Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Heathwood Institute, Heathwood Press, Heathwood Network & the Global Voice Project


HEATHWOOD INSTITUTE, HEATHWOOD PRESS, HEATHWOOD NETWORK & THE GLOBAL VOICE PROJECT

Hello everyone,

We have just launched our new website and are sending out several batches of newsletters to update our readers, friends, and colleagues about what has been going on over the last three months and what to expect from the organisation moving forward.

Launch of New Beta Site

- Our ambition as a group has always been to break down the barriers separating critical theoretical discourse and ‘the everyday practise of social and individual life’. In attempting to achieve this we have engaged with readers and have been working with several leading theories of alternative media and web application, to develop new ways in which a range of media projects can assist the organisation to bridge the theory-practise divide.

- One of the new features on our website includes the organisation’s Global Voice project, which acts as centralised hub or platform for the publication of non-profit research and reports.

The non-profit sector of society is notorious for its ability to encourage ethical and critical practise across many different social spheres. Drawing close links to some of the leading non-profit organisations, locally and globally, Heathwood can directly assist and support the ongoing research and practise of NPO’s in a number of fundamental ways: 1) to pull-in non-profit media, report, commentary and critique from around the world and disseminate that information in one centralised place; 2) to normatively engage with independent non-profits so as to support their efforts on a grassroots level with a highly engaged critical theory; 3) to listen to NPO’s across the globe and the struggles and conflicts they report in order to further our own understanding about social agency and structure;  and 4) to integrate non-profit research and data, which is heavily rooted in praxis, with Heathwood’s post-Frankfurt school critical theory.

- Another exciting feature that we’ve been working on for some time consists around the democratisation of media and how to make Heathwood’s site more representative of a truly social, participatory media centre.

To achieve this we have launched a new on-site comments system that allows for real-time discussion between members of the public as well as between readers/public and members of Heathwood. The aim of this new feature is to encourage over time the development of a fertile digital ground for discussion and the sharing of ideas.

Heathwood Network

We have also recently launched a new public forum called the Heathwood Network, which will further support and encourage direct discussion and engagement on a range of subjects. The forum can be accessed via the menu on our new site.

- We’ve also been developing a series of critical theory eGuides, ranging in subject from alternative education and epistemology to alternative economics and ideology critique. No launch date has been set for this programme.

-Lastly, we have been working on publishing a range of infographics, interactive media, videos and datablogs to further support our present research activity and public engagement campaigns.

New Members

We’ve welcomed a new member in past few months, Robert King, whose work in systems will be a great addition to the organisation.

We’ve also had the opportunity to work with some great people from around Europe and North America, including Glenn Rikowski, Chris Cutrone, Richard Wolff, Peter Thompson, Daniel Little, Geert Dhondt, Jeanne Willette, and others.

Moving Forward

There’s a lot planned for the upcoming year, including several new book publications and further expansion to our digital media projects.

If anyone has any questions or would like to discuss more about Heathwood and where it is headed, please feel free to contact Robert C. Smith at robert.smith@heathwoodpress.com  

Alternatively, follow the organisation on twitter for daily publication updates.

Thanks for your support.

Signed,

-The members of Heathwood

P.S. Feel free to forward this email to friends, colleagues or whomever you may think appropriate.

Robert C. Smith
Director and Researcher at Heathwood Institute and Press
Website: http://www.heathwoodpress.com
Email: robert.smith@heathwoodpress.com
Phone: +44 (0) 07919252541
Holt, Norfolk, United Kingdom

******END******

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales); and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo (new remix, and new video, 2012)  
'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

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