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Hope is key to future Scotland
Hope is a crucial ingredient of attempts to revive Scottish political culture, according to a new book published by the think-tank Demos and the Scottish Book Trust on Thursday 3 March 2005.
Scotland 2020: Hopeful stories for a northern nation, identifies a common theme in existing visions of Scotland’s future - a marked sense of fatalism. The book argues that the ‘official’ and ‘traditional’ visions of the future are increasingly being challenged by the emergence of a new hopeful Scotland.
"There’s a fatalist tendency in Scotland that stops people seeing ways to change their own lives and their communities," say the book’s editors, Gerry Hassan and Eddie Gibb. "However, we think there is an emerging vision of a hopeful Scotland, which could help revive our political culture. Scotland needs to learn to be both optimistic and realistic if it is to be confident about its future. People who are ‘future literate’ can think more imaginatively about the future and are more likely to do something about it."
"We need to inject futures thinking into the Scottish bloodstream as an antidote to this strain of fatalism. Our experience from the Scotland 2020 project has shown us that the Scottish people are way ahead of politicians in thinking creatively about their future. We believe that developing the public’s capacity for futures thinking is an essential ingredient in the renewal of Scottish political culture."
The Scotland 2020 project ran a series of events across Scotland last year, at which members of the public were encouraged to think imaginatively about the future of their communities. One such event was Nairn Day, attracting over 70 participants from the town and surrounding area. The events demonstrated both an appetite and an aptitude among the public for thinking long-term about the future of their community – and country.
The book’s editors welcome the backing from the Presiding Officer, George Reid MSP, for the creation of a ‘Futures Forum’ - a concept pioneered in Finland. However, they urge him to use a Futures Forum to develop public involvement in thinking positively about Scotland’s future. "Thinking about the future of Scotland is too important to be left to experts," say the book’s editors.
Scotland 2020 will to be launched by Rt Hon George Reid MSP, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, at the Scottish Book Trust in Edinburgh on Wednesday 2 March 2005.
The book contains specially commissioned short stories about the future by leading Scottish fiction writers, including Julie Bertagna, Anne Donovan, Ken MacLeod, and Ruaridh Nicoll. It also features essays and dialogues by internationally renowned thinkers, such as Tom Nairn, Tom Devine, Carol Craig and Iain McLean.
Notes to editors
1. Scotland 2020: Hopeful stories for a northern nation, edited by Gerry Hassan and Eddie Gibb, is published on Thursday 3 March by Demos and the Scottish Book Trust.
2. Scotland 2020 was supported by a consortium of project partners: British Council Scotland, BT Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, the Co-operative Group, Electronics Scotland, the Federation of Small Businesses, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Oracle Corporation UK and the Scottish Arts Council.
3. Gerry Hassan is a leading commentator and writer on Scottish politics. His previous publications include Anatomy of the New Scotland: Power, Influence and Change (Mainstream) and After Devolution: The First Four Years of the Scottish Parliament (EUP). Eddie Gibb is Head of External Relations at Demos and was formerly a senior writer at the Sunday Herald and contributor to The Guardian and The Scotsman.
4. Demos is a London-based independent think-tank that works with policy-makers inside and outside government, and has a reputation for identifying long-term social trends.
5. The book includes a collection of specially commissioned short stories by leading Scottish writers:
Julie Bertagna, teenage fiction writer; author of Exodus (Macmillan)
Anne Donovan, shortlisted for Orange prize for Buddha Da (Canongate)
Ken MacLeod, respected sci-fi writer, twice winner of the Prometheus award
Ruaridh Nicoll, critically acclaimed writer of Wide Eyed (Black Swan)
6. Other contributors to Scotland 2020 include: Tom Nairn, Tom Devine, George Kerevan, Iain McLean, Carol Craig, Clive Hamilton, Chris Harvie, Iain McLean and Stephen Morrow.