POSTPONED: Experiential Workshop - Social Dreaming

Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been postponed and will no longer take place on 30 January.

We will be in touch with attendees when we have a new date.

This workshop is organised in connection with the CCRI First Thursday Seminar in January on Social Dreaming. Participants will get a taste of what it is to share dreams, affect and emotions, images and associations with others. As a group (called a ‘matrix’), we will share our night-time dreams and associations with those dreams. During this process, there is no judgment or interpretation of anyone’s individual dreams of associations. The process is entirely open and participants can contribute as and when they wish, or even not at all.

The attention of curiosity is drawn to ‘the dream, not the dreamer’. By sharing nighttime thoughts, we hope to find new ways of thinking that would otherwise remain hidden. The ‘matrix’ is followed by a brief discussion focusing on the collectivity of the dreams where participants are invited to give meaning to the dreams, images and associations of the preceding matrix. Each person takes away what they want from this experience. There are no definitive conclusions, just suggestions or ‘working hypotheses’.

If you have any questions about this event please email nfang@ed.ac.uk

Workshop facilitator Julian Manley

Julian Manley is Social Innovation Manager at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. He was educated at the universities of Cambridge, Middlesex and West of England, where he completed a PhD in social dreaming. He has also been trained in the Tavistock tradition of organisational consultancy. His areas of research include the development of social dreaming (a method of sharing night-time dreams in groups in order to access an ‘associative’ or ‘social unconscious’) and associated methods for research within a psycho-social paradigm and viewed through a Deleuzian lens.

In parallel, he is involved in ongoing research into co-operative values and principles and has been one of the influencers of the Preston Model, an innovative community wealth building project that has attracted considerable media attention. Julian is a Director of the Centre for Social Dreaming, Co-Chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance Scotland and Chair of the Preston Co-operative Development Network. Recent publications include two books on social dreaming: Social Dreaming: Associative thinking and intensities of affect (2019) and, with Susan Long (eds) Social Dreaming: Philosophy, research, theory and practice (2019).

This event has been organised by Nini Fang in collaboration with the CCRI.