Transition Juices Flowing: re-imaging to another future beyond oil in Northeast Scotland
Old Torry Community Centre where the workshop took place
Keywords: Torry, Poetry, Oil, Energy Transition, Community, Northeast Scotland
Northeast Scotland is changing its identity from the ‘Oil Capital of Europe’ to ‘Europe’s Green Energy Capital’. However, questions remain, such as: Is it possible to deliver a just transition from fossil fuels to renewables with job guarantees for oil and gas workers? How will these developments affect the livelihoods and businesses in the northeast? The importance of stories and humans’ lived experiences when conceptualising an energy transition will encourage public discussions and scholarly research on energy futures.
What is certain is that support for the oil and gas sector is winding down. Further, intersections among social, political, and environmental factors concerning the transition will be important for Scotland and the UK. My fingers are crossed, having lived in the northeast for most of my life, for a broad, diverse and humane change, prioritising listening to, and revitalising, communities living here. What do people want, or how do they imagine their futures to result from the transition?
In the same way, energetic momentum, collaboration, and research come together in circles of ‘expertise’ situated largely in the central belt of Scotland. We, too, want to be in a position in the northeast that affords us the same access to opportunities from our insights, curiosity and experiences. When writing this blog post, I wanted to provide readers with a different glimpse that represents ‘energy’ and moving ahead with it.
Towards the end of November 2021, when the crisp chill of winter air lingered and warnings emerged that a hazardous storm was about to erupt across the northeast (and let me say it did pack a punch, affecting our communities and beautiful parks and green spaces; see Storm Armen), I had the pleasure, before nestling away at home for a few days, of stepping into a cosy scene waiting inside Old Torry Community Centre, where I would join an in-person discussion and poetry workshop on ‘re-imaging a post-oil world’ in Northeast Scotland. This was the first in-person workshop I had attended since the COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives two years ago and prompted most of us to transition to a largely online world. When the doors opened the warmth didn’t just radiate from the well-heated community space, but also from the impressionable faces of the workshop organisers and facilitators (Mae Diansangue, who is an artist, performer and co-founder of Hysteria Aberdeen, Scott Herrett from Friends of the Earth Scotland, and Orla Kelly, host of Speakin' Weird night in Aberdeen). Added to this was the delicious smell of freshly-brewed coffee and seeing a small group of people walking in, speculating about one another, wondering what had brought them to the centre that day. It was a missed pleasure coming together in human form, rather than communicating via online platforms. The setting gave me a sense of comfort and care, as if we were being given a pre-heated ‘welcome’ blanket.
For the best part of 2020-21, I was considering and exploring the use of creative and multi-sensory methods in the fields of criminology and sociology, determining, in particular, how visual-sensory methods shape the interpretations and experiences of the urban industrial landscape through a collective group sea-sound walk (I wrote ‘Deep-Sea-Soul-Sensing’ for the Sensory Criminology Blog). I also explored this via my own walking as a pilot research study in Aberdeen’s bustling cityscape, in and around Aberdeen harbour, and within an important neighbouring community that will be one of the first to be impacted by energy transition developments. Such methods are particularly enticing, since the northeast is changing and rebranding its social, economic, and cultural image from ‘oil capital of Europe’ to an ‘energy transition environment’ – joining the global move from fossil fuels to a green economy. Inevitably, the northeast is set to experience a turbulent time due to the decline of the oil industry, particularly given Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, and so there is the need for a speedier shift into a new industrial strategy – a ‘just transition’. Uncertainty, insecurity and inequality are symptomatic of the fallout of our oil-reliant region; these symptoms lead not only to large-scale unemployment, but also affect other aspects of our daily lives. Having witnessed four oil crashes, I am interested in learning about meaningful ways to examine how the energy transition is understood and experienced by people directly impacted by it. Creative and multi-sensory methods would be advantageous when it comes to exploring the rich, complex impacts of structural change, so as to uncover a detailed and nuanced understanding of the realities of transitioning on the ground.
I found the re-imaging workshop to be inclusive, radically engaged and democratic, helping people from the oil industry, the creative sector and the deeply curious aspiring criminologist (me) to get the creative transition juices flowing. The community enquirers coming together was a powerful statement in itself and fundamentally important since it is felt widely that oil has created a culture of separation amongst people in the northeast (a very much us vs them situation, aka people in the oil sector and people outside of it). During the workshop introductions, when myself and the other attendees were introducing ourselves and stating what had taken us there that day, I was instantly taken back to the words from former North Sea oil trade unionist and Extinction Rebellion activist Neil Rothnie at an ‘Energy Politics and ‘just transition’’ event in August of 2021. Neil pleaded a sincere and undeniably heartfelt case to the public, stating that oil workers are not the enemy, and that they are part of the solution in securing a ‘just transition’ for our families and future generations – for our planet. I scribbled down a quote from Neil in my notebook which struck a chord with me:
“High wages? Oil life shocks and causes insecurity (oil volatility he means). The boom days of oil were over after the Pipa Alpha disaster. By ending the use of fossil fuels, we will be ending a rotten and corrupt system. Oil and gas workers worry about the world and their grandchildren too, they need to know the science behind the renewable energy sector. We need to put energy back into the hands of the people”
Splitting into two: The future is not fucked vs the future is fucked!
The first phase of the workshop involved splitting our thinking by asking ourselves whether or not the future is fucked, which revolved more around ending fossil fuel use and reversing the effects of climate change. It’s not hard to see which side encourages creativity, connection and hope.
The three examples I wrote for each are as follows:
The future is fucked because…
We are products of oil ingrained in a capitalist culture
Profit comes before everything
The push to reverse the damage of climate change has come too late
The future is not fucked because…
We have activism and individuality
It must change
At the end of the corporate energy pot of gold is a rainbow that shines bright
The reference to an ‘energy pot of gold’ featured in an article which I wrote for The National on ‘Brexit, coronavirus, oil, and the struggles of Scotland's north-east’:
‘Unfolding events should not be addressed based only on economic stability, for example, whether there will be an energy sector “pot of gold” at the end of the transition rainbow or if, by doubling the size of the life sciences industry, we can make Aberdeen more attractive to outside talent and businesses. They should also be addressed by reflecting more broadly on de-industrialisation and opening up the opportunity for discussions on how to revitalise the communities affected humanely’.
And for the Sensory Criminology blog:
‘There should be no fast flowing free pass to claim success and the future title of “Energy Capital of Europe”. Any risk of harm caused by the unjust exercising of elite power in the pursuit of creating an “energy pot of gold” which exacerbates or causes the persistence of social inequality and environmental harm must be monitored and scrutinised, but also documented’.
Pen to Paper for a Better World Word Bank
We began to open up honestly about the restrictive nature of conversations on delivering a ‘just transition’. Of course, we need a sustainable energy sector and jobs put in place fast, but what about everything else in between? What about other infrastructure to ensure that the Northeast of Scotland thrives better? How about a less corporate, and a social community-minded way of living? More public spaces for all to access and enjoy, affordable housing, and an established arts sector to put life back into the area? It was a relief to hear that others felt the current conversation on a ‘just transition’ wasn’t going far enough. Perhaps it will in time, since it is a fresh concept and strategy, but that shared common concern meant a lot to me – the beauty of sharing our hopes to connect to the bigger picture and realising that other people agree/feel the same.
Mae Diansangue, our workshop facilitator, asked us to begin putting pen to paper, to generate words on a ‘better world’ for ten minutes whereby each person in the group would share as we moved around the table. This encouraged us all to think creatively, which, admittedly, I felt was a challenge on the spot, but it worked in terms of pushing our thinking and our writing – it encouraged us to express what came to mind immediately and prevented us from becoming withdrawn.
Below are examples of words and thoughts expressed by participants to counteract the restricted conversation on a ‘just transition’:
To express a voice
To write
Todayism
Hope in the people
Petroculture’ resources to explore: petroculture is the knowledge, practices, and discourses resulting from the consumption of and subsequent dependence on oil
Pulling it out of our heads: creating a collective world bank on the subject for a better world in Northeast Scotland
Sights on the realities: The offshore film trailer
The offshore film trailer shone a light on thinking about future generations
Mae then asked us to turn our sights to the video projector behind our group table to watch ‘Offshore’ – an independent documentary commissioned by Platform London which showed different perspectives on working in offshore oil and gas and renewable energy, exploring what the coming energy transition means for workers and communities around the UK North Sea. More specifically, the film places an eye on how communities and regions have been impacted by past industrial decline, the risks workers face in an increasingly precarious industry, and how they can organise for a healthier and more secure future. Mae informed us that we should make notes of anything that resonated with us from the watch.
My notes from the trailer were:
Remembering
Organic
Platform
What direction
Digging the ground
Disposable people
Fits gan tae be left? (what’s going to be left? in Doric)
The following quotes are from the trailer:
“This is the midnight, let no star delude us – dawn is very far”
“You’re a person out there, and when you come home, you’re a different person”
“They just haven’t got a voice at all”
“De ye nae notice in life, everything comes back?”
“It would be nice to have learned from the past”
The last instruction in the workshop from the film leading to the poetry formation involved us being tasked with using one (or more) of these quotes as a starting point; we were also told to take 15 minutes to freewrite – a technique whereby the author writes their thoughts quickly and continuously, without worrying about form, style, or even grammar. Indeed, this involved integrating all that we had gathered from the beginning: our word banks, reflecting on our discussions and our writing exercises. From this point, we would attempt to have created the beginnings of a poem which would be used to share, with further work in our own time, at an open mic night in Aberdeen City. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the event, but the entire experience of the workshop allowed me to continue my train of exploration in creative methods and arts.
The stories that we shared confirmed what I knew in my gut – that the oil and gas sector has had emotionally draining consequences on people’s lives, but our struggles do cross and intertwine in the Northeast of Scotland. Importantly, holding the workshop in the heart of the Torry community felt as though we were making a symbolic stance amid the growing tension between the community and the oil elites it is battling to save its only green park, which has huge health and wellbeing benefits for the community, Aberdeen residents, and our wildlife. The workshop allowed us to bring oil and the energy transition into public discussion, rather than these topics remaining private. Breaking through the grey emotional, distant and often isolated aspects of our oil culture, I was able to learn more about the development tasks and ideas involved in the creation of poetry. I’m convinced that poetry, as a method of enquiry, opens the possibilities for a comfortable and safe space for difficult discussions. We were able to “let go” of being stuck to oil for a couple of hours to invite in storytelling, listening, authenticity and emotional resonance. Poetry does have a place when it comes to liberating people through learning, in detail, about the human lived experience of oil culture and the energy transition.
The back of the book, ‘PETRO-SUBJECTIVITY. Deindustrializing Our Sense of Self