I was Principal Investigator on Home and Belonging, an arts-based research project with care experienced young people (2019-2022). The core group of young people behind the project are called the Shetland Crew and is supported by Who Cares? Scotland, who were UHI Shetland’s main partner organisation.
During Home and Belonging we explored what ‘home’ and ‘belonging’ mean and how care experience can be improved through creative processes such as film making (with Rozi Peters), creative writing (with Jen Hadfield), Minecraft (with Adam Clarke), light projection (with my UHI Shetland colleague Roxane Permar) and verbatim theatre (with Tony McBride). With Who Cares? Scotland, we co-delivered three Festivals of Care in Shetland. The Shetland Crew continues to work with services and decision-makers in new ways.
This work was made possible by Life Changes Trust with funds from the National Community Lottery.
Some of my research is about knitting, especially Shetland’s ‘Fair Isle’ and Ireland’s ‘Aran’ knitting. Projects include ‘Micro-manufacturing and place-based maker cultures’, funded by the Carnegie Trust (2018-19) and ‘Shetland hand knitting: value and change’ (2017-18).
Selected academic publications:
Carden, S. 2022. ‘Patterns and Programs: Replication and Creativity in the Place-Based Knitting of Shetland and Ireland’, TEXTILE: cloth and culture (special issue on Creativity in Knitted Textiles; preprint): 1–20.
Carden, S. 2022. 'Authenticity and Place-Based Knitwear: Fair Isle and Aran Knitting in Shetland and the West of Ireland'. TEXTILE: cloth and culture (special issue on Authenticity; preprint): 1-18.
Carden, S. 2020. 'Creative Economy, Policy, and the Pandemic in Scotland’s Island Communities'. EuropeNow (37)
Carden, S. 2019. 'The Place of Shetland Knitting'. TEXTILE: cloth and culture 17(3): 357-367
Carden, S. 2018. ‘Introduction: Island textiles and clothing’. Island Studies Journal. 13(2): 3-8
Carden, S. 2018. 'Producing and consuming ‘maker cultures’: Shetland knitting as production, process and product'. Making Futures Journal 2017: 1-11
Carden, S. 2018. ‘The Aran Jumper’. In Design Roots: Local Products and Practices in a Globalized World, eds. Stuart Walker, Martyn Evans, Jeyon Jung, Tom Cassidy and Amy Twigger-Holroyd. Bloomsbury Academic
Carden, S. 2017. ‘The Gaeltacht Quarter of Mural City: Irish in Falls Road Murals‘. In Murals and Tourism : Heritage, Politics and Identity. Skinner, J. & Jolliffe, L. (eds.). Routledge Press, New York. 236-253
Carden, S. 2017. ‘The Use and Social Enjoyment of Murals: ‘the people’s art’, its publics and cultural heritage‘. In Conservation, Tourism, and Identity of Contemporary Community Art : A Case Study of Felipe Seade’s Mural “Allegory to Work”. Campos, V. S., Montagud, M. A. C., Molina, M. D. M. & de-Miguel-Molina, B. (eds.). CRC Press
Carden, S. 2014. ‘Cable Crossings: The Aran Jumper as Myth and Merchandise’. Costume 48(2): 260-275