How being Cockney - or any other regional identity - can make you healthier
Fri 22 Mar 2024 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM GMT
Online, Zoom
Description
“Having a strong sense of belonging can help support that capacity for self-compassion. The converse is also true, feeling like you don’t belong is one of the reasons many of us struggle in the first place.” Professor Vincent Deary author of ‘How We Break’.
Being Cockney - or any other regional identity - can be good for your health. A positive sense of identity, based on inclusive values, is a foundation for greater self-belief, confidence, and purpose, creating a greater sense of togetherness, for more supportive communities.
Yet mass media and negative social stereotyping threaten regional identities like Cockney - the ‘non-posh Londoner’.
Traditional work-class virtues of resilience and defiance, resourcefulness, underpinned by a stoic and irreverent wit are powerful assets in an age of austerity and adversity.
But only if you recognize it and tap into its rich assets.
Join us where discuss the power of shared identities for better personal and community well-being, with our panel:
Professor Vincent Deary is a writer, practitioner health psychologist, and researcher at Northumbria University. His books ‘How We Are’ and latest, ‘How we break’ bring together his clinical and academic interests, along with his interest in philosophy, literature, and popular culture, to paint a portrait of human life, suffering and well-being.
Dr. Chris Strelluf is sociolinguist at the University of Warwick. His work includes studies on English language teaching in African contexts and non-standard Englishes traditionally associated with East London and reducing language prejudice faced by speakers of these varieties.