The Play Ethic

The Democratic Interact: speaking at 'Building a Movement for Yes!'

This is slightly tangential to play-ethical matters, but I'm speaking today at a conference in Edinburgh organised by the pro-Scottish independence magazine and blog Bella Caledonia, titled 'Building a Movement for Yes!'  (meaning, a 'Yes' vote in any future referendum on independence). 

My topic is 'The Democratic Interact: the challenges of social media to Scottish self-determination' - and it'll be based on, and extend upon, a paper I presented (PDF download) to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission about 18 months ago (a little dated and statist now, I think). I've always been on the constitutional left in Scottish politics, and it's interesting to bring my interest in the playful, creative powers of the internet to what is rapidly becoming a transformative moment in the political life of the UK (or what comes after the Kingdom disunites!). 

The organiser, Mike Small, has reminded me of Tom Nairn - the titan of thinking about nationalism as a phenomenon of modernity, and latterly globalisation - and his brilliant, challenging essay on Hardt and Negri's Multitude in the London Review of Books. Nairn's Scottish-constitutional critique of H&N may help relate some Play Ethic readers to the nature of the left-nationalist debate in Scotland. 

I'll pull together some of my speaking notes from the day and post here later. 

A New Blog - Scottish Futures

Just to let any Play Ethic aficionados know who might be interested, I'm starting a new blog/ideas forum called Scottish Futures (www.scottishfutures.net), which will take very specifically the topic of visions, policies and strategies aimed at the realisation of Scottish independence. It's my own small answer to the question I posed in the Guardian blog below. This will enable me to keep the Play Ethic blog clear for purely play-oriented material. Please visit, tell me what you think.

Think Your Way to a New Scotland

I've written a column for the Guardian's Comment is Free on whether the advance of the SNP, and the political agenda of Scottish independence, has a rich enough policy culture to support it. Anyone who's interested in the intellectual debate around the 'Scottish question' is invited to explore the many hotlinks embedded below. And anyone who knows of active Scottish bloggers or ideas networks that could be added to my own list, please don't hesitate to post them in the comments page.

Scotland as if the Union had never happened...

And just to complete this run of Jockular postings... Here's a bit of intelligent whimsy from Radio Scotland, an imaginary show (scroll down to 'Sunday' to listen) speculating on what Scotland would have lost (or gained) if we hadn't refused the Union with England in a Union in 1707. (Which in reality, of course, we didn't). I'm mentioned in despatches by my old conceptual compatriot Christopher Harvie as 'Senator Kane' - and towards the end, I do my little comic turn as such. (And I devoutly wish to see the 'Scottish Academy of Comic Strip Art', run by Senator Grant Morrison, by the way).

Shaping up for a new Enlightenment

Just wrote a column for the Scotsman Opinion page, wondering whether there's a 'reverse-brain-drain' going on in Scotland. It's available if you want to pay, but I'll post the text in extending post below. Here's the crucial paragraph:

The challenge is not just to be, say, a 'world leader in stem cell research', but also a world leader in how we think through the consequences of this extraordinary innovation. (Ian Wilmut's changing role - from pioneering cloner of Dolly, to public ethicist about the genetic revolution - is an example.) We shouldn't shy away from the complexity of these issues, but embrace them – and that embrace will attract (and is already attracting) the best minds to this country.

Towards a 'Scottish 24'

Another column for my good friend Fergus Sheppard at the Scotsman, on my notions about the return of media and broadcasting regulation to the Scottish Parliament. Again, you can pay them cash for it, or you can read it on extended post below. The nub of the thing:

It would be wonderful if we could make bottom-up participation one of the arguments for media regulation coming to Scotland, rather than just shouting for the usual 'Tartanising' of the familiar old media institutions. The resultant 'Scottish Twenty-Four' would surely be an appropriate expression of the 'democratic Scottish spirit' we so readily invoke?

Scottish Utopias and Dystopias

I wrote a short essay for an excellent publication called View - the policy journal for the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. 'Scottish Dystopias and Utopias' is now available here on PDF and Word file.

I'm also creating a new blog category for it - Scotland In Play - simply because I know I'll be posting more on Scottish topics, from the general perspective of the Play Ethic, in the run up to the May elections in the Scottish Parliament. The conjunction in the title is deliberate: there's a sense that much indeed is 'in play' in Scottish politics, with the SNP making inroads into the Labour party's hegemony here. And hopefully, a revival of politics and civic activism and general democratic energy in the country will be the result.