Happiness, Health & Well-being conference audio


Particularly in recent years, the notion of happiness has become current as a measure of human well-being and has gained considerable acceptance – notably in the recommendation by the UN General Assembly to its member states that they give more attention to happiness in their public policy-making. A comparative study of happiness in the various nations of the world, and of the ways of quantifying it, can be seen in the World Happiness Report (Earth Institute, 2012). Using that report as a starting point, the conference on Happiness, Health and Wellbeing sought to explore current understandings of happiness and to approach it using a variety of methods, from a panel discussion on the Friday evening through presentations to participation exercises and from a variety of perspectives on the Saturday – public policy, personal experience and the arts, and from the disciplines of spirituality, psychotherapy and education.

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 Welcome and Keynote Speech by Robin McAlpine

Welcome and introduction by James Mooney, Philosophy lecturer, Open Studies, Edinburgh University. Keynote speech title: "Happiness is a Political Choice". Robin McAlpine is director of the Jimmy Reid Foundation, editor of the Scottish Left Review, author of No Idea: Control, Liberation and Social Imagination.

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 Panellist: Jo Clifford (Performer, Playwright, Translator)

Jo Clifford is author of numerous plays for the Lyceum and Traverse theatres, her recent adaptation of Great Expectations played to acclaim in London's West End; and the film of the production is being shown worldwide.

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Panellist: Mary Sharpe (Educational Consultant)

Founder of Edinburgh-based Sharpe Thinking, Mary draws on her extensive professional experience in Brussels, at Cambridge University and as an Advocate in Scotland, to explore the many challenges of the Information Age.

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Panellist: Simon Blackwood (Artist & Cook)

Simon studied art at Colchester and Coventry Schools of Art and later studied Gurdjieff's teachings under John G. Bennett. At the Beshara School his love of cooking was encouraged by Bulent Rauf. He now paints and works in picture conservation from his studio in the Scottish Borders.

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Jane Clark (Teacher & Researcher)

First qualifying in Science, Jane went on to edit the Beshara Magazine and is now senir research fellow of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society. She also works as a support tutor at the University of Oxford.

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Rod Burstall (Tibetan Shambhala practitioner, Emeritus Professor of Computing Science at Edinburgh University)

Rod studied maths and physics at Cambridge, joined the RAF, and worked in industrial computing before becoming a student of Chogyam Trungpa.

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Janet Bowers (Mindfulness-based Core Process Psychotherapist)

An experienced teacher and psychotherapist, Janet works in Core Process transpersonal therapy, with a particular interest in the imaginal. Her studies at the Beshara School form the basis for the unitative perspective she works within.

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Trevor Lock (Comedian)

Trevor's brand of intelligent stand-up, mixing cleverly crafted wordplay with stream of consciousness absurdism, has gained him a worldwide cult following. Often invited to speak about creativity, he has even addressed the Oxford Union on The Meaning of Life.

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Charlotte Maberly (Lecturer in gastronomy at Queen Margaret University and Chair of Slow Food Edinburgh)

A life-long fascination with food has led Charlotte around the world, exploring food cultures and the complexities of our global food system. After studying at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy she has now returned to Scotland, working to forward a culture of good, clean, fair food.

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Philip Shinton (Chair of College of Teachers, The Edinburgh Steiner School)

After graduating in Modern Languages from Jesus College Cambridge, Philip travelled widely. He has now been a class teacher at the Edinburgh Steiner School for 26 years. His three children, entirely Steiner educated, are at universities in England and Scotland.

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Don Ledingham (Director of Innovation Leadership, Drummond International)

Don Ledingham's long-term research has focused upon the use of metaphors to better understand and develop behaviours and cultures associated with positive leadership legacies. Emerging from this work 'The Seven Sides of Educational Leadership' was developed as a decision making framework that can be applied to all work environments.

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