Plenary 1: Come as You Are - but Bring the Right Story... Poverty, power and the uneasy politics of lived experience

Plenary Description

We are increasingly invited to bring lived experience into therapy, training, research and public debate—but are all stories equally welcome, and who decides which ones count? Drawing on themes across his writing, Darren McGarvey explores how poverty, power and social distance shape who gets heard, while asking what happens when personal pain becomes testimony, or a marketable commodity.

If lived experience is a resource, what responsibilities accompany its use?  Who benefts when stories are shared—and what might it cost the storyteller? Can people be heard without being simplifed, or expected to perform the “right” kind of story?

Following Darren’s talk, the audience will be invited into an interactive conversation: responding to these tensions, questioning assumptions and refecting together on how we might engage with lived experience in ways that are more relational, ethical and systemically aware.

Biography

Darren McGarvey is a Scottish author, columnist, broadcaster, and rapper (Loki) known for insightful commentary on social issues, poverty, and inequality. His acclaimed debut, Poverty Safari (2017), won the 2018 Orwell Prize. A former rapper-in-residence for Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, he explores trauma, addiction, and social class and uses his experience to advocate for a deeper understanding of social deprivation, often focusing on the trauma roots of societal challenges.