HISTORY, SPOKEN – THE VALUE OF DIALECT

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged academia, accents, British accents, British dialects, class, commodification, dialect, discrimination, elocution, employment, Estuary, family history, featured, Glasgow, higher education, history, london, professionalism, pronunciation, racism, received pronunciation, social mobility, working class.

By Kasper Hassett

In my earliest years, my great-grandmother used to sit with me in her bungalow, a low-roofed gloomy building with carpets like moss, to tell me I was the ‘best boy in the wewd’. I believed her, of course – she made fantastic cheese on toast and gave me ice pops (‘lolly ices’ to her) out of love. She was family. I took her words as law; I would recite everything I heard her say back to my mother when I was dropped off at our flat. But, rather than approval, I was met with correction – not of the message, but the delivery.

THE GREATEST PRICE OF AUSTERITY? PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged austerity, Community, contribute, culture, dinosaurs, dioramas, economic disparity, Edinburgh, education, featured, funding cuts, george osborne, libraries, literacy, local authorities, museums, national museum of scotland, national museums, NHS, Philip Hammond, politics, poverty, public buildings, public institution, public museums, public spaces, public spending, reading, reduce stress, robots, save libraries, social mobility, steam trains, working class, young readers.

by Edward Grierson

As a child, I always looked forward to a visit to the National Museum of Scotland. An hour’s journey to Edinburgh was always a small price worth paying if it meant passing a wet weekend or day out from the holiday among dinosaurs, dioramas, steam trains and robots that could spell your name. Since then the museum has undergone countless changes, but whenever I return, I can always be certain to discover something new.

However, those trips to the museum were much more than just a fun day out. I can confidently say that they were a major formative influence for me, particularly in inspiring my love of nature. Without the influence of the National Museum of Scotland, I would not be who I am today. I can also confidently say I’m not the only one. I speak for countless others whose interests, whatever they are, were inspired by visiting trips to a museum.Continue Reading

HIGHER EDUCATION IN A POST-FEES WORLD – BEYOND TUITION FEES #1

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academics, activists, Beyond Tuition Fees, Bright Green, consumerism, cost of living, democracy, diversity, education, employability, featured, Free Education, future, government, HE policy, higher education, jeremy corbyn, Labour, Lib Dems, marketisation, mental health, NUS, postgraduate tutors, progressives, representation, sexual harassment, social justice, social mobility, strike action, student activism, student debt, student experience, student life, students, students' unions, Tories, trade unions, tuition fees, UCU strike, uk, universities, university staff, utopianism, welfare.

By Bradley Allsop and Calum Watt

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this new series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

Politics is in a very different place than a few years ago. Radical change feels possible, tangible, close. The Labour Party’s pledge to scrap tuition fees is one of many signs of this – welcome, and necessary to salvage higher education from the marketised juggernaut it has become. But just abolishing fees is not enough to fix all of higher education’s problems.

POOR SOCIAL MOBILITY SHOULDN’T BE NORMAL FOR NORFOLK

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged adult services, apprenticeship schemes, career advice, childrens centres, chloe smith, Golden Triangle, leadership, norfolk, northern powerhouse, norwich, Norwich North, opportunity area, schools, social mobility, teaching.

by James Anthony

Sadly, it may come as no surprise that earlier this week a government report revealed that Norfolk is one of the worst areas in the country for social mobility. Often stereotyped as a rural backwater and with a disappointingly spot on reputation for appalling educational standards and failing children’s services in recent years, it is awful that the government appear to be finding this acceptable and are not increasing funds for social mobility in our county.

While it is unfortunately not too surprising that rural Norfolk isn’t great for social mobility, the equally poor ranking for the city of Norwich will shock many. Our fine city is often hailed as some sort of utopia, full of educated professionals, left wing representation and a good jobs market, but the embarrassing fact is that Norwich isn’t always as perfect as we think. Outside of the affluent city centre and Golden Triangle, there are areas of real deprivation – and no serious attempt by our Tory government is being made to fix this.Continue Reading

THE LIVING WAGE NORWICH CAMPAIGN

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged benefit, job, living wage, living wage campaign, Living Wage Week, norwich, pay, salary, social mobility, wage, welfare, work.

by Nicholl Hardwick

What is the Living Wage Norwich Campaign? Why is it important? What are its benefits to individuals, companies and society? What are our hopes with the Living Wage Norwich Campaign and why does it apply to students too?

These are just some of the many questioned asked in reference to the Living Wage Norwich campaign. I am here to answer and explain those questions and get you involved in Living Wage Week which will be running from 6th -11th of November. Continue Reading

POLITICS & CULTURE – THE AMIEL & MELBURN SEMINAR 2017

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged 7 Days, academia, access, activism, alpha male, alt-right, alternative media, Annie Kelly, anti-feminism, art, Athina Karatzogianni, Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, Chardine Taylor-Stone, class, corruption, critique, culture, culture war, curricula, digital culture, direct action, disillusionment, economics, education, fake news, far right, fascism, feminism, feminist allies, future generations, GE17, higher education, history, holding power to account, ideology, inequality, inheritance, Jo Littler, Judies, knowledge, language, mainstream media, male psyche, marxism, media representation, meritocracy, Michael Rustin, Milo Yiannopolous, Mod, Mod women, modernity, music, neo nazi, neoliberalism, peer-pressure, politics, Politics & Culture Seminar, politics of difference, progress, progress narrative, progressive media, public education, punk, Punk women, representation, Rhian E Jones, right wing, Rosalind Delmar, Roshi Naidoo, Skinhead, Skinhead women, social exclusion, social media, social mobility, socialism, society, strike action, subcultures, talent, Teddy Girls, tenant strike, trust, universities, working class movement, young people, Zahra Dalilah.

by Gunnar Eigener and Rowan Gavin

CW: mentions misogyny, anti-feminism, neo-nazism

Earlier this month, a writer and an editor from the Radical took part in the Amiel & Melburn Trust’s annual residential seminar. The Trust’s aims are “to advance public education, learning and knowledge in all aspects of the philosophy of Marxism, the history of socialism, and the working-class movement’. This year, the topic of the seminar was ‘Politics & Culture’, and the various intertwinings and intersections thereof. What follows are thoughts and reactions about the seminar from our contributors.

POVERTY LOANS: THE FORGOTTEN FIGHT?

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged access, Brexit, campaigning, cost of living, higher education, income inequality, maintenance grants, maintenance loans, means testing, postgraduate, postgraduate loans, rent, rent strike, social mobility, standard of living, student activism, student poverty, students, tuition fees, UCL, universities.

by Alex Powell

Disclaimer: in what follows I am not suggesting that tuition fees are acceptable, nor that we should stop campaigning against further fee rises and for their complete abolition. But I think that we should put as much effort into campaigning on another, more pressing issue, which is often sidelined in the discourse around the marketisation of education. We need a maintenance loan settlement which works for all students and, crucially, higher postgraduate loans, to truly improve access to education.

SOCIAL EQUALITY, NOT SOCIAL MOBILITY

Posted on August 26, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Boris Johnson, british politics, class, conservative, conservative party, conservatives, education, equality, EU, EU ref, eu ref results, EU referendum, european union, further education, grammar schools, Labour, labour party, Lib Dems, Liberal Democrats, middle class, olympics, school, social equality, social mobility, Tory, uk politics, working class.

by Olivia Hanks

Theresa May’s indication earlier this month that she will reintroduce selective schooling has reignited the debate on ‘social mobility’. Tory backbenchers believe the secondary modern system (or the grammar school system, as they insist on calling it) was good for social mobility, but various reports support the opposite view, that selective schooling entrenches inequality. Of the tiny percentage of children from working class backgrounds who attended the old grammar schools, two-thirds did not manage to achieve three O-levels.Continue Reading

THE MISEDUCATION OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academy, academy schools, accountability, autism, BAME, children, comprehensive, customer, division, dyslexia, education, family wealth, grammar school, inelligence, inherited opportunities, inner city, oxbridge, private institution, privately educated, privilege, russell group, secondary education, self improvement, social immobility, social mobility, statistics, student, theresa may, tony blair, working class.

by Candice Nembhard

When I think back on my time in grammar school education, it is not with entirely fond memories. I was a working class, BAME student, whose parents were working tirelessly to make sure my educational needs were catered for — be it my uniform, school trips or even paying the annual school fund. Even so, little could be done on their part to protect me from the overly-competitive nature of the grammar school system; an educational structure that paraded itself as a diverse and inclusive market only out of an innate self-fulfilling prophecy to produce a particular class of intellectuals.

It is this underlying vision for education that further widens the gap between the lowest earners in Britain and those that are at the top. The division of children at the age of 11 to test their intelligence further predates to a privileged notion that intelligence is hereditary, and if not, that it can be bought.Continue Reading

By Kasper Hassett

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