About Outwith

Outwith is a seasonal space for reflective essays and magazines of notes, images and observations exploring care, culture, memory, anthropology, communication, embodiment and change.

It is an exploration of how people come to know, recognise and share understanding through everyday life.

Rooted in lived experience across community work, dementia practice, gardening, the arts, Scottish culture, relationships, together with a generous side dish of curiosity, Outwith sits with questions rather than rushing towards conclusions. Much of the writing flows from the edges between disciplines, experiences and ways of seeing: between arts and health, research and lived experience, language and silence, care and autonomy, memory and change.

The essays explore communication beyond words, embodied and inner knowledge, intellectual humility, seasonal cycles and the ways people continue to express their humanity, humour, creativity and connection beyond lack or deficit-based narratives.

Across seasons, landscapes, stories, food traditions, textiles, sensory memories and the questions of reflective practice, Outwith asks what continues to emerge and bloom within uncertainty.

The title comes from the Scots word outwith, meaning outside of or beyond. It shares an interest in boundaries, edges and perspectives that are often overlooked, as well as the spaces where experiences, disciplines and ways of understanding or seeing meet.

Rather than offering answers, Outwith is an ongoing process of sitting alongside questions, observation, reflection and composting - finding language for questions, themes and discomforts, that have persisted for many years.