This section profiles some of the magazine and journal editing I have been involved in.

BELLA CALEDONIA

Since 2007 I have been the editor of Bella Caledonia, an online magazine covering politics and cultural affairs. The magazine appeared monthly in print in collaboration with the National magazine for several years. You can read it free online here or read back issues of the print magazine here.

LESS

From 2019 - 2024 I was founder and co-editor of LESS, a journal of degrowth, radical sufficiency and decolonisation. You can download PDFs of back issues here. Issue 4 (below) featured writing from Col Gordon, Nayab Khalid, Annie Morgan, Iain Mackinnon, Diana Garduño Jiménez, Abi Mordin, Katherine Richter, Dougie Strang and Steve Rushton. The cover illustration is by Bec Wonders. The issue looks beyond the problems of carbon and looks at biodiversity and habitat loss, species-collapse and extinction (omnicide). At the same time it explores how degrowth and decolonisation can work towards restoration and reinhabitation.
 

Issue #3 of LESS  welcomed COP to Glasgow.  Our ‘Code Red’ issue was presented not simply as a response to the COP, but as a space for voices from the centre to the margins of the struggle for climate justice, degrowth, and decolonisation.

Benjamin Brown makes the case for shutting down the Mossmorran Natural Gas Liquids plant in Fife in his piece ‘Dismantling Scotland’s petro-industrial complex: Lessons from Mossmorran’. Paul Routledge, Gehan Macleod, and David Lees write about the GalGael Free State as an autonomous zone near the ‘blue zone’ where climate talks are talking place in their piece ‘Free States: Contested Territories, New Imaginaries’. In ‘Freedom Is An Attitude’, Luke Devlin interviews Craig Bryce about rebel DIY housebuilding and the autonomy that comes with building collectives. In ‘Landmark: A Climate Beacon for Coastal Communities’, Rhyddian Knight interviews David Blair about the ark he built on the Cowal peninsula. Peter Kitelo Chongeywo of the Ogiek Indigenous Forest Peoples of Mount Elgon, Kenya, sees climate change activism in the UK as ‘Fighting for All Our Tomorrows’. In ‘Wasted Opportunity’, Kate Chambers writes about the need to decouple social mobility from resource consumption. Mark Langdon reflects on ‘Education for Transformation’, a crucial tool in a time of ecological and social crisis. In ‘Cuchubal and the Commons’, Catriona Spaven-Donn argues for commons food systems that are grounded in collaborative relationships between plants and fungi. Svenja Meyerricks interviews climate justice activist Nomalizo Xhoma in Johannesburg about ‘The COP and community struggles in South Africa’. Vishwam Heckert invites us in his piece ‘Unlearning Empire – Remembering Earth’ to move beyond the embodied and psychic habit of separating ‘us’ and ‘them’ or ‘me’ from the ‘world’. Read theeditorial ‘Degrowth and Decolonisation in the ‘Red Zone’.

Cover design is by Stewart Bremner.

LESS Issue 2 – Download the pdf here or by clicking on the cover below.

As the institutions and public sentiment of a degraded United Kingdom cultivate a protectionist and insular retreat from the world, it’s more important than ever to build political solidarity, intellectual networks, and cultural connections across Europe.

Adrián Almazán and Luis González Reyes – Between Limit and Desire: Strategic Directions in the Collapse of Industrial Civilisation (translation: Tom Younger), Andrea Vetter – Degrowth and and Economy of Care (interview by Svenja Meyerricks), Ainslie Roddick, Cáit O’Neill McCullagh, Charlotte Mountford, Fadzai Mwakutuya, Jo Rodgers, Kirsten Body, Lauren Pyott, Lisa MacDonald, Mairi McFadyen, Philomena de Lima and Raghnaid Sandilands – The Carrying Stream: Towards a Plurality of Possibilities, Sarah Glynn – Co-housing, Joachim Spangenberg – Scotland Quo Vadis?; Pat Kane – The Anti-D’oh!; Alis Le May – Taylor Made Degrowth: How a Localised Clothing Economy can Contribute to a Degrowth Future and Juana Adcock – Story of Steel and the Letter M. We also feature art work by Pearse O’Halloran, Tarneem Al Mousawi, Stewart Bremner, and Fadzai Mwakutuya. Read the editorial here.

LESS Issue 1 – In LESS’s inaugural issue, we explored the question, ‘What does degrowth mean in Scotland during the pandemic and for plans for an economic recovery?’

Contributions: Gehan Macleod – Grounding Degrowth in Community, Lucy Conway – Powering an Alternative Economy, Jason Hickel – Pathways to a Post-capitalist World, Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé – Meticulous the Gardener, Mike Small – Traces of a Viable Future, Maria Antonia Velez Serna – Culture Beyond Extractivism: What Might a Post-growth Cinema Look Like?, Benjamin Zachariah – Fascism, Brexit and Covid, a Conversation with Luke Devlin and Mike Small, Luke Devlin and Svenja Meyerricks – Going to the Moon. The issue featured illustrations and images by Calum Carr, Deborah Mullen, Marta Adamowicz, Stewart Bremner, Andy Arthur and Nick Middleton.

LESS Issue 1 was launched on the 27th of November, 2020.

CLOSER

In December 2013 I launched Closer, a quarterly magazine. Closer was inspired by the work of the Finnish futures thinker Vuokko Jarva writing about a form of ‘Closer’ democracy that is more peer-to-peer and more hands on. We’re getting closer to a democracy in Scotland day by day.

The first issues focused on innovation, the second on participation, the third on women and independence.

You can read them all on SCRIBD here.

PRODUCT

In November 1999 I co-founded Product magazine - and worked as Political Editor. It was described as "a passionate, funny, critical magazine with a distinctive and charismatic style, committed to popularising Scotland's vibrant art, music and political scene."  

The magazine still exists online here.