From your dinner discussion 1

A write up of the things you talked about round the kitchen table.

Ways in which your project has helped your understanding of global citizenship:

1. Citizens can take control of activities beyond simple purchasing power or choosing which shop to use. We can create events and take practical steps to bring about change. We found out how a practical activity which focuses around an object is a useful way to begin a campaign or embody ideas.

In this, the visit to the Disobedient Objects Exhibition at the V&A was helpful.

'From Suffragette teapots to protest robots, this exhibition was the first to examine the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. It demonstrated how political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design.' (From the V&A site.)

We are now better informed about how to find out about issues, and about techniques of protest.

2. We learned how different organisations are tackling the issue of plastics in water, from interviews with the parks trust and Canals Trust, to finding out about river rinsing with BSAC, and how Tesco (and other major TNCs) have a policy towards reusable bags, cloth bags and product lines which indirectly address the issue of plastics pollution. We found out more about how companies are dependent on each other and are connected. We found out how companies rely on other industries, in this case the plastics industry, for food packaging, and we found out about the levels of responsibility different companies and industries are obliged to have about the environment.

3. We now know that the media can be an ally in an organised activity. The understanding of everyone about an important issue can be improved as a result of using traditional and social media for information. We understand more about how the media can be used by everyone to promote a message.

4. We understand that there are many different viewpoints about our project, and in this way we can see something of the diversity of opinion about our issue. We began the project thinking that no-one could object to it, but in the course of the project we found many different opinions.