voice problems that was damaged by an operation 13 years to remove a polyp from her vocal cords and was carefully entitled as an ‘An Evening with Julie Andrews’ and that’s what they got.

One can suggest that this is merely the society we live in today a world of fantasy. Ageing women in the media spot light are expected to stay young forever with perfect hair shiny, smooth skins and trim figures such as Terri Hatcher. Whereas male mature stars like Bob Dylan, Bruce Forsyth and Meatloaf are allowed to forget words, wheeze, moan and mime through performances but women stars like Julie Andrews are expected to remain clear-voiced as they were 50 years ago.

The years of the real old glamorous showbiz were we would applaud real; ageing women and talented actress with the likes of Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn, and Kate Winslet have been destroyed. We are now a spectacular society that likes to see fake naked girls win Oscars.

Pick up any broadsheet newspaper today, and you’ll definitely find an article (if not a feature) on the current deficit ‘crisis’. The resolution, according to the new Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition, is cuts to public services. If you’re a little inexperienced in economics, yet a little bit of a history buff, this reasoned argument doesn’t quite make any sense when unemployment figures are so high and the numbers of people below the poverty line continue to increase. Further research indicates that the deficit’s proportion to Britain’s GDP is the lowest of the G7 countries.

Anyone who’s ever studied the Great Depression, even at GCSE level, is aware of basic Keynesian economics - that in order to escape an economic downturn you have to encourage exchange and monetary circulation. Named ‘fiscal stimulus’ by economists, this generally involves creating a general change of mentality, where the public begins to believe that the economy is stable, and their jobs (and savings) are secure. As such, in a globalised economy, it is perfectly arguable that the government has little control over the economy, but there are measures to ensure that this does not remain the case. A step towards self-sustainability has always been available, yet we continue to ignore this long-term development in favour of high-risk short-term growth in stopping financial services from moving their offices elsewhere.

The Case for Vestas

I can’t say I was a fan of supporting the Vestas workers on the Isle of Wight as I saw little benefit in making wind turbines in the UK that were only going to be exported to the US. However, more recently I have been beginning to see the benefits of the government nationalising the company. Apart from saving hundreds of jobs, had the government taken over the factory and given the reigns towards a workers’ collective (that would eventually pay the government back), the UK would have retained an exportable good.

This would have meant that there would be external currency fuelling the economy and thus less demands on government to fund a way of tackling the deficit. In addition, the government would have to do little to actually run the company whilst providing the workers with the benefit of continued employment and a fair wage from their gains.

Investment not Cuts

Public spending is not a bad thing as much as the Tories would like to argue otherwise; it provides education, health, transport, jobs, welfare, advice, defence… the list is endless. These services are essential for retaining well-being in order to provide potential for economic stability. If these services are cut, this may ease out current deficit but in the long-term, as Joseph Stiglitz has argued previously,  we will end up paying the price with a slow descent into a poorer educated workforce and an inability to continue with our own economic development.

Obviously, there is a case for tackling our deficit, but we should look towards investing in a medium-term solution rather than paving our way into yet another recession. The argument held by Larry Elliot in an article published in the Guardian today, has been the development of export-driven economic policy:

Export-led growth is certainly what the UK needs: whether it will happen is highly questionable. Consider the facts. More than half British visible exports go to the rest of Europe, the bulk of them to the euro area. Yet this is a part of the global economy that struggles to grow. Over a full economic cycle from 2001 to 2009 Italy did not expand at all; Germany managed less than 0.5% a year; France a little over 1%. Spain, Greece and Portugal have all announced austerity packages and, like Britain, are seeking export-led growth. But this will remain a pipedream all the while Germany is imposing deflation on the rest of Europe and while Angela Merkel seems intent on becoming the new Herbert Hoover.

The Case for an Economic Re-evaluation

This global economic downturn should have given us the opportunity to question what society we are trying to develop. There are inherent problems through which our economic beliefs have shaped our political approach to the economy. Instead of trying to seek out those problems and identify how we can change them, we have opted to take the regular apathetic ’shit happens’ attitude. Is this because we are scared to see the results as it would violently crumble our ideology of Free Market economics? Or is it because corporations and the government are fearful of the implications it would have on their profits and belief in infinite growth?

We need to recognise that the economic growth we continue to demand in order to achieve high rates of employment is not sustainable. For that, all we need to think about is where we actually gain our material wealth from; on a planet of finite resources, infinite growth is an idealist’s dream. For long-term economic sustainability we need to start creating a poltical economy which renews wealth from the efforts of its citizens rather than one that demands wealth externally.

Yes, this would mean that our manufacturing industry should be based on local demand and supply as well as local resourcing, ultimately not supporting an export-driven economy as I argued earlier, but the economy has never been so simple. My opinion is that we need to grow our export-based economy as a way of ultimately developing our own local economy. Thus, in a decade or two, the UK have a self-sustainable economy though initially grown-through and supported by external revenue.

Initially Published on AcaciaThorns: http://www.acaciathorns.net

For the past two weeks I have been working with the People & Planet for work experience. When I first received the placement I was excited, I was already really interested in issues such as climate change and human rights but i completely underestimated how much I would learn from this experience.

My first proper introduction to the Wear Fair campaign was through the fantastic online learning course. The videos that were provided for the course were a brilliant visual representation of Fairtrade and organic cotton. Also i really benefited from writing the blogs afterward, it made you properly think about the things that you have just watched. After doing this online course, i have become very interested in Fairtrade cotton and when i get back to school I am going to approach my tutor about making a campaign to make our school uniform ethical.

As well as the online course, i also really enjoyed the promotion side of the job. Firstly, i started with promoting the People and Party event by posting comments on Facebook and local information sites. I found it surprisingly enjoyable and worked my way through site after site. When i finished that, I then wrote a news story for the People & Planet website. Normally i wouldn’t be too happy about doing lots of writing (English isn’t really my strong point!) but i got a real sense of accomplishment when i had finished it.

There were many positives to this work experience but only one negative.. data entry! Although it was fairly boring and slightly tedious, i worked my way through them all. In the end i even got quite competitive with myself to try and finish them all by the end of the week. Friday loomed and i still had a significant pile left on my desk, so i sat down and whizzed through them and eventually finished!

I have enjoyed these two weeks tremendously and I’m very sorry to be leaving. Ultimately, i have learned so much over this experience and have enjoyed every minute of it. I want to thank everyone on the People & Planet team for being so friendly and welcoming and who knows i might be back here in a few years time doing some volunteer work myself!

For the past couple of years, I’ve been involved in organising semi-regular gatherings around the country that focus on movement building within the tech activist community.  One of the highlights of the year has been a two-day camp on a farm in the hills above the Wye Valley to do workshops and discussions.

This year’s event takes place from 11th to 13th June and is called BarnCamp 2010.  With it we’re specifically targeting the wider UK activist networks with the goal of increasing awareness and strengthening both the network and the skills base within it.  With two days of workshops on topics ranging from renewable energy to foraging for food to citizen journalism to using free software for activism, up to three nights of camping, open space sessions, evening entertainment and great vegan food all taking place on a beautiful farm co-op high in the Wye Valley, I am sure that it’s going to be really good.

To make the thing a real success will mean a wide breadth of knowledge and backgrounds, with people coming from all corners of the UK activist network. So why not come, get involved, learn some new skills, meet some new people, visit the countryside and have fun.

It’s not free unfortunately, although the low fee does include food and camping and if you think you’d like to come, please do book as places are limited.  Also if you pay in advance, it’s cheaper!  For more information about the event, details of the workshop programme so far and more importantly how to book, please visit this web site.

Irina Nedeclu is a post-graduate student at the University of Edinburgh; hear her views about the struggle to be a low-carbon international student.

Let’s enjoy the journey

Prior to completing a carbon footprint survey I considered myself to be on the right track: I haven’t been driving for a year, I reduced unnecessary purchases to the minimum, I’ve been recycling, saved on my energy spending and started to look at what else I could do to improve my impact on the environment. While I was filling the survey I was pretty satisfied with my answers and expected a fairly good result.

And what a low carbon footprint would I have generated had I not been an international student.

Sadly going back home has turned into a commodity for non-UK students and, even if that happens as little as once a year, most of us choose to fly. I can only speak for myself, but the reason why I chose this means of transportation had nothing to do with my being lazy or saving time, but with saving money. I thought that purchasing a plane ticket was less expensive than planning out an alternative route that would have been both fun and energy saving. But was that really the case? Was travelling by plane the cheapest way to get from Edinburgh to Eastern Europe? Definitely not.

It was not a case of not being willing to take an alternative travelling option, but a case of being misinformed or of not being informed at all.

Time is a deciding factor especially for students who have to deal with deadlines and exams and when you need to find a way to get back home for the holidays in just a couple of days it’s pretty hard to spend time on the internet looking for tips or planning low impact journeys that fit a student’s travel budget.  This doesn’t mean that they don’t exist and the need for alternative travel information is increasing among students.  Especially now that the summer holidays are approaching and people will travel a lot more than they have had throughout the rest of the year.

Here in Edinburgh, Transition Edinburgh University has taken the initiative to organize the Summer Travel Fair on the 14^th of May in Edinburgh at George Square Lecture Theatre, by gathering all the available low impact travel information under one roof.  People interested in cheap, fun, low impact travel alternatives just need to show up, meet travelling peers and learn from experienced travellers what are the ways to get around expensive and climate damaging journeys. This won’t ruin our summer holiday fun – it’ll improve it,

For more information please visit :www.teu.org.uk/travel-fair

Neus Giner Garcia attended the official Transition Network training in North Howe in February. Read about how she got on.

From my own experience, it is not only knowledge that you gain through trainings and gatherings.

I did gain a lot though, the Transition Training at North Howe increased my knowledge in Peak Oil and Climate Change but, most important, the skills in spreading that knowledge. As they say, the knowledge has been there for ages, and so far it is obvious that catastrophic messages do not have the needed impact in terms of behavioural change. The key issue, they say, is to sell the sizzle, not the sausage. The issues of Climate Change and Peak Oil are already dangerous and sad enough for us to keep embittering our lives; the fight back should be, at least, of some fun. How else will be bring people on board?

In this sense, in the training we did look at how to engage people. It is no secret that building a conscious community is at the core of the transition empowering ideas. However, talking about the different techniques and ideas to attract people’s attention and bring them in raised some moral issue: where do the blurred boundaries of manipulation lay? We might want to be wary of behaving as if we had the ultimate truly solution for the dynamics of this world.

Not that I think we are doing this, I think transition gets across, very well indeed, the message that it is an open movement for each community to apply, change and challenge to fit their needs. Nevertheless, I feel in my own behaviour how easy it is to fall off in a patronizing discourse due to the urgency I see in climate action.

But, as I started saying, there is something else beyond all these knowledge and discussions that you get out of any training or gathering…

… you get hope, strength, will; you get this magic sensation of knowing that it is indeed going to work, sooner or later. After some psychological exercises of thanking each other’s presence, visioning the future… I felt an extraordinary good vibration that ensured me that it could not be otherwise: there is no way to stop this positive energy from spreading around and fill even every single speck.

And it is quite funny, because in my rebellious teenager thoughts I always believed that adults were too comfortable in their lives to care about anything at all nor have the energy for it. It is quite comforting to keep being proved wrong.

On the overall, the training did not only fill me with fresh knowledge and skills but with a renewed desire to apply it.

Neus Giner Garcia is Co-convener of Edinburgh University People & Planet Society.