Archive for the ‘Read’ Category

Message from our President – January 2025

Posted on: January 15th, 2025 by mlpEditor

Welcome to the first newsletter of 2025.

I wish you all a Happy New Year; I hope you are happy, healthy and successful over the next 12 months and beyond.

The Manchester Lit & Phil team is back and refreshed from the break. This month’s focus is on Autumn programme planning and finalising the rest of the 2024/25 season. We are examining how to develop the program. Susan Hilton and Ian Cameron have taken joint leadership of the Program Planning Group. Together, they are investigating what we can change to further develop the program’s appeal.

Looking at the attendance numbers, Manchester-themed events are very popular, as are popular science topics, historical events and the ever-oversubscribed Philosophy Forum.

We have two exciting terms ahead and tickets are selling well. Please look at the upcoming events and book early.

As we drive awareness of our events, we see the popular events selling out quickly. This is a nice problem, but we need help – especially from our members – to ensure as many people as possible who want to attend are offered a place.

When an event sells out, we always talk to the venue to see if we can increase the available seating. We also send out nudges to cancel tickets in case an attendee’s plans have changed since booking their ticket, and we manage the waiting lists too. We aim to accommodate as many attendees as possible to our most popular events, so it is very disappointing when the room is only 80% full on the day. We have reviewed the numbers from last year and the previous term and our no-show rate amongst members is more than 25%.

We all know that life can throw up last minute challenges, meaning we need to change our plans unexpectedly. Cancelling your ticket in advance, if you are no longer able to attend, will really help us maximise the success of our events.

To help Manchester Lit & Phil, we ask all our members to manage their bookings.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to cancelling tickets –

If you have an Eventbrite account:

  1. Log in to your Eventbrite account using the email address that you booked the tickets with
  2. Click ‘Tickets’ in the top right corner of the screen
  3. Click the event that you would like to cancel for
  4. Click the ‘Cancel Order’ button and confirm your cancellation
  5. Your booking will then be cancelled and Eventbrite will inform us by email

If you don’t have an Eventbrite account:

  1. Open the Eventbrite confirmation email for the event
  2. Find the event title and click on it
  3. Click View Your Order in the top left corner
  4. Find the order details and select Cancel Order
  5. Follow the instructions to complete the cancellation

 

Thanks in advance for your help with this.

Please send us feedback on events or ideas for future events and themes.  Also, remember, bring a friend, talk about us, and interact with our social media posts; all these small things are making a difference.

Thank you for your continuing support and let’s make this a great year for Manchester Lit & Phil.

Peter Wright, President

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oliver James Lomax at The Portico

Posted on: January 8th, 2025 by mlpEditor

With generosity of mind and spirit, Oliver James Lomax’ latest anthology of poems – The Dandelion Clocks – veritably springs from the page. Held in the much-adored Portico Library – where parts of Lomax’ work is currently being exhibited – Lomax read extracts from his latest collection, showcasing his lyrical agility and observational wit.

Throughout the event, that took place in November 2024, Lomax offered insights into his creative process, sharing anecdotes on the inception of particular poems – their time, their place, their insistence. Tender is the night of a political poet; pithy in their precision, his arguments are formed in the revelation of self, of community, of hope, of humour.

On the misty November evening, as the Christmas crowds passed us by, I felt very lucky to be amongst an audience of attentive listeners. As though entwined, a cadence of hilarity and heartbreak rose and fell across his readings – note ‘Free Range’ of God Missed The Last Bus And Walked Home or ‘Dementia Ward’ of Cloud Seeding Over Bolton. To my delight, the former still has me laughing.

Often reposeful, his poems express a carefulness, an intent. A verse may introduce one point of view to then end with another, bringing his reader to a moment of introspect and quiet. As in the case of Buying Back Your Gay Dad’s Shirt from A Sue Ryder, humour leads and then hands the baton over to delicate prose:

‘…But please, pay it no mind, because when I was dying, you were there, to clothe and feed every martyred word and window dress my feigned oblivion, without condition…’

As we enter this New Year and the January blues settle in, The Dandelion Clocks is the perfect book to lift our spirits.

 

By Charlotte Lanigan

Message from our President – December 2024

Posted on: December 4th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Dear ML&P Family & Friends,

I trust this message finds you well, warm and preparing to enjoy the holiday season.

This is my first post in a while. Behind the scenes, it has been a little hectic this year, but we are heading out of 2024 with a clearer understanding of what we want to achieve for Manchester Lit & Phil. We have established a clear operational foundation and agreed on our five strategic priorities.

Whether you are a member or a regular visitor, we all want to attend a compelling program of events, invest our time in exploring and engaging with fascinating content, and do this in the company of diverse and passionate people. Our program is the heartbeat, and we will always be looking at how to improve it.

It is customary to reflect at this time of year; I will do the same but with a focus on the future.

I want to thank all of you for supporting the society as guests, members, and, most of all, volunteers. Manchester Lit & Phil would not exist without your commitment and dedication. We are always looking for new volunteers for event-related activities, to help drive our social media profile, and to support governance, membership, and volunteer management. If you are interested, we will send out more details in the run-up to Christmas.

 

Coming back to our strategic priorities, a couple of words on each one

Awareness

The Lit & Phil is Manchester’s best-kept secret. In a city of this size, we want people to know who we are and what we do. This year, we have already started increasing our visibility, but there is much more to do. Our mailing list recently passed 2,500 subscribers, but we would like 10,000. 2025 will see more events aimed at promoting our program, increased social media activities, and a focus on putting on events that the people of Manchester are curious to attend.

 

Attendance

Twelve months ago, I attended an event at the Manchester Literature Festival. Several hundred people were in the room, and I remember thinking, “We can do this.”

Thanks to a fantastic team, the recent event “How has British Imperialism shaped the modern world?” with Sathnam Sanghera, which was held at Contact Theatre, attracted over 250 people.

We want to fill our existing venues and then have the challenge of finding new, larger venues.

 

Attendees

It is often commented that our events have a specific demographic, and that’s okay. However, to explore and engage with a subject, the more diverse the audience, the better the debate, and insight often comes from listening to other views. With this in mind, we will look at the number of new people attending.

 

Financially Sustainably

This has been the focus of 2024. With an increasing operating deficit and the forecast of that position worsening, many actions have been taken to get transparency and control. The good news is that our new treasurer has made an immediate impact.

We have stabilised the situation and can focus on driving income, managing costs and investing wisely.

We have set the objective of being sustainable in three years. After reaching that milestone, we can then look to increasing our charitable impact in the community.

 

Compliance

It is not an exciting subject, but it is critical. As a charity and a company, we must comply with all the laws under which we operate. We have a duty of care and safeguarding responsibility for our staff, volunteers, and attendees.

Our biggest challenge in this area is recruiting a secretary, a crucial role for any well-run charity. We will launch a recruitment campaign before the holiday; if you are interested, please contact me directly or via the info@ email address.

The last 12 months have been challenging. However, we have momentum, history, Manchester, and a great team. I predict Manchester Lit & Phil will have a bright future, and the 250th anniversary will be celebrated in style.

 

I will sign off the year with a few words from my favourite Christmas song,

I wish you a hopeful Christmas.
I wish you a brave new year.
All anguish, pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.

– I believe in Father Christmas by Greg Lake

 

All the best,

Peter

Interview with Professor Dame Athene Donald

Posted on: November 4th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Q: What were your most significant personal experiences that prompted you to write your book ‘Not just for the boys: why we need more women in science’?

A: Although I went to university many years ago, it has been depressing to see that the number of girls studying Physics has increased so little, and hardly at all in the last decade or so.

“During my career I have too often been the only woman in the room, the only woman put on some committee or other and had too many people express surprise that I, a woman, am a physicist. It is a ridiculous waste of talent to let this situation persist for another fifty years.”

 

Q: How optimistic are you that educational institutions and policy makers are taking seriously the removal of barriers to the promotion of women to senior positions in STEM?

A: Institutions certainly play lip service to this, but there can be significant differences between policies in educational institutions and actual implementation. I suspect this is often true in businesses too.

“Additionally, we still have an environment which favours certain styles of behaviour – e.g. being more focussed on grant income than supporting students, for instance – which is a stereotypically male way of doing things.”

There are subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which certain, not necessarily ideal behaviours are rewarded. As for policymakers, I don’t think they are particularly interested in this in the abstract.

 

Q: In your book, you write that gendered perceptions of being a scientist have their foundations in many cases in the home and in the early years of education. Do you have a wish list to fix this?

A: Probably the easiest place to start would be with teacher training. I don’t think teachers are actively encouraged to think about the problems of stereotypes and often inadvertently propagate them in the way they interact with children in the classroom – or indeed earlier in nurseries.

“Girls should be encouraged to build things and boys to play with dolls and play out being nurses. Otherwise, we will continue to see gendered professions.”

The media and our screens also have a crucial role to play in encouraging all children to believe all options are open to them. The current situation is as bad for boys as for girls. Our whole culture has to recognize that pushing children into the pink or blue aisles (figuratively as well as literally) is not healthy for society.

 

Q: What would be the main gains for society in having more equal representation of gender (and diversity in general) across STEM careers?

A: We are losing talent by not ensuring all who want to pursue the STEM subjects are encouraged to do so. This means there are shortages in some technical areas where there is a crying need, and we lose innovation opportunities which is also bad for the economy.

 

Thank you to Dame Athene for taking the time to answer our questions.

Dame Athene Donald will be giving her talk – Not just for the boys: why we need more women in science – at Friends’ Meeting House, Manchester, on Thursday 14 November.

Interview with Professor Daniel Miller

Posted on: June 3rd, 2024 by mlpEditor

Daniel Miller’s book ‘The Good Enough Life’ is an original exploration of what life could and should be, based on his study of the residents of Skerries. We had the chance to ask him some questions ahead of his appearance at the We Invented the Weekend Festival on Sunday 16 June.

 

Q: Does the ‘good life’ as typified by the residents of Skerries represent a transplantable model or framework that might be applied elsewhere? Or must a truly happy community reach an equivalent equilibrium independent of outside influences?

A: In my book I detail the many factors that have come together to explain why people praise their town as the basis of a good life. For example, it is a town large enough that people feel some autonomy and small enough to expect to greet friends when they go out for a walk. I show why it was important that the community was largely created by migrants (blow-ins) rather than its historical population. I examine their deep commitment to family and the community. There is an egalitarian ethos and for the retirees I worked with, a freedom from obligations that may last now for decades. I assume that other places favoured by their residents share some of these traits and lack others. While entirely other factors may be relevant.

In considering outside factors, for Skerries, as an Irish town, this includes a relatively stable government, and a sense that they have benefited considerably from the EU. I also noted a marked desire to differentiate themselves from what they see as the divisive politics of Northern Ireland, as opposed to their highly consensual local politics. So yes, an equivalent place elsewhere is likely to require its own equilibrium of both inside and outside influences.

 

Q: How should we measure success and happiness in a society that often equates these concepts with wealth and consumption? What alternative metrics could be more meaningful?

A: The key point here is that we should not be imposing our criteria for what makes a good life onto another population. My book is not based on my judgment that this was a happy place. I wrote this book because the people of the town went on and on about how much they loved living there and saw it as the source of their happiness. My job was to find out why?

With regard to wealth and consumption, the standard of living in this average Irish town is now slightly higher than the UK and it may be significant that most of the people I worked with were born in poverty and appreciate the benefits of living what they would call a comfortable life. But status in the town today comes almost entirely from public commitments to environmental welfare and sustainability, while conspicuous consumption is scorned.

“For these reasons the key metric is whatever the people themselves use to measure their sense that they are living the good enough life, and then the task is to explain why they favour this measure.”

 

Q: How do different cultures define and pursue a ’good’ life? Are there universal principles, or is it highly context-dependent?

A: I have worked as an anthropologist in places ranging from India and London, to the Caribbean and Ireland. The universal that lies behind my book comes from the observation that many societies have a similar term to our word good. A word that links being a morally upright (good) person to the idea of having an enjoyable (good) time. Linking these two seems to be an ideal, irrespective of whether one does in fact depend on the other.

But both senses of this word, what makes a person moral and what makes life enjoyable, will be highly context dependent. The farmers I lived with in an Indian village would look aghast at the criteria that I found in secular Skerries.

“My discipline of anthropology is committed to reminding people of just how distinct each population remains with regard to such judgments. We need to respect the degree that things we assume are obvious and neutral are actually nothing of the kind.”

 

Q: How does our environment, both natural and built, shape our happiness and quality of life? Are there particular types of environments that are universally beneficial?

A: I have lived in several places where people depended mainly on what they grew as farmers or fished and had very few commodities. Some were mainly content and others mainly miserable. I don’t romanticise the condition of peoples who have limited access to medicine and education, whose economic security depends on the weather and whose lives are generally shorter than ours. In turn I suspect you have been to cities you really would rather not live in and some you find attractive propositions. Clearly living in a city is no guarantee of a good life either.

One thing about the environment is for sure –  if Skerries is a happy place, it’s certainly not because of the weather (!). There are elements of the environment most of us enjoy, such as beautiful landscapes while few find inspiration in an industrial wasteland. But more generally I think it is social and cultural values that have much more influence on happiness and the quality of our lives.

 

Q: How has technology changed the way we form and maintain communities? Can virtual communities offer the same depth of connection as physical ones?

As with many populations, people in Skerries tend to be very negative if you ask them about social media and smartphones in general. But the same people can be quite positive when I discuss particular apps, or how Facebook has become a community platform. Older people suffer greatly from a digital divide if they feel unable to use these technologies but may then enjoy a reconnection with their youth if they do subsequently master them.

What we need right now are not quick judgments suggesting these technologies are good or bad, but long-term scholarly observations of the hundreds of ways these technologies impact our lives.

That’s why I lived in Skerries for 16 months before thinking that I had any understanding of this question.  Dividing the world into the physical and the virtual doesn’t work either. Hardly anyone lives just online or without any online. It a constant blending of the two.

Our team has written thousands of pages based on our observations around the world. You can read about the results of this research through our free books, such as The Global Smartphone, or How The World Changed Social Media. The point is that discussion of this question needs to be evidence led.

 

Thank you to Daniel for taking the time to answer our questions. Daniel was interviewed by Isabella Parkes on behalf of Manchester Lit & Phil.

Professor Daniel Miller will be interviewed by Dr Sheila McCormick from the University of Salford as part of the We Think Big talks at the We Invented the Weekend festival, on Sunday 16 June 2024. Visit the festival’s website for more information.

Interview with Professor Rachel Bowlby

Posted on: May 30th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Rachel Bowlby has written several books about the history and theory of shopping, including Back to the Shops: The High Street in History and the Future. We had the chance to ask her some questions ahead of her appearance at the We Invented the Weekend Festival on Saturday 15 June.

 

Q: Historically, shopping has often been done in groups, with people participating in the activity with both friends and family. Today, internet shopping is an increasingly individual activity, with people browsing and purchasing alone. In this context, has the decline of the high street and the rise of internet shopping decelerated, or accelerated, consumer culture?

A: There are lots of questions here! To begin with, it could be said group shopping is a modern phenomenon, related to trips into the town centre or, more recently, the weekly shop at the supermarket. The core shopping encounter was one on one, a seller and a buyer across the counter, or at the market, or on the doorstep (the pedlar).

“What’s distinctive about internet shopping is that there’s no salesperson there – it’s not one on one so much as just one. That solitary situation began with self-service: just the shopper and the shelves, you pick out your items yourself.”

 

Q: Are there any historical parallels to today’s changing retail experiences that might inform the future of high street shopping?

A: One example is home delivery, which we associate with big chains but which was rediscovered during the Covid lockdowns as not necessarily large-scale or distant when local shops, small shops, started to do home deliveries, ordered online.  In other words, the tech and the the small scale aren’t mutually exclusive. And until the 1950s and 1960s – until supermarkets came in – that was standard for food shopping, all over the country. The local butcher or baker or greengrocer delivered to your door.

 

Q: What innovations in retail do you see as most promising for the future of shopping? How can these innovations address current challenges faced by the high street?

A: The rapid development recently of online platforms for second-hand buying and selling of clothes is a really exciting development.

“It’s a practical challenge to the culture of fast fashion which also transfers the initiative to consumers (who become sellers as well)…it’s a return to a one-on-one type of exchange.”

 

Q: Is ethical consumption possible? What might ethical consumption look like, and how might current examples serve as models for wider adoption amongst the public?

A: There has been a huge shift in perceptions of shopping over the past ten years or so. It can be seen in the way that every company now presents its environmental credentials, to show how it’s encouraging good consuming (recycling) or good production practice, from farming practices to the sourcing of materials to employee working conditions. That’s a sign of how norms have shifted. The other side of this is that everyone – we are all consumers – is much more aware of these issues.

 

Q: Many people today derive satisfaction from cultivating relationships with certain brands that ‘define’ their personhood. In this sense, can consumption be empowering to the individual? And, if so, should consumption be empowering?

A: This is another vast topic. Instead of empowering, it can just as much be said that brand loyalty is infantilising, encouraging us to troop along faithfully as the supporters of this brand rather than that one. A slogan like ‘The power to lower prices’ (a current Tesco slogan) is manifestly patronising. It’s obviously not customers who have that power!

The question of consumption being empowering or not has an interesting history in terms of gender.

“Back when ‘the consumer’ was imagined as a woman – a housewife – she was the opposite of empowered. She was passive, manipulated, brainwashed  (those were standard words in arguments against advertising in the middle 20th century).”

Then the image shifted, just when men started to be seen as shoppers too. The new consumer was no longer an idiot but a model of rational behaviour, someone with rights and choices. This was the ‘rational’ consumer, weighing the options and calculating the best option: the reader of Which?  magazine, say, or the user of comparison websites.

 

Q: How can consumers be encouraged to take more responsibility for their shopping habits in terms of sustainability and supporting local businesses? What educational or incentive programs could be effective?

A: By learning about the history! Which can be done in all sorts of ways. Reading about it.  And also talking to people with different experiences (different generations, especially). Everyone has theories about, and knowledge of, the history of shopping, because we all shop (or avoid shopping): we can’t not have a relationship to it.

 

Thank you to Rachel for taking the time to answer our questions. Rachel was interviewed by Isabella Parkes on behalf of Manchester Lit & Phil.

Professor Rachel Bowlby will be a guest panellist at the We Think Big talk, ‘We’re Still Shopping?!’, at the We Invented the Weekend festival, on Saturday 15 June 2024. Visit the festival’s website for more information.

Interview with Oliver James Lomax

Posted on: May 29th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Q: How were you first introduced to poetry? Did a particular poet inspire you?

A: It must have been 1995, studying Seamus Heaney at Secondary School. I remember my English Teacher Mrs Gaffney asking me to read out loud to the class his poem Mid-Term Break. I mumbled through it, embarrassed, my voice half-breaking at the time, but those ending lines did something to me emotionally that a piece of writing had never done before. The feeling and connection seemed to take over my whole body, that experience has never left me. Both ‘Death of a Naturalist’ and ‘North’ by Heaney remain some of my favourite collections of poetry.

As a teenager I became more than a little obsessed with Bob Dylan. Dylan references Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud in his song ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’. I was so curious when I heard this that I headed out to buy my first ever book of poems, ‘A Season in Hell’ by Rimbaud. It certainly illuminated those early days living on a Bolton Council Estate. It was inspiring and overwhelming to me that he had written those poems when he was maybe only fifteen or sixteen years old.

 

Q: When you arrive at a new idea, do you ever find that poetry, in its pithy precision, can be a difficult way of communicating your thoughts? Why did you choose the poetic format?

A: Almost never. Poetry has become something of a verdict for me. I believe I lost the power of choice a long time ago. Of course, there are times when writing the work, that it is more difficult to come to terms with the theme and find the resolve. But that is the beauty of the journey, I never really know where the poem is going to take me, and I embrace this. I have tried to paint and sing but both of those moments are best left unsolved.

“I believe the oldest known poetic text dates back almost 3000 years, and for me poetry is more relevant than ever, as the most immediate expression of someone’s truth.”

 

Q: Much of your work looks to broadening literature’s reach and reappropriating it as a form of expression for the people, by the people. Why do you feel this is important?

A: I’m honoured to be able to connect with so many amazing young people every year when delivering poetry workshops, and I believe through sharing our experiences and writing poems we create a map of empathy.

“I see first-hand how poetry creates a sense of community, improves wellbeing, and offers young people the opportunity to find their own voice in what is a very challenging world.”

I’m proud to deliver sessions in collaboration with The Working Class Movement Library – their rare and beautiful archive inspires unique creativity, and importantly has the power to raise their class consciousness. It’s a privilege to be a part of this poetic journey and see young people become empowered by language.

 

Q: The Northern landscape, belonging and identity, are themes that run throughout your work. Can you explain why this is a pulse of intrigue for you?

A. I suppose these are just the things and places that happened to me, all I can do is respond poetically. Anything written in the landscape of memory is written here, and I’m not sure if my poems have a destination other than a sense of belonging.

“The ruins of Ladyshore Colliery on the banks of the River Irwell close to my childhood home continue to be a rich mine of spiritual and poetic connection for me. I find a real sense of otherness and elsewhere as I wander the site and it has offered the beginnings to many poems.”

My Nan, Margaret, is a recurring presence in my work. Her love, humour, and sadly her passing through dementia, are themes explored in my latest collection, ‘Burial of The Cameo’. I write about many things, but she is often the anchor. When I open the dialogue with her memory, I feel I can write with such honesty and vulnerability, that the poetic landscape seems to become vast and limitless. As Borges said, “Being with you and not being with you is the only way I have to measure time.”

 

Q: And lastly, as a mentor, if you were to hand down a book of poems to a pupil, which Greater Manchester poet would you chose and why?

There are so many wonderful Greater Manchester poets to choose from, but I would have to say Clare Pollard. Her first collection of poetry the ‘Heavy-Petting Zoo’ was written whilst she was still at school, and her most recent book ‘The Untameables’ is such a beautiful thing. Claire is an astonishing poet and writer, and like myself, a native of Bolton.

 

Thank you to Oliver for taking the time to answer our questions. Oliver was interviewed by our Trustee, Charlotte Lanigan.

Oliver James Lomax will be performing some of his poems on Manchester Lit & Phil’s Poetry Boat Cruise at the We Invented the Weekend festival, 15-16 June 2024. Visit the festival’s website for more information.

 

David Higginson, President of the Society 2009-2011

Posted on: April 25th, 2024 by mlpEditor

We were very sad to hear of the recent death of David Higginson. He passed away peacefully on 7 March, in hospital, after being unwell for the past few months. We only heard the news the day after his funeral (which was on 15 April) but I have spoken at length with his sister Margaret, who reported that it had been a very dignified service, which celebrated his long and full life.

David joined the Lit & Phil in 1989 and was a very regular attender, always asking at least one question at talks! He had a successful career as a lawyer in Manchester, and a wide range of interests. He served as President from 2009-2011.

Covid, then increasing frailty prevented him attending much over the last few years, but he maintained a lively interest in the Lit & Phil events. He will be much missed.

 

Dr Susan Hilton

22 April 2024

Humanising Trust in the Age of AI

Posted on: April 23rd, 2024 by mlpEditor

To human beings, trust is very personal, often domain specific, and influenced by lived experiences. Traditionally, trust has been focused around human to human relationships based upon a person’s integrity, honesty, dependability and the belief that a person will not cause harm. But what about Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence? How can we assess that? This topic which will be discussed in Dr Emily Collins’ Manchester Lit & Phil talk on 2nd May 2024, framed around trustworthy and responsible robotics.

The development of global ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI) principles and guidelines, followed by the explosion of generative AI in the public domain in 2021, has led to a scramble to legislate AI based around core ethical principles. The EU AI Act – the first comprehensive legalisation based on a risk-based approach – was formally adopted in March 2024.

At the heart of the UK’s pro-regulation approach, five cross-sectoral principles based on Safety, security and robustness; Appropriate transparency and explainability; Fairness; Accountability and governance; and Contestability and redress, were adopted. Currently, these principles are down to individual regulators to interpret – but what will this practically mean for a human within society, the wider public and marginalised communities in terms of their rights?

Human trust is at the heart of responsible and ethical AI in society. In March 2024, The UK Government published its guidance on AI Assurance which emphasises the importance of trust, defining the context of justified trust as “where a person or group trust the use of an AI system based on reliable evidence”. The guidance provides a toolkit for organisations for measuring, evaluating, and communicating AI Assurance supported by some practical guidance. Some progress in this area is certainly being made.

However, to the person on the street who may have little awareness of the use of AI in their everyday lives and how it impacts them, understanding the risks and benefits of AI elements of a particular product or service prior to using it, may be overwhelming, and potentially lead to an increase in the digital divide in society.

So how do we ensure that humans have the confidence and trust in AI and that it is accessible to everyone?

The Peoples Panel in Artificial Intelligence was a project first funded by The Alan Turing Institute in 2022, and has since been adopted by Manchester City Council as part of Doing Digital Together. The original Peoples Panel was first established from community volunteers within Salford and Stockport through a series of community AI roadshows designed to reach and engage with traditionally marginalized communities and develop a common language and understanding around AI.

Community volunteers undertook two days of training, practically exploring ethical AI principles and learning techniques to consequence scanning how AI and data was used. They then scrutinised researchers and business in a series of live panels around new and emerging AI products. Confidence was shown to increase, and volunteers became advocates of debating and discussing AI in their own communities.

A second project, PEAS in PODS, trained up researchers as Public Engagement Ambassadors (PEAs) across three universities on public engagement and co-production. The PEAs are currently emersed in three co-produced AI related projects at Back on Track (Manchester), Inspire (Stockport) and The Tatton (Ordsall) led by the communities themselves. One such project is currently co-developing a Peoples Charter for AI – focused on what assurances people want from those organisations that adopt AI.

There is hope for the future: peoples voices – especially those that are hard to reach – are being heard.

And a bill on the regulation of artificial intelligence is currently making its way through the House of Lords. It is significant as it specifically mentions the role of meaningful public engagement and states “AI and its applications should…… meet the needs of those from lower socio-economic groups, older people and disabled people”.

As humans are unique, how we build trust in AI is also unique. But first, we need a mutual language of understanding about AI for everyone.

Interview with Dr Cynthia Johnston

Posted on: March 4th, 2024 by mlpEditor

Q: The Medieval period is perceived by some as ‘the Dark Ages’, a period of economic, intellectual and cultural decline. Based on your research, would you say this is a misconception?

A: Yes, I would say that is a rather old-fashioned view, but I think it survives despite the evidence. The term ‘Dark Ages’ has a resonance of romanticism about it, as a period which was difficult to document due to the collapse of the communication networks established by the Roman Empire. We know now that trade routes and communication across cultures continued to flourish across the period. The influence of the Islamic world pervades the art and architecture of the late medieval period. We can see this influence in ceramics, textiles, architecture, medieval book illumination and especially in the ‘carpet’ stained glass windows of the great cathedrals.

 

Q: What is it about this period in history that has captivated you so much as to want to study and teach it?

A: It was the sound of the language of Middle English which captivated me as an MA student at New York University in the early 1980s.

“While I found Chaucer’s language very accessible via its close connection with the English that we speak today, it was the dialect of the Gawain poet from the North-West Midlands, that I found most beautiful and appealing.”

 

Q: You are a lecturer on the History of the Book MA at the University of London – could you give us an insight into what one might expect from your course? And which book do you most enjoy referencing in your lectures? (if you can choose one, that is)

A: The MA/MRes in the History of the Book in the Institute of English Studies is the oldest programme of its kind in the world. It studies the making, manufacturing, distribution and reading of books, and thus offers a unique way of understanding different literary, cultural, social, intellectual, and technological processes in history. The subject extends to include newspapers, magazines, chapbooks, ephemera, digital text, and all kinds of printed or written media. It also includes the manuscript book in all its forms from the pre-classical, classical, and medieval periods.

“It is VERY difficult to choose a favourite book as a teaching object but I would say that has to be the medieval psalter. These types of books show us so much about their owners, and often give us information about individual lives: marriages, births and deaths.”

 

Q: Many of our members and followers will be avid book collectors and enthusiasts. With the advancements in technology made over the last thirty years or so, should we be worried or excited about the future of books and the way we consume information?

A: That is a huge question, but I am very optimistic about the survival of the codex. In 2011, I chaired a conference entitled ‘The Future Perfect of the Book’ with my colleague Wim Van Mierlo. Many of the conference attendees were concerned that the rise of the digital book would spell the end of the book in physical form, and that book shops would become things of the past. That culture has proved robust.

“It doesn’t seem that we are ready to part company with the physical book anytime soon. Research on the cognitive differences between reading text online and reading print from a physical book seems to suggest that these are two distinct cognitive experiences that can happily co-exist.”

 

Thank you to Cynthia for taking the time to answer our questions.

Cynthia Johnston will be giving her talk – Getting Medieval with Stranger Things – at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on the 7th March 2024.

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