Author: Encouraged Conversations team
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Being a refugee in 2025
A group of third year social psychology students from the University of Durham prepared some questions that they wanted to ask refugees to the UK as part of their studies into current social issues and intergroup relations. Two refugees recently arrived in Scotland, one from Eritrea and one from Syria, had met each other through…
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Being an asylum seeker
People coming to the UK as asylum seekers or refugees come in good faith expecting a safe haven. However, it is not an easy process and people often struggle to become settled and integrated. Our two contributors have each faced danger and hardship in their respective countries forcing them to flee and find safety for…
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Living with retrofit
Retrofitting homes throughout the UK is part of all nations’ government policy. Whilst the overall benefits are recognised, the top-down approach has meant that a number of eco-architects feel that the experience of people, especially working women with families, living through the retrofitting process is not adequately recognised, especially with a view to health and…
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Being a Soldier
High school students studying the topic of ‘War’ as part of their RMPS (Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies) course put some searching questions to soldiers who have had the real life experience. The soldiers who have served together as regular army and reservists answer the questions with disarming honesty and clarity.
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Being Old
In this conversation, three friends in their eighties are answering, (and sometimes not answering!), questions from a group of teenagers with an occasional prompt from a facilitator. They all live in the Scottish Borders. The questions are thoughtful and sometimes very direct but the friends tackle them head on and give us a frank, personal…
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Being a Farmer in the Heart of Scotland
This is the recorded conversation of three friends and neighbours who work on farms in a particular area in the heart of Scotland that is a mix of valleys and hills reaching over 2000 feet. The farms are mainly livestock farms but they are each different in their own way. In the conversation, the farmers…
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Being Jewish in 2024
The war in Gaza has polarised opinions about Muslims and Jews in many secular societies. There are however, ordinary people who are willing to improve their understanding of ‘the other’ and to remember that power-seeking and politics is not a moral code. Two young women who came to the UK as refugees from Syria are…
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Being an Upland Hill Farmer
Another contribution to Encouraged Conversations from three farmers who have long experience of farming in the uplands of the south of Scotland. They are discussing questions from residents of a small village in the rural region of the Scottish Borders.
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Being a Refugee from Ukraine
A couple from Ukraine who arrived in rural Scotland as refugees answer questions from undergraduate psychology students studying intergroup relations. An ESOL tutor is present to help with any language difficulties. There is a paraphrased transcript available.
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Being a Refugee from Syria
In this conversation, two best friends, both refugees from Syria, answer questions from undergraduate pyschology students studying intergroup relations. An ESOL tutor is present to help with any language difficulties. There is a paraphrased transcript available.
Encouraged Conversations 