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Exploring a Highland model for restorative justice

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:32:07 GMT

Speaking at an event exploring models for restorative justice in the Highlands of Scotland

Photo credit: Highland Community Justice Partnership

Back in September 2025 I was delighted to be invited to an event in Inverness, Scotland, where I spoke about the development of a restorative justice service in a rural and island area. My presentation was based on the development of Space2face, the restorative practices and arts charity I co-founded. Other speakers were Gael Cochrane and Hannah Dickson from Community Justice Scotland, and Lauren Emmerson from the Children and Young People's Centre for Justice, based at Strathclude University, who spoke about different aspects of the development of restorative justice in Scotland. To my surprise, it was a sell out event!

I was also excited that Geese Theatre Company were participating in the event - it has long been a dream of mine to see them perform. Their performance, based on the preparation that surrounds a meeting between someone who has caused harm (the perperator) and the person who has been harmed (the victim), was profound and moving.

There is currently no statutory provision or funding for restorative justice in Scotland. The Scottish Government produced an action plan in 2018 for the roll out of restorative justice services across Scotland by 2023. This has not happened although there are quarterly progress reports produced by Community Justice Scotland (CJS) with restorative justice test cases commissioned by CJS being delivered to inform Scottish Government policy. Space2face is proud to be delivering some of these test cases.

"Convergences" exhibition on international tour!

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 14:01:37 GMT

To the US and Belgium...

The last few months of 2025 were busy ones and saw the "Convergences" exhibition travel to the US and to Belgium.

Since 2019, I have been working as an artist, designer and restorative facilitator with the Encounter of the Encounters group which includes participants from the Basque Country, Italy, Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Belgium, and Ukraine. Participants share the harmful effects of political violence and the commitment to prevent its reoccurrence - as those who resorted to violence and those who were harmed by it. The group uses the restorative circle method to enable dialogue - facilitated by experienced and trained practitioners from different countries. This exhibition contains work co-created between participants within the group and also work created by me in response to the group.

If you would like to hire the "Convergences" exhibition from me, please download details here .

In October 2025, I was an invited plenary speaker to the International Institute for Restorative Practices World Conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Entitled "Artful Intregration; Exploring the Art and Science of Restorative Practices", it was a subject close to my heart. There are a handful of people in the restorative justice/ practices world working in the broad intersection between restorative practices and creativity. This conference was significant as it brought all of us together under one roof for the first time which. Imaginatively, the conference organisers had also curated an exhibition space in which invited artists and performers showcased their work. I was one of these and contributed the, "Convergences; Collaborative artwork to aid dialogue with the other", exhibition. It was commissioned from me in 2024 by Professors Gema Varona and Idoia Igartua of the University of the Basque Country and the Basque Institute of Criminology. I was delighted that Gema was able to join me in presenting the exhibition at the conference.

At the conference I was delighted to meet and present alongside people and organisations whom I've long admired, some of whom I knew and had met previously, but with some this was the first time; Lindsey Pointer of Vermont Law and Graduate School, Deanna van Buren of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces architectural practice, Barb Toews of University of Washington Tacoma, Joseph Iacona of the Mural Arts project in Philadelphia.

A few weeks after returning from the US I and the "Convergences" exhibition was on back on the road again - this time to Leuven, Belgium to take part in the REstART Festival on the Art of Justice, Dialogue and Repair and celebrating 25 Years of the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ). I am deeply grateful to INNO, Leuven, for the loan of the mannequins which helped bring the exhibition to life. Also, to members of the EFRJ team for their imaginative transportation of them on bicycles which was inspirational!

Diversifying the restorative sector

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 16:06:36 GMT

Lessons from practitioners

In early 2022, I was surprised and honoured to be selected as a research assistant on a project with the University of Gloucestershire. The project was to examine diversity in the restorative justice sector and was led by Dr. Anamika Twyman-Ghoshal and Dr. Jonathan Hobson.

It has been a long road to publication but we are all delighted that the article has now been published online ahead of print in the International Journal of Restorative Justice.

This is the article abstract:

Restorative justice is increasingly integrated into government policy and services, extending beyond criminal justice to other sectors. However, as this process of institutionalisation gathers pace there is a danger that practices can become removed from their community roots and consequently becoming less representative of the diverse populations that they are meant to serve, particularly in post-colonial societies. This paper is based on research that used a participatory action framework to engage restorative practitioners from racially, ethnically and culturally minoritised backgrounds in England and Wales. The aim of the research was to centre the voices of practitioners in both identifying challenges and providing potential solutions for a more inclusive and representative sector. Practitioners identified the need for raising awareness, making the sector more accessible, the importance of language used and the cultural capital available to individuals, and the ways in which these issues often reflect the dynamics of established power relations. Practitioners also reflected on the need for better representation and training of leadership in the sector. It is clear from this research that resources need to be directed towards addressing these challenges whilst keeping in mind the specific needs of minoritised groups.

You can read the full article here.

I am deeply grateful to my co-researchers on the project but most of all to the participants - I learnt so much from all of you.

Restorative Works! Podcast

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 16:54:51 GMT

Excited to take part in my first podcast

Today, I was nervous but excited to take part in my first ever recording of a podcast.

A few weeks ago I was invited by Claire de Mézerville López of Restorative Works! Podcast series to participate in one of her podcasts. It was lovely to be interviewed by Claire and also by Emanuela Biffi from the European Forum for Restorative Justice about my work and research.

It will be broadcast in August 2025 - watch this space for the recording .

Restorative Works! is broadcast every Thursday and includes interviews with people from across the globe who share their stories on how the implementation of restorative practices is making a difference in their communities and places of work.Through these shared experiences, the series hopes to give a clearer picture of what the field of restorative practices is all about, inspire others to investigate using restorative practices in their communities, and provides practical tools and insights for transforming relationships and effecting change.

You can listen here or subscribe via Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast or wherever you get your shows.

Island living

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 12:41:00 GMT

Island living; A review of the learning and outreach programme of Shetland Amenity Trust

Between June and October 2023 I was delighted to be commissioned to undertake a review of Shetland Amenity Trust’s learning and outreach programme. My report is now available here .

Shetland Amenity Trust has the particular responsibility of caring for Shetland’s natural and cultural heritage on behalf of the local community. To do this, the Trust delivers a range of projects and activities connected with Shetland’s heritage through partnerships with local, national and international agencies.

In total, there are 130 contributors to the review. Their views are gathered through 1) interviews with stakeholders and potential stakeholders, 2) a workshop and interviews with staff, and 3) a community survey. During their workshop, staff made a number of prototypes to visualise what they saw as development priorities. The images at the start of this post are two such prototypes being co-created.

The review employed Design Thinking . This means that I aimed to do things with people rather than to and for people. In particular, I used the Design Council’s (2023) ‘Framework for innovation’ (see image at the end of this post) which is described as,

"helping designers and non-designers across the globe tackle some of the most complex social, economic and environmental problems’. Design Thinking is a process that includes the stakeholders in a particular service in the decisions made about that service."

The report is structured around the four stages of the Framework for innovation - discover, define, develop, deliver. Within it, I make a number of recommendations. These may be seen in Part 4 (pages 146 - 164) of the report .

Island living - a unifying theme for the learning and outreach programme

Broadly, I propose the theme of Island living as a unifying theme for Shetland Amenity Trust's learning and outreach programme. The phrases ‘islands and islanders’, ‘sense of being an islander’, and ‘island life’ are all phrases from the community survey. Island living is deliberately a very broad theme which stems directly from comments such as those quoted, as well as from the contextual review findings. The theme is also intended to closely identify with the Shetland UNESCO Global Geopark as an understanding that the geological uniqueness of Shetland influences all our lives in Shetland. This is in terms of the terrain and natural environment, what we can grow, the species that live here, and thus, our way of life, culture, and the objects that are useful to us throughout our history in the islands. Thus, I mean Island living to encompass both natural and cultural heritage and in this way to act as a unifying theme across Shetland Amenity Trust's teams and multiple sites in terms of learning and outreach.

Key findings

The key findings from this review, expressed as common themes in the report, correspond with themes from the strategies, documents, literature and media outlined in the contextual and literature review. Such shared themes are around 1) the importance of handling and interacting with objects and the role they play in our lives, 2) the contribution of experiential heritage learning in the promotion of wellbeing, particularly through natural heritage post COVID-19, 3) the active promotion of inclusion and diversity within learning programmes through outreach, and 4) viewing collaboration and partnership working as key in the current time of limited resources. In this review, there was particular emphasis placed on the collaborative delivery of progression pathways through heritage learning.

The concept of belonging also emerged from the participant findings in this review. I think it is a profound one and perhaps more nuanced than the other common themes. Notions relating to belonging to place and community are also an implicit part of the local strategies, as well as within the national ones, in terms of hearing local voices in heritage conversations and policy development. For example, learning about and understanding local culture and heritage encourages people to live, work, study and invest in a place.

Overwhelmingly, the Shetland community would like more learning and outreach activities and stakeholders desire more collaboration and partnership with Shetland Amenity Trust. These are massive opportunities to build on regarding the learning and outreach programme development and ones which have exciting potential. An implicit concern and a sense of loss emerges around the perceived industrialisation of the landscape and traditional skills such as stone dyking, boat building and ways of life such as crofting, farming and maritime heritage. These are challenges and important discussions that directly relate to both the content of heritage learning programmes and impact on people’s engagement with them. They also relate to the climate change crisis and people’s sense of wellbeing and belonging within the Shetland community - both themes that emerge through this research. This is in parallel with the reality that Shetland’s major industry sector (fishing and aquaculture) relies on the islands’ natural resources.

I hope that the future development of a learning and outreach programme within Shetland Amenity Trust takes these challenges and opportunities on board. This is alongside harnessing the significant enthusiasm, passion and care, the participants (staff, stakeholders and the community) in this review reveal for Shetland’s cultural and natural heritage.

Why I was delighted to be commissioned as the reviewer

I was particularly delighted to be commissioned to undertake the review because, as a researcher and creative practitioner, I am interested in how we navigate transition and change in our lives both individually and collectively. In addition, how artefacts and objects can facilitate and symbolise these changes. This connects with material culture* and is perhaps much of what heritage learning is about in relation to museum collections and archaeological finds. For me, this is coupled with an understanding of how our natural environment affects and influences our culture and the objects we make and use. This means I am interested in how humanity relates to and uses the land and marine environments (including the species they are home to) - for which, in our lifetimes, we are short term custodians. These complex relationships between objects and people, and people, land and ocean are fraught with the challenges of ownership, change and advancement. Yet, it is these complexities that can provide a rich resource and

opportunity for learning, knowledge exchange, research and skills development within natural and cultural heritage contexts.

As an adopted islander, researcher and practitioner I am deeply interested in how the perspective of the islander challenges and offers a different perspective from that of the mainlander. For example, in their book about Scotland and islandness, Burnett, Burnett & Danson (2021) state,

"Scotland’s islands are notable for the collective community efforts and energies to identify, protect and care for local histories, and tangible and intangible heritage, and who is best placed to do it. Sustaining the islands’ rich cultural histories has not been without challenge. The cultural services sector remains precarious, subject to budgetary constraints, and much of the community arts and cultural activism energies are contingent on the continued support and engagement of wider community support and volunteerism." (p. 15).

Being an islander means that every aspect of our living is affected by our geography, land and seascape - in very different ways to that of the mainlander. Collectively, island living is about what it means to live within, work and care for the natural and cultural heritage of our islands in an ongoing way. Island living is also deeply personal and relational. Hence, the strong emotions that the topics covered in this review can arouse in us, such as around land use summed up in the quote below,

"Land - its use, ownership and representation - more generally remains a passionately debated topic in Scotland, not least as it informs narratives more broadly of Scotland’s rural assets as resource, as sites for development and for identity claims and validation." (Burnett, Burnett & Danson, 2021, p. 16).

* Material culture examines people’s relationship with their things, how they are made, preserved and interpreted.

Note: Image source and copyright Design Council licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Invited presenter

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 16:38:51 GMT

Keynote presenter and panelist

Delighted to be invited to be panelist and presenter at the International Institute for Restorative Practices World Conference this year in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I feel honoured to be presenting alongside a group of such highly skilled and experienced speakers together exploring this subject which is so close to my heart.

"Convergences" exhibition

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 17:53:57 GMT

Ready for touring

Last year I was delighted to be commissioned by the University of the Basque Country and the Basque Institute of Criminology to create an exhibition entitled "Convergences; Collaborative artwork to aid dialogue with the other". It opened in Bilbao in May 2024 and is now ready for touring.

 If you would like to hire this exhibition from me download details here .

Since 2019, I have been working with the Encounter of the Encounters group which includes participants from the Basque Country, Italy, Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Belgium, and Ukraine. Participants share the harmful effects of political violence and the commitment to prevent its reoccurrence - as those who resorted to violence and those who were harmed by it. The group uses the restorative circle method to enable dialogue - facilitated by experienced and trained practitioners from different countries. This exhibition contains work co-created between participants within the group and also work created by me in response to the group.

" Etymologically, solidarity encompasses a range of meanings relating to wholeness and solidity whilst also embracing injury, harm and reparative obligations. It is an active and inventive word, related to emotion, and in the context of restorative justice I would define solidarity as a permeable place of convergence between two parties symbolised by gesture and movement, and material things. This can occur without them meeting but at its most profound it is reciprocal and in person. "

The title of this exhibition "Convergences" is taken from the above definition of solidarity that I developed as part of my PhD studies (2017 - 2022). The word solidarity is used in some of the research literature to describe the positive moments of connection that are made between participants in a restorative justice encounter ^[1] . These positive moments of connection contain high emotional energy which is expressed through gesture and movement, such as eye contact, a handshake or even a hug in some circumstances. When I began my doctoral studies I was unsure about the word solidarity being used in the context of restorative justice. On further investigation into its origins I realised solidarity was a profound description. I came to call these moments of solidarity between people places of "convergence". Within my research, and as part of my creative practice, I frequently examine the etymology (the origins) of a word. The word convergence is taken from the Latin converge (1690s) "to tend to meet in a point or line" and convergere "to incline together’" In turn, these Latin words have their origins in the PIE (Proto-Indo-European) ^[2] root *wer- (2)"to turn, bend". These etymologies caught my attention - "to turn, bend" and "to incline together’" For me, this was a more honest description of the shared moments in a restorative encounter - an inclining or bending towards the other - not necessarily a connection but a willingness to incline or turn towards the other to gain an understanding of their perspective.

These convergences, for me, define what restorative justice is truly about and can also be symbolised by material objects. This is how I see much of the artwork represented in this exhibition - collaborative work created by and with members of the Encounter of the Encounters international restorative circle group. As such, it is artwork that crosses the space between people and work that marks the convergences between them - the turning and bending towards the other.

^[1] A meeting between a person harmed (victim/ survivor) and the person responsible for causing that harm (perpetrator).

^[2] Proto-Indo-European is the reconstructed shared ancestor of the Indo-European language family - the Basque Language is unique in Europe for pre-dating this.

A language of convergence

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 15:05:41 GMT

The co-created handmade thing as a 'conversation starter' within restorative justice processes

This article is based on elements of my doctoral research and is now available as a full-text here.

My proposition of a language of convergence is outlined in this article and based on findings from my PhD. It is a proposition to be utilised in restorative justice processes and involves the three components of co-creative making, gesture and word. This means that the non-verbal elements (co-creative making and gesture) are primary but which, in turn, encourage the discovery of the verbal (word). The image shows dancers who were participants in my PhD research investigating the role of gesture and movement as part of restorative justice processes.

Abstract

Literacy and language challenges amongst offending populations are well-documented and yet restorative justice processes rely heavily on oral and literacy competencies. Through a qualitative practice-based study, the co-creative making and gifting of a handmade thing as part of a restorative justice process is found to enable the formation of a ‘physical’ and ‘non-offending language’ within the person responsible (offender). In this way, a handmade thing is viewed as a ‘conversation starter’, and as helping to form connections, so-called solidarities, across the space between participants in restorative justice encounters. Through phenomenological and thematic analyses of the data, co-creative making and gifting are shown to be innately about the formation of solidarities between people. It is proposed that they contribute towards a language of convergence in which non-verbal components are primary, with verbal elements emerging secondarily. This language draws on the author’s own definition of solidarity in restorative justice research and practice as a place of convergence, meaning to bend or turn towards the other.

Designing the European Restorative Justice award

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:36:30 GMT

Handmade and relational

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic I was delighted to open my email inbox and find a message from Emanuela Biffi inviting me to discuss a potential design commission for a European Restorative Justice award with the European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ).

Whilst a little daunted, I was excited as this felt like the perfect commission in its merging of two of my passions – design and restorative justice. Occurring during lockdown made the commission even more significant as it was outward looking. As an islander, being asked to design an award that would be presented during an island conference in Sassari, Sardinia was an additional layer of meaning for me. I will return to this connection later on.

The new awards were to celebrate both the twentieth anniversary of the EFRJ, the new EFRJ logo, website and branding, as well as the restorative process itself. These were the reasons why I used the EFRJ logo as my starting point for gathering initial ideas for the design process.

Image source: European Forum for Restorative Justice

The design process I used to create the awards was a design thinking one (the methodology behind how a product or service is designed and produced), which I believe has synergies with the restorative one. There is no one iteration of design thinking but many would see it as containing three basic components that include: the initial concern or inspiration, the development and exploration of ideas, and the implementation of those ideas, including prototyping and trial. Participatory design involves all stakeholders in these three components.

This co-creative involvement is what I aimed to achieve throughout the design process – whether I did or not would be for others to judge but I endeavoured to involve the EFRJ Board members and Executive staff who had been tasked with working alongside me in each stage of the design process. This was from writing the design brief, through designing the initial concepts, to decisions around the construction of the awards, and materials used. A huge thank you to the EFRJ design group who worked with me: Emanuela Biffi, Balint Juhasz, Edit Törzs, Brunilda Pali, Patrizia Patrizi, and Katerina Soulou. The commission was an honour and here is the story behind the making of the awards.

I began by creating a group Pinterest board for the award. This contained visual images posted by members of the design group as a way of helping me to understand both the aesthetic as well as any functional expectations for the award. You can see some of these in the screenshots below.

Image source: screenshots of our co-creative Pinterest board

From these visual exchanges we were able to develop a design brief that defined the characteristics of the award. These were that the award should be:

Recognisable , as an award given by the EFRJ only (not simply bought somewhere);
Meaningful, as the award should reflect restorative justice (its values, its community, its movement, etc.);
Reproducible/ replicable but unique , as the award is given every two years, but it is produced in a limited edition and personalized for the winner only;
Decorative and maybe multi-functional , as the award is a “ beautiful treasure ” to show excellence in the restorative justice field and maybe can be used for other purposes (e.g. talking piece);
Resistant and long-lasting , as the award will “travel” (from the EFRJ Secretariat to the conference venue to the home of the award winner), and thus should be easy to carry and not fragile .

I used these characteristics to inform my initial design ideas based on the EFRJ logo. I dissected the logo and saw it as being comprised of two speech marks as in the image below.

As I did so, I reflected on the significance of speech marks – they seem to define the space of a dialogue. The first speech mark is the start of a conversation, then there is the space in between, and the closing of the dialogue with the second. Or visually they could represent the two perspectives in a restorative conversation expectantly facing each other with a space in between for negotiation, understanding and dialogue. The form of the speech mark is also the same as that of a comma – marking a pause in a conversation, a taking of breath, a space for reflection, or a new idea. I also considered the speech mark, although varying slightly in design in different languages, to be a universal form. It seemed an appropriate form for the basis of the award design.

We agreed that I would produce three initial concepts that I would then present to the design group. The concept in the middle image was selected:

I then produced three iterations of this concept as below and the middle design was the one selected by the design group as the final design idea. This design has the form of a speech mark cut out from the edge of the award. A smaller speech mark is engraved onto the award with the new EFRJ strapline etched between them – ‘ connecting people to restore just relations ’.

In the next stage I refined the design as below to enable it to be constructed and created templates for cutting the components. The final design contained both wood (the award) and metal (the stand) as differing materials but with a relationship between them – the two materials are brought together when the award sits on its stand but separated when the award is removed from the stand.

Thus, each element of the award and its stand was designed to be symbolic. I now examine these elements:

1. The size of the award is based on a small plate (21.8cm) I use everyday at home. This size enables the award to be intimate, personal and familiar, easily and safely held.

2. The space carved out by the speech mark on the edge of the award signifies that it is impossible to be fully repaired or restored in the aftermath of harm or crime. When we have been people harmed through crime there is always a gap in our lives, a loss, and something that has been irrevocably taken away from us - we are not the same afterwards as we were before. This is why I sometimes question the word ‘restorative’ in restorative justice. A repair can be beautiful, however, whilst acknowledging the harm caused - as with the restorative process.

3. The wood chosen for the award is from the Yew tree which traditionally symbolises protection from harm. Yew is a tough wood yet elastic in its properties. I deliberately selected wood that contained ‘imperfections’. These were filled with purple resin that physically ‘repaired’ the wood and are visible on the front and back of the awards. Time and care was taken to decide on the colour of the resin with exchanges of ideas between me and the design group.

4. The award is multi-functional and designed to be removed from its stand to enable it to also be used as a talking piece in a restorative circle.

5. The award is deliberately designed to be displayed in its stand at an angle to indicate the imbalance of power created by the act of a crime being committed. Restorative justice can redress that imbalance through, for example, giving the person harmed a voice.

Finally, as may be seen from the image, there were four awards created – one to be presented every second year during the EFRJ conference over the next decade. The four awards were formed from one piece of wood as may be seen from the grain running through them all when viewed together. But, importantly, each is still unique.

All of the people involved in the design and fabrication of the award live in the Shetland Islands in the very north of Scotland or have family connections here. The making of the award, therefore, was relational and rooted in one place. Their fabrication involved four different people in addition to myself. I am deeply grateful to Cecil, Dawn, Keith and Ocean Kinetics who worked collaboratively with me to produce them. In particular, to Cecil Tait (and his sheepdog!) for creating the wooden part of the award and stand. To Keith Gorman for laser engraving the speech mark and lettering. To Dawn Siegel for engraving the metal stand with the EFRJ logo and name of the award. And to Ocean Kinetics for producing the metal component of the award stands.

Thus, interwoven with the awards is a notion of island-ness, and the specific relationality that island-ness brings. I knew of and now know better each of the makers and companies above through working closely with them on aspects of the award. I still hear about them, see them or bump into them as part of our daily island lives. As a way for the mainlander to fully understand this ‘density of acquaintanceship’ (Freudenberg, 1986, p. 27), Vannini and Taggart (2012, p. 230) invite us to imagine island living through the actions and embodiment of everyday life. For example, ‘Imagine waving at cars driving the opposite direction, regardless of whether you know the driver’. They thus describe island-ness as being defined by the practices of islanders (‘how do you do your island?’) instead of as a ‘representational entity’ and an abstraction. This changes island-ness ‘from a representation inside our heads to a set of tasks’ (Vannini and Taggart, 2012, p. 235). This is why it was so significant for me for the awards to come round full circle and not only be designed and made in an island setting but also to be presented in an island setting - during the 17th international conference of the EFRJ in Sassari, Sardinia. Massive congratulations to Siri Kemeny for being the first recipient.

As with islands, a design and making process is a dialogue that is never static but always changing as new information comes to light and new things are discovered and learned along the way. Much like the restorative process.

As a reflection, in this world of throw away goods, and mass produced objects and furniture, I hope in a small way the creation of the awards challenges how we perceive and understand designed objects. In the past, we would probably all have known the story and person/ people behind each item of furniture or each object in our homes. The maker of them would have been someone we knew or someone who lived nearby. Thus, there was a relationality between ourselves, our objects, and our communities. Consequently, I would also suggest a greater valuing of the designed object because of its embodied relationality. It would also have been more durable. Think about the heirloom pieces of furniture we may have received or the objects we treasure or miss if we lose our homes. For instance ‘consumers have a special appreciation for the human factor in production; handmade products are perceived to be made with love by the craftsperson and even to contain love…’ (Fuchs, Schreier, & Van Osselaer, 2015, p. 110). There is an understanding, therefore, that the handmade = an object characterised by love.

In the foreword to their book of collected essays, editors Moran and O’Brien (2014) describe what they call ‘love objects’ as those objects that can become conduits ‘for negotiating, materialising, and understanding relationships’. They state their aim in the book is not to ‘describe the objects’ but rather to unravel the times when love is ‘central as an emotion’. As Moran and O’Brien (2014) state in their foreword ‘objects become the foci of the authors’ attempts to grapple with the complexities of love as it is played out through the objects’ identities, both as possessions and as props in the performative enactments of social rituals.’

In an essay in the same book, Chapman (2014) describes love objects as being primarily ecological and sustainable, and as sharing the following criteria with ‘emotionally durable design’ (Chapman, 2015) - of being about: narrative (users share, and develop a personal history with the product); consciousness (products are autonomous); attachment (strong emotional connection to the product); fiction (the product inspires interaction and connections beyond the physical relationship); and surface (the product ages gracefully). In these ways, Chapman (2014) views love objects as emotionally durable design, and as a counter to our throw away society.

I hope that, in time, and as they are handled and used as talking pieces in restorative work, the awards will become just such ‘love objects’ and in so being challenge our throw away society. I hope also that in a tiny way the awards and the making of them cause us to reflect on our relationship with the designed object. In particular, the significance and beauty of a designed object, handmade in a particular place and time but having an ongoing relationship with us into the future - perhaps even outliving us for the next restorative generations. In so doing, being not only ‘love objects’ but also becoming examples of ‘emotionally durable design.’

References:

Freudenberg, W.R. (1986). The density of acquaintanceship: An overlooked variable in community research? American Journal of Sociology (92) 1.

Fuchs, C., Schreier, M., & Van Osselaer, S. M. J. (2015). The handmade effect: What’s love got to do with it? Journal of Marketing , 79 (2), 98 -110.

Moran, A., & O'Brien, S. (2014). Love objects: Emotion, design and material culture [ebook]. Bloomsbury.

Vannini, P. & Taggart, J. (2012). Doing islandness: A non-representational approach to an island’s sense of place. Cultural Geographies20 (2), 225 - 242.

Image credits:

I am grateful to Paul Wilkinson of Paul Wilkinson Photography for his photographs of the award. All other images in this blogpost are copyright Clair Aldington unless otherwise stated.

Book chapter published

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:56:55 GMT

Victimology and violence: Connecting with victims

This new book arrived in the post today from Spain, recently published by Aranzadi and edited by Gema Varona Martínez. Exciting!

It's a selection of some of the presentations made during the plenary and other sessions of the 17th International Symposium of the World Society of Victimology held in Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain, during June 2022. There were 460 delegates of more than 50 nationalities.

During the symposium I was humbled by the stories of victims, survivors and people harmed through crime. It also left me full of hope and challenged by research, questions and conversations - still true several months on. As stated of the collection in the foreword to the book,

'With reference to the humanist values of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, this outcome of our gathering in Donostia/San Sebastián expresses the very essence of being human in that our own sense of humanity is inextricably bound up in the sharing of a greater whole and universal personhood. When others are tortured or treated as if they are less than we are, our own sense of humanity is diminished. With this scholarly body of work, I am confident that the principles of communality, reciprocity and inclusivity will continue to re-emphasise the essential unity of all of humanity, also challenging orthodoxies in victimisation, healing and justice in order to give the world a more humane face.'

PROF. DR. ROBERT PEACOCK

PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD SOCIETY OF VICTIMOLOGY

This was my first time at a victimology conference and it was positive to hear that 'Restorative justice has evolved from a controversial topic in victimology to a well-established research theme' (see Stephan Parmentier and Jo-Anne Wemmers, p. 133 of the same book). This coincides with the rhetoric around restorative justice itself becoming more victim, survivor and person harmed centred over the last 20 years. It needs to be, whilst at the same time remembering the oft links between victimisation and offending.

I was touched and honoured to be asked to speak at the conference. My plenary paper is included in this collection.

Chapter 5

Keeper of the winds; An exploration of the space between the harmed and the harmer in restorative justice encounters

Abstract

This paper is an exploration with the reader of the space between the harmed and the harmer in the aftermath of crime. It is this space, marked by trauma, that becomes the business of the restorative justice encounter. Different facets of this space between are examined through the visual metaphor of the labyrinth as a keeper of the winds. As such, this paper is also an implicit interrogation of the visual form as an investigative tool for practitioners and researchers. Shared characteristics between the labyrinth and the restorative justice encounter are identified, apart from one - the visual and kinetic - this is demonstrated as missing from many of our western restorative justice practices. This is contrary to the well-documented understanding of visual imagery and movement as important tools for the articulation of trauma. Additionally, that verbal language struggles to properly capture trauma and, further, that trauma can limit a harmed person’s ability to learn languages, create a forgetting of language or even cause a retreat into silence. It is highlighted that these understandings are at variance with many current western practices of restorative justice that centre on participants possessing significant oral language competencies as the primary tools with which to express their victimization, trauma and remorse. In response, it is proposed that the use of more visual and kinetic elements within western restorative justice practices would enhance their transformative potential, alongside making such services more inclusive, culturally relevant and appropriate to many more of our communities. Evidence is drawn from the author’s own practice as an artist and designer as well as a restorative justice facilitator, and her recently completed PhD in design and restorative justice.

Keywords: restorative justice, labyrinth, harmed, harmer, trauma, language, arts, design.

Book chapter accepted for publication

clair.aldington@gmail.com (Clair Aldington) — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 19:06:48 GMT

Keeper of the winds; An exploration of the space between the harmed and the harmer in restorative justice encounters

A paper I delivered as a part of the plenary session on 8 June 2022 at the 17 ^th International Symposium of the World Society of Victimology 2022 has been accepted for publication.

This is expected in the Spring of 2023 and is a peer reviewed book of a selection of papers presented at the conference by the plenary speakers and raconteurs.

The symposium was hosted in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain and their hospitality was incredible - Eskerrik Asko.

Abstract

My latest article

clair.aldington@gmail.com (Clair Aldington) — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 19:36:00 GMT

A language of convergence: the co-created handmade thing as a 'conversation starter' within restorative justice processes

This article based on findings from my PhD thesis has just been published in a special edition of The International Journal of Restorative Justice 2022, Vol. 5, No. 3. You can find a link to it on the publisher's website here.

Abstract

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Exploring a Highland model for restorative justice

Speaking at an event exploring models for restorative justice in the Highlands of Scotland

"Convergences" exhibition on international tour!

To the US and Belgium...

Diversifying the restorative sector

Lessons from practitioners

Restorative Works! Podcast

Excited to take part in my first podcast

Island living

Island living; A review of the learning and outreach programme of Shetland Amenity Trust

Island living - a unifying theme for the learning and outreach programme

Key findings

Why I was delighted to be commissioned as the reviewer

* Material culture examines people’s relationship with their things, how they are made, preserved and interpreted.

Invited presenter

Keynote presenter and panelist

"Convergences" exhibition

Ready for touring

A language of convergence

The co-created handmade thing as a 'conversation starter' within restorative justice processes

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Designing the European Restorative Justice award

Handmade and relational

Book chapter published

Victimology and violence: Connecting with victims

Book chapter accepted for publication

Keeper of the winds; An exploration of the space between the harmed and the harmer in restorative justice encounters

My latest article

A language of convergence: the co-created handmade thing as a 'conversation starter' within restorative justice processes