“Book Descriptions: Ellie Harrison's The Glasgow Effect art project funded by Creative Scotland to the tune of £15k, caused a social media shitstorm at the start of 2016: 'I will not travel beyond Glasgow's city limits, or use any vehicles other than my bike, for a whole calendar year.' This simple proposition - to attempt to live 'a low-carbon lifestyle of the future' - put forward by an English artist living in post-industrial Glasgow, cut to the heart of the unequal world we have created. A world in which some live transient and disconnected existences within a global 'knowledge economy' racking up huge carbon footprints as they chase work around the world, whilst others, trapped in a cycle of poverty caused by deindustrialisation and the lack of local opportunities, cannot even afford the bus fare into town. We're all equally miserable. Isn't it time we re-thought the way we live our lives?
In this, her first book, Harrison traces on her own life's trajectory to examine the relationship between literal and social mobility, between class and carbon footprint. From the personal to the political, she uses experiences gained in Glasgow in 2016 and beyond, together with the ideas of Patrick Geddes - who coined the phrase 'Think Global, Act Local' in 1915, William Morris - the 19th century's famous radical artist-socialist, and the Fearless Cities movement of today, to put forward her own vision for the sustainable city of the future, in which we can all live happy, healthy and creative lives. 'I was inspired by Darren McGarvey's book Poverty Safari, which had, in turn, been inspired by The Glasgow Effect.
A book demands patience to allow a person's stories and ideas to unfold slowly over time, offering a more complete picture of how their personal history and lived experience have shaped their politics; their thinking and action in the world. From very different backgrounds, Darren and I have arrived at similar critiques of the city, the society and the economic system within which we live.' - ELLIE HARRISON
'In early 2016 I found myself at the head of an angry mob. I was so consumed by my own anger and moral certainty, it had blinded me to the fact that Ellie Harrison, in all her middle-class glory, was not an enemy, but an ally in the war I'd been fighting all my life.' from Poverty Safary.” DRIVE
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