Demonization

We were all a bit astonished by the vitriolic response to the Burnley Express Online's announcement of our project. It made us wonder about insider and outsider perceptions and how, even within a relatively small town, people are still able to find ways in which to look down on one another. To my mind, the only way to really know a place is to be in it, spend time there, take up residence.

But it seems as though sweeping generalisations about a kind of dystopic society in South West Burnley, still have resonance for those outside the area who are quick to cast judgement. I was surprised to learn that it is twenty years since riots occurred on Stoops Estate in South West Burnley, but the stigma clings; the riots have entered local folklore. See the BBC coverage of the Stoops riots and in particular the references to council housing and male unemployment.

We have been wrestling with our alarm and trying to make sense of the comments posted on the Burnley Express page. Owen Jones' Chavs (2012) has been mentioned a couple of times. Here's a mind-map in which I tried to organise what I knew about the book's contents.


Steph August 2012

"£70,000 art project will tell the story of Burnley’s Stoops estate"

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"£70,000 art project will tell the story of Burnley’s Stoops estate" as reported in the Burnley Express on the 23rd August 2012.  Interesting use of image of several £10 notes next to their version of the press release which is quite different from original press release. The language used in the article and the comments below provide an interesting insight into people's opinion of South West Burnley.
James


'Tell us about where you live. Tell us about your life'

A lengthy chat today with Steph about a whole host of things including psychogeography, the very exciting potential for an 'archeological dig' and the importance of documenting and archiving. This led me to remember some inspiring pieces I had heard on the BBC World Service a few years ago. 
"Alert Bay - My Life So Far was created from recordings gathered by five young people from Alert Bay, a remote island off the west coast of Canada. The young people, aged 11 to 17, were trained by two producers from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The producers lent them recording equipment and gave them a simple task: 'Tell us about where you live. Tell us about your life."
James

image copyright belongs to BBC World Service



















Here are the links to the recordings and the slideshow on the BBC Website:

Chicken Hill?

I had a very intriguing conversation with Victoria Dewhurst of Ribble Rivers Trust on how we may collaborate on a project in South West Burnley. Victoria is coordinating the Urban Rivers Enhancement Scheme throughout Burnley.  Running through South West Burnley are two significant culverts, one appears to run from Scott Park and re-emerges at the bottom of Cog Lane. We discussed the possibility of instigating a project that raises awareness of this water course and explores it’s heritage and significance. The conversation raised many potential areas of cooperation and suggested some very creative ways of looking at the culverts. This led me to do some research where I ended up using the County Council’s MARIO service to look at old maps of the area and overlapped them with present days maps. This revealed some fascinating information, but didn’t solve one mystery …why is Chicken Hill called Chicken Hill  ….more later!
James



First Meeting for Ground-UP

On Wednesday afternoon James, Iain, Steph and myself all met up for the first time to talk about the project and to plan what to do next. It was a very useful and enjoyable meeting (the addition of lunch also helped) and we were able to plan a visit next week to Howard Street Community Centre to meet up and enjoy the Community Flower Festival.
I took a few photos of the day to show you what everyone (except me!) looks like.
Cath

This is James

Iain
 A space where Cath/I used to be!

Steph

An interesting, albeit old document that came up in conversation: Sherry Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation.

Past Projects in the area: My Place | William Titley

















....from a project carried out in South West Burnley some time ago:http://www.williamtitley.org/myplace.html
Many residents enjoyed being part of this and still speak of it fondly
James

ground-UP | South West Burnley

ground-UP  |   A program of creative collaborations about to commence in South West Burnley
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