Pedagogies of hope and drug-related deaths in Scotland

Abstract The incidence of drug-related deaths in Scotland has reached crisis proportions. Comparable only to the rust belt States in the US these figures point to the impact of the rapid scale of deindustrialisation and a global neoliberal economy, based on austerity, deepening class divisions and a return to a more naked form of capitalism. The question is, does a critical pedagogy have a role to play in understanding and addressing the challenges involved? In other words, how can a practice of such a pedagogy allow participants to deconstruct and decode the structures of domination that oppress and divide them/us? Such pedagogy has undergone differing degrees of reassessment as it no longer serves as an ‘adequate platform from which to mount a vigorous challenge to the current social division of labour’. However, the need for a critical pedagogy, rooted in a Freirean notion of hope, for such communities has never been more apparent. This article will attempt to resolve the extent to which such a pedagogy translate from its esoteric detachment to one rooted in history, place and practices, and one capable of engaging with the most disadvantaged, and colonialised fraction of the Scottish society.