# data[].attributes.headline
Beyond Borders: The UK's Disappearing Coastline

# data[].attributes.subject
Beyond Borders: The UK's Disappearing Coastline

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Beyond Borders: The UK's Disappearing Coastline

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Become a member and discover where geography can take you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Documentary - Shadow war: China and the West - BBC Sounds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC Sounds - Intrigue - Available Episodes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Listen to the latest episodes of Intrigue on BBC Sounds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
China's Accidental Activists - BBC Sounds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Historian and diplomat Joseph Nye gives us the 30,000-foot view of the shifts in power between China and the US, and the global implications as economic, political and “soft” power shifts and moves around the globe.

# data[].attributes.headline
What are the hidden stories behind our stuff?

# data[].attributes.subject
What are the hidden stories behind our stuff?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the summer of 2020, Geographies of Material Culture, the undergraduate module behind our website, was totally reorganised for online teaching and learning. As detailed in our recent post announcing the launch of its public archive, it brought together 10 'follow the thing' films and 10 followthethings.com pages about their making, discussion and impacts. This module was also redesigned - from the selection and sequence of these films to the content and appearance of its website - to try to decolonise its pedagogy. Over the past couple of years a brilliant decolonising network has taken shape at our university with all kinds of exciting initiatives involving staff and students all over the place. The changes made to our module were informed and inspired by this wider movement. Some were generic strategies for decolonising a module and others were more tailored to the module, its materials and its aims. Module leader and followthethings.com 'CEO' Ian has been trying to channel his white privilege through anti-racist education for over 20 years now (see this from 2000). But this felt like a step change for his research and teaching about the 'follow the things' genre of commodity activism which simply asks 'Who made my stuff?'
If you check the module's public archive, you will see how the following decolonising strategies helped to shape it. There were five aims:

to disrupt the 'white saviour complex' of 'guilty' Northern (white) consumers wanting only to shop more 'ethically to help exploited (POC) workers by trying to shift responses to 'who made my stuff' filmmaking 'from guilt to solidarity' (Young 2003).
Continue reading

For the past six weeks, Exeter Geography graduate Natalie Cleverly has been working as a nicely paid intern on the 'follow the things' project. She took the Geographies of Material Culture module that's generated our site since 2008, but in its new 2020-21 online iteration. And, this summer, she read every 'compilation' page on our website, looking for timely events about each page to post on our Twitter and Instagram because they happened 'on this day'. As Natalie was finishing up, we asked her what it had been like to read the whole site. We don't know anyone else who has done this! What do you learn? What's been happening to 'follow the things' activism since we first opened our store ten years ago? Here are her thoughts.

Last September, I began the Material Cultures module at Exeter University. Since I'd chosen the module five months prior, the world had turned so upside down and inside out that I'd forgotten what I'd even signed up for. But I was fascinated. Particularly by followthethings.com itself. It wasn't like any research project I had seen before. I reached out to Ian - who ran the module and the website - 'Is there any way I can help?'.

And here we are. I'm not a followthethings.com expert, but after reading through 70+ pages of the website (almost the whole thing!) I've gained a good insight. So, what did I take away from sifting through all these years of content around activism / filmmaking / grassroots organising / following-the-thing?

A lot.

Continue reading

We have some exciting news. We've just posted this thread on @followthethings twitter. Here it is again with added whole films and/or trailers.
1/ Hello public archive!

If you're teaching 'who made my stuff?' or if you want to find out more yourself, here's our Geographies of Material Culture module archive. This is the module behind our website, fresh for 2020-21. 10 epic films. 10 epic http://followthethings.com pages.

Click the cats to get there.

Continue reading

The pages on the followthethings.com begin as coursework set for groups of students taking a Geographies of Material Culture module at the University of Exeter. They also their own experiments of cultural activism, and write personal reflective journals on what they learn. Kate Brockie's group were tasked to find a way to draw public attention to the work of mineral justice NGO Global Witness through cultural activism. They chose a talc mining report to work with. Sarah Ditty, the policy director for the Fashion Revolution movement, had kicked off that part of the talk. How could the work of Global Witness and Fashion revolution be connected? Kate scoured the internet, took out her sewing machine, and made her case.
Eye shadows

Global Witness's investigations into the ways in which talc mining finances insurgency in Afghanistan shocked me. How could products as harmlessly trivial as eye shadow be fuelling terrorism, disrupting the lives of thousands of civilians (Global Witness 2018)? The Global Witness campaign gave me an unsettling feeling of being entangled in global webs of exploitation, wondering whether everything else I use throughout my day contributes to some kind of injustice. Continue reading

Every year, Exeter Geography graduate and ex-followthethings.com intern Jemma Sherman gives her Dad a snow globe for Christmas. After taking our Geographies of Material Culture module the term before Christmas 2017, she made a new one. Here it is. And here's what she wrote to him in his Christmas card... [actually it's Jemma's coursework. We really liked it].
Dear Dad,

Merry Christmas! I'm looking forward to getting home from Uni to see everyone again. For your present this year I've done something different - I hope you don't mind! You see, I've been having these lectures which focus on the hidden lives within my commodities; the people who produce the components, assemble them and transport them. Our most recent task was to create an art-activist project on advent calendars. Art activism includes a "broad range of artists' practices" (Grindon and Flood, 2014:10), highlighting social, political ... and cultural struggles" (Darts, 2004:315). Flanagan (2009:3-4) says an artist is anyone who "creat[es] outside commercial establishments", "making for making's sake". We discovered terrible things about the lives of those making these calendars, with children as young as twelve being exploited (Andrei, 2017). And this got me thinking about what else I get around Christmas time, which led me to our tradition. Well, your tradition really. I love it. Most years you get me a snow globe (if you can find one with a cute enough scene). I know that Carrier (2004:68) says "gifts within the core family are given without the expectation of equivalent in return", but this year I wanted to give you one. You can open your present now - sorry, I've kind of ruined the surprise. There're just a few instructions you need to follow (read first): Continue reading

Last week CEO Ian was a panelist at the last ESRC-funded seminar series on Ethics in Consumption: Interdisciplinary Perspectives at Birkbeck, University of London. The main speakers were Jonathan Porritt and Danny Miller, and the panel included Kate Soper, Jo Littler, Frank Trentmann and Terry Newholm. Drawing on Louise Ashcroft's artist in residence (self invited) work at London's Westfield Shopping Mall, Ian's contribution to the panel involved reading out one of the cards from Louise's Mallopoly game. His point - that debates about research-inspired change need to involve more-than-rational argumentation. And that Louise's work should be required reading. Starting with this interview about her residency's retail poisoning in We Make Money Not Art. Enjoy!
In January 2017, artist Louise Ashcroft invited herself to be an artist in residency at Westfield Shopping Centre. That's the mega mall in Stratford, East London. Its retail area is as big as 30 football pitches (says wikipedia), it has famous chains of fast fashion & fast food, screens budget-bloated blockbusters, rents kiddy cars and boasts some seriously boring 'public' artworks. Because there's nothing remotely boring, mass manufactured nor glittery about her work (and also because she is quietly plotting the demise of capitalism), Ashcroft spent her time there undercover, pretending she was only looking for a bit of shopping fun.

The artist will present the result of her stealth research this week at arebyte in Hackney Wick, a five-minute walk from Westfield. Some of the works she developed at the shopping mall include a transposition of words from slogan fashion T-shirts on traditional narrow boat signs, offers to exchange 'happy' meals toys with more 'soulful' artist-designed toys, seditious retail therapy sessions, bookable tours of Westfield where she will guide participants through playful (pseudo)psychoanalytical activities, 'mallopoly' cards that invite shoppers to use the mall and its contents as a material, etc. Oh! and, since the Westfield area is the home of grime she also compiled words from Argos shopping catalogues into a cut-up text and grime artist Maxsta recorded it as a track.

This is not Ashcroft's first incursion into the magical world of retail poisoning. She regularly smuggles unfamiliar-looking African vegetables into supermarkets and then throws the store in disarray when she attempts to buy them (Vegetable, 2003-17.) ...
Continue reading -> Additional reading
Regine (2014) Retail poisoning: a disruption of materialism. We Make Money Not Art, 19 November

PS Louise's website is here.

Our CEO Ian went on a countryside walk earlier this year with colleagues in Exeter's Geography Department. Their aim was to follow the flow of electricity by walking the route of a power line. Their social media posts about this journey prompted discussions about electricity and difficult-to-follow commodities. One was Peter Forman - from the Institute of Political Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen - who had just finished his PhD on natural gas. We asked him to share his experience of following a commodity whose materiality is especially challenging.
Introduction

Natural gas can be thought of as natural in two senses of the word. First, it forms deep beneath the ground, independently of human action (as opposed to the manufactured gas that was used in the UK before 1970 - this gas was the product of hard labour, workers feeding iron retorts with coal), and second, it is naturalised. Whilst gas plays a crucial role in many people's daily lives - we heat our homes with it, cook with it, and use it to warm water for bathing comfortably - most of us never give it much consideration. We come home from work, twist the tap on the hob, give it a press, then click! A spark. An eruption of yellow-blue flame. It is there, ready and waiting. It provides heat in an instant and is worthy of no further thought.

Yet in other ways, 'natural gas' is far from natural. Its presence beneath the earth is made knowable through a multitude of technologically complex devices, and it is only through the deployment of established knowledges, bodies and technological instruments that it is securely extracted, processed, pressurised, transported, and consumed. This is what Bridge (2004; 396) refers to when he describes how "a whole industry has emerged ... dedicated to corralling the waywardness and variability of gas and rendering it a commodity compliant with the workings of the market". Indeed, it is as a consequence of this dense assemblage that we can understand gas to not simply be there, ready and waiting. Far from it! For without the practices of these diverse actors, it would remain deep beneath our feet, trapped between layers of rock. As it travels (the direction and nature of which is likewise defined by said actors), it could also come to realise a series of what Dillon and Reid (2001) call 'dimensions of dangerousness'. From it realising its flammability and explosiveness, to it causing significant societal disruption through the interruption of its supply, or it having severe ecological impacts of different kinds (for example, affecting global climate or contributing to marine crises such as in Puchuncavi, Chile - see Tironi et al. forthcoming), across its travels, natural gas can come to present a series of dangers that generate myriad attempts to perform security around it. Continue reading

There are two weeks to go before our latest pedagogical experiment begins: the free online course called 'Who made my clothes?' which we have put together with Fashion Revolution and the University of Exeter. To help to spread the word, CEO Ian will front a small number of 'Who made my...?' films which show how we can imagine and find traces of labour in everyday commodities. The first film is about mobile phones and ends with a request. Please try this out and let us know what happens. Then watch the others in this playlist.

Not sure if this is or is not the 'norm' but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalise with a photo) already had a photo set against it !!!! (Source: markm49uk 2008, np link).

I hope she doesn't get fired, she looks so bloody happy! I will dedicate my iPhone homescreen to her for the rest of this week (Source: vegasdodger 2008, np link).

Photo source:
markm49uk (2008) iPhone 3G - already with pictures ! (aka "iPhone Girl"). macrumors.com 20 August ( https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-3g-already-with-pictures-aka-iphone-girl.547777/ last accessed 13 June 2017)
Further reading:
Cook, I. (2011) iPhone 3G - already with pictures! (aka 'iPhone Girl'). followthethings.com ( http://followthethings.com/iphonegirl.shtml last accessed 13 June 2017)

Cook, I. (2013) The 14 best examples of shop-dropping... ever. followtheblog.org 23 March ( https://followtheblog.org/2013/03/22/paper-activism-in-store-in-things-on-things/ last accessed 13 June 2017)

Woolf, S. (2017) Dear iPhone Girl. followtheblog.org 11 February ( https://followtheblog.org/2017/02/11/guest-blog-dear-iphone-girl/ last accessed 13 June 2017)

Good news. On Monday, CEO Ian was awarded the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 'Taylor and Francis Award for Excellence in the Promotion and Practice of Teaching and Learning of Geography in Higher Education'. He was nominated for the whole 'follow the thing' appreciation of the the social relations of trade and its application across school, university and wider public pedagogies. The 'et al' in his name signifies his permanent, heartfelt appreciation of everyone involved in the project over the years, and those who may join it in the future. As he explains:
"I am very happy and humbled to be given this award. My research began in the classroom where I miserably failed to encourage students to be interested in what was happening in other parts of the world. I was desperate to find a way to show how their lives were connected to those of the people and places we were studying. Finding out how some of our things are made, in some of those places, was the answer and that's how the 'follow the thing' idea originated in Kentucky in the late 1980s. Since then, I've really enjoyed developing ways to help students follow their own things, to think empathetically about their relations and responsibilities to others in the process, and to play, have fun, make mischief, be activist with their findings. I've learned as much as I have taught as we have done this together. I've been constantly surprised by what I have learned from the students who have taken my modules and worked as interns on the followthethings.com project. Being ourselves is a massively collaborative effort. I truly appreciate everyone's contributions."
This work continues -> next we're working on our 'follow the things' Subvertisement project in Finland with Eeva Kempainnen - researching and adding 10 new pages to our website - running our free Fashion Revolution 'Who Made My Clothes?' course that starts on 26th July, and opening the Museum of Contemporary Commodities at the RGS(IBG)'s Pavilion Gallery on London's Exhibition Road from 24th - 27th August. Please join us.

The script

Continue reading

In the summer of 2020, Geographies of Material Culture, the undergraduate module behind our website, was totally reorganised for online teaching and learning. As detailed in our recent post announcing the launch of its public archive, it brought together 10 'follow the thing' films and 10 followthethings.com pages about their making, discussion and impacts. This module was also redesigned - from the selection and sequence of these films to the content and appearance of its website - to try to decolonise its pedagogy. Over the past couple of years a brilliant decolonising network has taken shape at our university with all kinds of exciting initiatives involving staff and students all over the place. The changes made to our module were informed and inspired by this wider movement. Some were generic strategies for decolonising a module and others were more tailored to the module, its materials and its aims. Module leader and followthethings.com 'CEO' Ian has been trying to channel his white privilege through anti-racist education for over 20 years now (see this from 2000). But this felt like a step change for his research and teaching about the 'follow the things' genre of commodity activism which simply asks 'Who made my stuff?'
If you check the module's public archive, you will see how the following decolonising strategies helped to shape it. There were five aims:

to disrupt the 'white saviour complex' of 'guilty' Northern (white) consumers wanting only to shop more 'ethically to help exploited (POC) workers by trying to shift responses to 'who made my stuff' filmmaking 'from guilt to solidarity' (Young 2003).
Continue reading

For the past six weeks, Exeter Geography graduate Natalie Cleverly has been working as a nicely paid intern on the 'follow the things' project. She took the Geographies of Material Culture module that's generated our site since 2008, but in its new 2020-21 online iteration. And, this summer, she read every 'compilation' page on our website, looking for timely events about each page to post on our Twitter and Instagram because they happened 'on this day'. As Natalie was finishing up, we asked her what it had been like to read the whole site. We don't know anyone else who has done this! What do you learn? What's been happening to 'follow the things' activism since we first opened our store ten years ago? Here are her thoughts.

Last September, I began the Material Cultures module at Exeter University. Since I'd chosen the module five months prior, the world had turned so upside down and inside out that I'd forgotten what I'd even signed up for. But I was fascinated. Particularly by followthethings.com itself. It wasn't like any research project I had seen before. I reached out to Ian - who ran the module and the website - 'Is there any way I can help?'.

And here we are. I'm not a followthethings.com expert, but after reading through 70+ pages of the website (almost the whole thing!) I've gained a good insight. So, what did I take away from sifting through all these years of content around activism / filmmaking / grassroots organising / following-the-thing?

A lot.

Continue reading

We have some exciting news. We've just posted this thread on @followthethings twitter. Here it is again with added whole films and/or trailers.
1/ Hello public archive!

If you're teaching 'who made my stuff?' or if you want to find out more yourself, here's our Geographies of Material Culture module archive. This is the module behind our website, fresh for 2020-21. 10 epic films. 10 epic http://followthethings.com pages.

Click the cats to get there.

Continue reading

The pages on the followthethings.com begin as coursework set for groups of students taking a Geographies of Material Culture module at the University of Exeter. They also their own experiments of cultural activism, and write personal reflective journals on what they learn. Kate Brockie's group were tasked to find a way to draw public attention to the work of mineral justice NGO Global Witness through cultural activism. They chose a talc mining report to work with. Sarah Ditty, the policy director for the Fashion Revolution movement, had kicked off that part of the talk. How could the work of Global Witness and Fashion revolution be connected? Kate scoured the internet, took out her sewing machine, and made her case.
Eye shadows

Global Witness's investigations into the ways in which talc mining finances insurgency in Afghanistan shocked me. How could products as harmlessly trivial as eye shadow be fuelling terrorism, disrupting the lives of thousands of civilians (Global Witness 2018)? The Global Witness campaign gave me an unsettling feeling of being entangled in global webs of exploitation, wondering whether everything else I use throughout my day contributes to some kind of injustice. Continue reading

Every year, Exeter Geography graduate and ex-followthethings.com intern Jemma Sherman gives her Dad a snow globe for Christmas. After taking our Geographies of Material Culture module the term before Christmas 2017, she made a new one. Here it is. And here's what she wrote to him in his Christmas card... [actually it's Jemma's coursework. We really liked it].
Dear Dad,

Merry Christmas! I'm looking forward to getting home from Uni to see everyone again. For your present this year I've done something different - I hope you don't mind! You see, I've been having these lectures which focus on the hidden lives within my commodities; the people who produce the components, assemble them and transport them. Our most recent task was to create an art-activist project on advent calendars. Art activism includes a "broad range of artists' practices" (Grindon and Flood, 2014:10), highlighting social, political ... and cultural struggles" (Darts, 2004:315). Flanagan (2009:3-4) says an artist is anyone who "creat[es] outside commercial establishments", "making for making's sake". We discovered terrible things about the lives of those making these calendars, with children as young as twelve being exploited (Andrei, 2017). And this got me thinking about what else I get around Christmas time, which led me to our tradition. Well, your tradition really. I love it. Most years you get me a snow globe (if you can find one with a cute enough scene). I know that Carrier (2004:68) says "gifts within the core family are given without the expectation of equivalent in return", but this year I wanted to give you one. You can open your present now - sorry, I've kind of ruined the surprise. There're just a few instructions you need to follow (read first): Continue reading

Last week CEO Ian was a panelist at the last ESRC-funded seminar series on Ethics in Consumption: Interdisciplinary Perspectives at Birkbeck, University of London. The main speakers were Jonathan Porritt and Danny Miller, and the panel included Kate Soper, Jo Littler, Frank Trentmann and Terry Newholm. Drawing on Louise Ashcroft's artist in residence (self invited) work at London's Westfield Shopping Mall, Ian's contribution to the panel involved reading out one of the cards from Louise's Mallopoly game. His point - that debates about research-inspired change need to involve more-than-rational argumentation. And that Louise's work should be required reading. Starting with this interview about her residency's retail poisoning in We Make Money Not Art. Enjoy!
In January 2017, artist Louise Ashcroft invited herself to be an artist in residency at Westfield Shopping Centre. That's the mega mall in Stratford, East London. Its retail area is as big as 30 football pitches (says wikipedia), it has famous chains of fast fashion & fast food, screens budget-bloated blockbusters, rents kiddy cars and boasts some seriously boring 'public' artworks. Because there's nothing remotely boring, mass manufactured nor glittery about her work (and also because she is quietly plotting the demise of capitalism), Ashcroft spent her time there undercover, pretending she was only looking for a bit of shopping fun.

The artist will present the result of her stealth research this week at arebyte in Hackney Wick, a five-minute walk from Westfield. Some of the works she developed at the shopping mall include a transposition of words from slogan fashion T-shirts on traditional narrow boat signs, offers to exchange 'happy' meals toys with more 'soulful' artist-designed toys, seditious retail therapy sessions, bookable tours of Westfield where she will guide participants through playful (pseudo)psychoanalytical activities, 'mallopoly' cards that invite shoppers to use the mall and its contents as a material, etc. Oh! and, since the Westfield area is the home of grime she also compiled words from Argos shopping catalogues into a cut-up text and grime artist Maxsta recorded it as a track.

This is not Ashcroft's first incursion into the magical world of retail poisoning. She regularly smuggles unfamiliar-looking African vegetables into supermarkets and then throws the store in disarray when she attempts to buy them (Vegetable, 2003-17.) ...
Continue reading -> Additional reading
Regine (2014) Retail poisoning: a disruption of materialism. We Make Money Not Art, 19 November

PS Louise's website is here.

Our CEO Ian went on a countryside walk earlier this year with colleagues in Exeter's Geography Department. Their aim was to follow the flow of electricity by walking the route of a power line. Their social media posts about this journey prompted discussions about electricity and difficult-to-follow commodities. One was Peter Forman - from the Institute of Political Science, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen - who had just finished his PhD on natural gas. We asked him to share his experience of following a commodity whose materiality is especially challenging.
Introduction

Natural gas can be thought of as natural in two senses of the word. First, it forms deep beneath the ground, independently of human action (as opposed to the manufactured gas that was used in the UK before 1970 - this gas was the product of hard labour, workers feeding iron retorts with coal), and second, it is naturalised. Whilst gas plays a crucial role in many people's daily lives - we heat our homes with it, cook with it, and use it to warm water for bathing comfortably - most of us never give it much consideration. We come home from work, twist the tap on the hob, give it a press, then click! A spark. An eruption of yellow-blue flame. It is there, ready and waiting. It provides heat in an instant and is worthy of no further thought.

Yet in other ways, 'natural gas' is far from natural. Its presence beneath the earth is made knowable through a multitude of technologically complex devices, and it is only through the deployment of established knowledges, bodies and technological instruments that it is securely extracted, processed, pressurised, transported, and consumed. This is what Bridge (2004; 396) refers to when he describes how "a whole industry has emerged ... dedicated to corralling the waywardness and variability of gas and rendering it a commodity compliant with the workings of the market". Indeed, it is as a consequence of this dense assemblage that we can understand gas to not simply be there, ready and waiting. Far from it! For without the practices of these diverse actors, it would remain deep beneath our feet, trapped between layers of rock. As it travels (the direction and nature of which is likewise defined by said actors), it could also come to realise a series of what Dillon and Reid (2001) call 'dimensions of dangerousness'. From it realising its flammability and explosiveness, to it causing significant societal disruption through the interruption of its supply, or it having severe ecological impacts of different kinds (for example, affecting global climate or contributing to marine crises such as in Puchuncavi, Chile - see Tironi et al. forthcoming), across its travels, natural gas can come to present a series of dangers that generate myriad attempts to perform security around it. Continue reading

There are two weeks to go before our latest pedagogical experiment begins: the free online course called 'Who made my clothes?' which we have put together with Fashion Revolution and the University of Exeter. To help to spread the word, CEO Ian will front a small number of 'Who made my...?' films which show how we can imagine and find traces of labour in everyday commodities. The first film is about mobile phones and ends with a request. Please try this out and let us know what happens. Then watch the others in this playlist.

Not sure if this is or is not the 'norm' but I just received my brand new iPhone here in the UK and once it had been activated on iTunes I found that the home screen (the screen you can personalise with a photo) already had a photo set against it !!!! (Source: markm49uk 2008, np link).

I hope she doesn't get fired, she looks so bloody happy! I will dedicate my iPhone homescreen to her for the rest of this week (Source: vegasdodger 2008, np link).

Photo source:
markm49uk (2008) iPhone 3G - already with pictures ! (aka "iPhone Girl"). macrumors.com 20 August ( https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/iphone-3g-already-with-pictures-aka-iphone-girl.547777/ last accessed 13 June 2017)
Further reading:
Cook, I. (2011) iPhone 3G - already with pictures! (aka 'iPhone Girl'). followthethings.com ( http://followthethings.com/iphonegirl.shtml last accessed 13 June 2017)

Cook, I. (2013) The 14 best examples of shop-dropping... ever. followtheblog.org 23 March ( https://followtheblog.org/2013/03/22/paper-activism-in-store-in-things-on-things/ last accessed 13 June 2017)

Woolf, S. (2017) Dear iPhone Girl. followtheblog.org 11 February ( https://followtheblog.org/2017/02/11/guest-blog-dear-iphone-girl/ last accessed 13 June 2017)

Good news. On Monday, CEO Ian was awarded the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 'Taylor and Francis Award for Excellence in the Promotion and Practice of Teaching and Learning of Geography in Higher Education'. He was nominated for the whole 'follow the thing' appreciation of the the social relations of trade and its application across school, university and wider public pedagogies. The 'et al' in his name signifies his permanent, heartfelt appreciation of everyone involved in the project over the years, and those who may join it in the future. As he explains:
"I am very happy and humbled to be given this award. My research began in the classroom where I miserably failed to encourage students to be interested in what was happening in other parts of the world. I was desperate to find a way to show how their lives were connected to those of the people and places we were studying. Finding out how some of our things are made, in some of those places, was the answer and that's how the 'follow the thing' idea originated in Kentucky in the late 1980s. Since then, I've really enjoyed developing ways to help students follow their own things, to think empathetically about their relations and responsibilities to others in the process, and to play, have fun, make mischief, be activist with their findings. I've learned as much as I have taught as we have done this together. I've been constantly surprised by what I have learned from the students who have taken my modules and worked as interns on the followthethings.com project. Being ourselves is a massively collaborative effort. I truly appreciate everyone's contributions."
This work continues -> next we're working on our 'follow the things' Subvertisement project in Finland with Eeva Kempainnen - researching and adding 10 new pages to our website - running our free Fashion Revolution 'Who Made My Clothes?' course that starts on 26th July, and opening the Museum of Contemporary Commodities at the RGS(IBG)'s Pavilion Gallery on London's Exhibition Road from 24th - 27th August. Please join us.

The script

Continue reading

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Geographies of Material Culture - the back office

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Posts about Geographies of Material Culture written by Ian Cook et al

# data[].attributes.headline
TED Talks- Are we running out of clean water?

# data[].attributes.subject
TED Talks- Are we running out of clean water?

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ted.com/talks/balsher_singh_sidhu_are_we_running_out_of_clean_water

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
TED Talks are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, science, tech and creativity, with subtitles in 100+ languages. Ideas free to stream and download.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue soft power

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the long run it's not the size of the army that matters as much as a country's ability to influence the world's hearts and minds.

# data[].attributes.headline
The maps that show us who we are, not just where we are

# data[].attributes.subject
The maps that show us who we are, not just where we are

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Get a daily email featuring the latest talk, plus a quick mix of trending content.

By subscribing, you understand and agree that we will store, process and manage your personal information according to our Privacy Policy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Danny Dorling: Maps that show us who we are (not just where we are)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What does the world look like when you map it using data? Social geographer Danny Dorling invites us to see the world anew, with his captivating and insightful maps that show Earth as it truly is -- a connected, ever-changing and fascinating place in which we all belong.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Brexit happened -- and what to do next

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts. How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.

# data[].attributes.headline
How and why Russia hacked the US election

# data[].attributes.subject
How and why Russia hacked the US election

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Laura Galante: How (and why) Russia hacked the US election

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hacking, fake news, information bubbles ... all these and more have become part of the vernacular in recent years. But as cyberspace analyst Laura Galante describes in this alarming talk, the real target of anyone looking to influence geopolitics is dastardly simple: it's you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy | TED Talk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What’s the key to using alternative energy, like solar and wind? Storage -- so we can have power on tap even when the sun’s not out and the wind’s not blowing. In this accessible, inspiring talk, Donald Sadoway takes to the blackboard to show us the future of large-scale batteries that store renewable energy. As he says: “We need to think about the problem differently. We need to think big. We need to think cheap.”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fahad Al-Attiya: A country with no water

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Imagine a country with abundant power -- oil and gas, sunshine, wind (and money) -- but missing one key essential for life: water. Infrastructure engineer Fahad Al-Attiya talks about the unexpected ways that the small Middle Eastern nation of Qatar creates its water supply.

# data[].attributes.headline
Who are the people who make the stuff we buy?

# data[].attributes.subject
Who are the people who make the stuff we buy?

# data[].attributes.headline
The end of globalisation and the beginning of something new

# data[].attributes.subject
The end of globalisation and the beginning of something new

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mike O’Sullivan: The end of globalization (and the beginning of something new) | TED Talk

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
“Globalization is on its deathbed,” says economist Mike O’Sullivan. The question now is: What’s next? Tracing the historical successes and failures of globalization, O’Sullivan forecasts a new world order where countries come together over shared values rather than geography. Learn how big regional powers like the United States and China will be driven by distinct ways of governing trade, technology and people -- while smaller nations will forge new alliances to solve problems.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Earth in 2050 could look like - Shannon Odell

# data[].attributes.headline
What if there were 1 million more trees?

# data[].attributes.subject
What if there were 1 million more trees?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What if there were 1 trillion more trees? - Jean-François Bastin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The danger of a single story | Chimamanda Adichie 2020

# data[].attributes.headline
You can find all of these books second hand on websites such as Amazon and World of Books

# data[].attributes.subject
You can find all of these books second hand on websites such as Amazon and World of Books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Georgina RannardClimate and science reporter

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Down into the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ with Boaty McBoatface

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The UK’s most famous robot returns after travelling 2000km in the deep ocean.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tomatoes and greed – the exodus of Ghana's farmers | DW Documentary

# data[].attributes.body
Article on the gentrification of the rural market town of Bruton in Somerset.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bruton was featured alongside 14 others in a list from The Telegraph detailing the poshest spots for a mini-break.

The publication wrote: "Posh is a bit of a love-hate thing, isn't it? Most of us, the lesser-privileged masses, nurture an envious dislike for those who get to live in a whirl of Michelin stars, Barbour jackets, cashmere, Krug and organic everything.

"But when it comes to a nice British mini-break? That's exactly the world we want to inhabit, just for a weekend. We want towns that have comely high streets, shops we can't afford, fancy bakeries, big, fat stately homes and a certain air of gentility."

@thistimelastweek Full guide to eating and sleeping in Bruton over at n blog - link in the bio 🫶🏼 #somerset #londonfoodie #ukstaycation #visituk #visitsomerset #somersetuk ♬ Peace Blossom Boogy - Babe Rainbow

The full list of the UK's poshest towns for a mini-break can be found on The Telegraph website here.

Why is Bruton among the UK's poshest towns for a mini-break?

Bruton's picturesque nature with quality food spots and places to stay gave it cause to be included on The Telegraph's list.

They wrote: "Bijou Bruton, hidden in Somerset's rural folds, is the Notting Hill of the South West, beloved of artsy London types.

"That's thanks to being pretty as a picture, reachable by train and home to Hauser & Wirth - the global gallery opened an outpost here in 2014, on 18th-century Durslade Farm.

@aroundtheclobe 48 hours in Bruton #somerset #bruton #atthechapel ♬ Fantasy - Alina Baraz / Galimatias

"The food scene has boomed in sync, from hot openings like Da Costa ("quintessential English, Italian flair") to Michelin-starred Osip, small but mighty Matt's Kitchen, hip bakery-restaurant At The Chapel and, close by, The Newt in Somerset, an uber-swanky hotel, gardens and reconstructed Roman villa."

Discussing a must-see place in the town, the publication recommended the new Roth Bar which is "a junkyard-inspired art installation-cum-food and cocktails joint at Hauser & Wirth".

Finally, if you're looking for a place to stay, Number One Bruton offers "12 chic rooms and a lauded new restaurant inside a townhouse, forge and ironmonger's shop".

The hotel's restaurant, called Briar, was also recently named as one of the UK's top new eateries according to the Condé Nast Traveller magazine.

Recommended reading:

Writer Madeleine Silver commented: "Tiny bunches of wildflowers bob in ceramic vases, huddles of locals spoon into steaming bowls of braised shoulder of lamb with butter beans and from the kitchen are the unruffled hums of chef Sam Lomas (a former River Cottage 'Rising Star' and Roux Scholarship finalist, and most recently head chef at Glebe House in Devon).

"From Bruton's High Street, lit up behind two bay windows in the Georgian townhouse adjoining the Number One Bruton hotel, it's a storybook vignette of a candlelit, bustling restaurant."

She continued: "Inside, tables are stripped back, the walls a mustard yellow and the laid-back menu takes its lead from its namesake (a briar is a wild bramble or shrub native to England), with admirably hyper-local ingredients."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Notting Hill of the South West' named among UK's poshest towns for a visit

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bruton in Somerset was named among the UK's poshest towns for a visit according to a list from The Telegraph

# data[].attributes.headline
Legacy of the London Olympics on Stratford, East London

# data[].attributes.subject
Legacy of the London Olympics on Stratford, East London

# data[].attributes.body
BBC news article 10 years on from the 2012 Olympics looking at the legacy and impacts of the regeneration on local communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
London 2012: The legacy of the Olympics 10 years on

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Residents of the Carpenter’s Estate were moved from their homes with the promise of redevelopment. Ten years on, what’s happened?

# data[].attributes.body
New regeneration project in Yeovil to create a better living environment for the town centre.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Daniel MumbyLocal Democracy Reporting Service

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yeovil shopping centre demolition site to become green space

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Somerset Council purchased Glovers Walk in 2024 with £2.7m of government funding.

# data[].attributes.headline
Coastal poverty issues - Ilfracombe, Devon

# data[].attributes.subject
Coastal poverty issues - Ilfracombe, Devon

# data[].attributes.body
BBC news article highlighting the lack of public investment for ilfracombe to tackle poverty in the town.

# data[].attributes.headline
Urban regeneration case study - Bristol Temple Quarter

# data[].attributes.subject
Urban regeneration case study - Bristol Temple Quarter

# data[].attributes.body
Example of the large scale regeneration project of 'Temple Quarter' in the SW city of Bristol.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bristol Temple Quarter is one of the UK’s biggest urban regeneration schemes. There are a number of projects that make up BTQ across 135 hectares of land.

# data[].attributes.headline
The new era of volcanic activity in Iceland 

# data[].attributes.subject
The new era of volcanic activity in Iceland 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Volcanic eruption: Inside Iceland’s new battle to tame a wave of deadly lava | BBC Science Focus Magazine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After three years of fiery eruptions, experts are now confident that Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new fiery phase.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Earthquakes and their resulting aftershocks can be devastatingly destructive. Earthquakes are caused when a fault in the Earth's crust slips, which releases energy waves in the ground. Find a list of 12 of the most destructive earthquakes in history.

# data[].attributes.headline
The 'big one' is coming to southern California, here's what will happen

# data[].attributes.subject
The 'big one' is coming to southern California, here's what will happen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
the big one is coming to southern california, here’s what will happen…

# data[].attributes.headline
10 Jobs in Geography you probably didn't know about

# data[].attributes.subject
10 Jobs in Geography you probably didn't know about

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Use geography: careers in government - RGS

# data[].attributes.headline
Use Geography: careers in risk management and insurance 

# data[].attributes.subject
Use Geography: careers in risk management and insurance 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Use geography: careers in risk management and insurance - RGS

# data[].attributes.headline
Use Geography: careers in environmental consultancy

# data[].attributes.subject
Use Geography: careers in environmental consultancy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Use geography: careers in environmental consultancy - RGS