The Neil Davidson Lecture: Raquel Varela on Uneven and Combined Development in Neil Davidson's work

Please check ticket info for this event below, incl. information about access.

In 2020 we lost Dr Neil Davidson - a leading Scottish intellectual of the radical left and a stalwart supporter of the bookshop, both as Word Power and as Lighthouse. We are honoured to join with friends in commemorating Neil and his legacy with a new lecture series in his name.

The inaugural Neil Davidson lecture will be given by Raquel Varela at Edinburgh’s Radical Book Fair, the title of her lecture is: ‘Uneven and Combined Development in Neil Davidson's work’

Combined and uneven development is an approach to understanding the dynamic of the world we live in.  A world wracked by huge inequality, war and deepening climate crisis.

Raquel Varela is a labour historian, researcher and Professor at New University of Lisbon. She is also president of the International Association of Strikes and Social Conflicts and co-editor of its journal. She is the author of A People's History of the Portuguese Revolution, A People's History of Europe From World War I to Today and a number of other books on social movements and labour struggles.

Neil Davidson (1957-2020) was a Scottish historian and sociologist.  In The Origins of Scottish Nationhood and Discovering the Scottish Revolution he showed Scotland to have been one the first countries to experience the ‘uneven and combined development’ of capitalism and a ‘revolution from above’ in the late 18th century. 

Neil’s tragically early death has left behind a great intellectual and political legacy. Davidson was on the editorial boards of rs21 and the Scottish Left Project website, and was a member of the Radical Independence Campaign and his writing was published by Haymarket, Verso, Bella Caledonia, Jacobin, New Left Review, Radical Philosophy and Salvage.

The Neil Davidson library project is working with Lighthouse to ensure that the more than 10,000 books and other resources in his library are made accessible to activists and scholars in Edinburgh, Scotland and interntionally. You can contribute to our fundraising efforts HERE.

*Please note that masks will be required at this event (as with all Lighthouse events).

*Accessibility: All events will be professionally filmed & livestreamed. The Roxy is wheelchair accessible (including toilets) and we'll have provisions for neurodivergent guests including stims, quiet space and colour-coded lanyards.

*Events are £5 or free -we completely understand paying for one or two events and then getting free spots for others. The Radical Book Fair is entirely bookshop run and ticket sales are vital to keeping the fair sustainable and paying all our speakers so all support is heartily welcome!

*Featured books: The book & ticket option will select the most recently published book at any given event, if you’re not sure which book you want or don’t want that featured book, then buy a £5 voucher ticket that can be used for any of the books below.

*If you'd like to help make the book fair accessible to more folks, please consider adding to our pay-it-forward fund HERE.