Political Mindfulness webinar now on YouTube

Dr Will Leggett, Associate Professor of Sociology, hosted a lively online ESRC Festival of Social Sciences event, ‘Mindful of the Future: Can Political Mindfulness Help us Build Back Better?’ on 18^th November, in conjunction with Dr Scott Taylor from Birmingham Business School.

"Mindfulness – the Buddhist derived meditative practice of cultivating attention to the present moment – has become a secular global phenomenon," writes Dr Leggett in his recent Critical Policy Studies article, Can Mindfulness Really Change the World? The Political Character of Meditative Practices. "Analysis of Mindfulness’s political significance remains rare, despite its take-up by political actors and popular critiques of commodified, instrumentalised ‘McMindfulness’." 

The event was organised in light of Dr Leggett's article. Participants and audience members came from the corporate, campaigning and political worlds, with discussion focusing on how individual Mindfulness practice might be scaled up towards institutional and social transformation. The event is now available for everyone to view on YouTube. 

Paul Szumilewicz, Head of Transformation (Europe) at HSBC, presented on how an interest in meditation became an integral part of the wellbeing, performance and strategy of his corporate team. This was complemented by Dr Rachel Lilley from the Birmingham Leadership Institute, who addressed the role Mindfulness has played in activism and imagining alternative social futures, such as paths beyond the climate crisis.