Description
Book SynopsisI will not travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except my bike, for a whole calendar year. – Ellie Harrison, January 2016
This simple proposition – to attempt to live a ‘low-carbon lifestyle of the future’ – put forward by an English artist living in post-industrial Glasgow cut to the heart of the unequal world we have created. A world in which some live transient and disconnected existences within a global ‘knowledge economy’ racking up huge carbon footprints as they chase work around the world, whilst others, trapped in a cycle of poverty caused by deindustrialisation and the lack of local opportunities, cannot even afford the bus fare into town. We’re all equally miserable. Isn’t it time we rethought the way we live our lives?
In this, her first book, Ellie Harrison traces her own life’s trajectory to examine the relationship between literal and social mobility; between class and carbon footprint. From the personal to the political, she uses experiences and knowledge gained in Glasgow in 2016 and beyond, together with the ideas of Patrick Geddes – who coined the phrase ‘Think Global, Act Local’ in 1915, economist EF Schumacher who made the case for localism in Small is Beautiful in 1973, and the Fearless Cities movement of today, to put forward her own vision for ‘the sustainable city of the future’, in which we can all live happy, healthy and creative lives.
Table of ContentsForeword to the Second Edition 3
Summary of Key Ideas 7
Preface 13
Introduction 15
part 1 a brief history of neoliberalism
Chapter 1 Thatcher’s Children 20
Straight outta Compton 20
What the fuck is neoliberalism? 24
Privatisation 25
Deregulation 27
Trade liberalisation 28
Social mobility isnae what they say 32
Waste not, want not 35
Major setback 36
Chapter 2 Creative Decade 40
Things can only get better 40
The knowledge economy 46
A golden age 49
Technologies of the self 52
Community vs career 55
Chapter 3 Welcome to Scotland 57
Dark clouds 57
Creative education 59
Bring Back British Rail 66
Hedonism vs asceticism 73
Austerity politics 76
Long-distance love 82
Reality check 89
Chapter 4 Socialist Dystopia 92
Turning point 92
You are what you eat 96
System change, not climate change 102
Asceticism and the spirit of capitalism 107
Compromise and complicity are the new original sins 110
Progress trap 114
The leaky bucket 119
Worst inequalities in Western Europe 123
Settlers and colonists 127
First as tragedy, then as farce 131
Carbon Graph (2021) 138
part 2 the glasgow effect
Chapter 5 When the Chips Hit the Fan 144
Calm before the storm 144
I like Glasgow and Glasgow likes me 149
Facebook wormhole 158
The Divide 173
Small is Beautiful 174
Could there be a worse insult? 178
Chapter 6 Creative Destruction 183
But is it art? 183
Money can’t buy you love 187
Every human being is an artist 195
I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! 198
Career suicide 203
Where art and politics become one 205
Public property 208
Chapter 7 Lived Reality 211
Low-carbon lifestyle of the future 211
Citizen’s Basic Income 214
Biographic solutions to systemic contradictions 216
History, politics and vulnerability 219
Overcrowding 219
Rip it up and start again 220
Brain drain 220
Hypocrisy kills 221
Other causes of ‘the Glasgow effect’ 223
Diseases of despair 224
The elephant in the room 225
Remunicipalisation! 230
Reflection and action 236
We need to stop ‘researching’ and start fighting! 239
Practising what we preach, preaching what we practise 243
Thrift radiates happiness 247
Hostile environments 251
The outsiders 253
Chapter 8 Aftershock 255
The end is the beginning 255
Impact agenda 266
The report 269
Homecoming 272
Worst nightmare 275
part 3 the sustainable city of the future
Chapter 9 Think Global 282
Climate emergency 282
Downward mobility 285
Back to the future 288
Prosperity without growth 293
Deconsumerisation 297
Chapter 10 Act Local 298
City as a site for social change 298
Regional power 299
Community control 303
Fearless Cities 305
Non-material pathways out of poverty 309
World-class public transport 310
Sharing is more sustainable 312
Motivational structures and meaningful work 314
Variety is the spice of life 315
Chapter 11 Universal Luxurious Services 319
Those things we all need to live happily and well 319
Information 321
Transport 321
Food 322 Healthcare 323
Housing 325
Co-production 327
Foundational economy 329
Public luxury 331
Localism and protectionism 332
Positive alternatives 334
Car-free future 336
Chapter 12 Travelling Without Moving 341
Equalising mobility 341
Minimising migration 346
Paradox of repopulation 349
Education for life, not for work 352
Rekindling our radical past 355
Love-hate relationship with the city 356
Acknowledgements 359
Endnotes 361
