Rsa Events

I, Daniel Blake won the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2016, was nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress & Best Director and won Outstanding British Film at the 2017 BAFTA Awards. Following the screening, director Ken Loach discusses the pressing social issues highlighted in his film and how we can move towards a more equal platform from which people can manage their lives.

Politics fractures when policy fails - as events of the last year have shown. Nine years on from the global financial crisis, policymakers are still struggling to find convincing answers to the economic problems it exposed. At the same time, the world faces many significant and complex challenges, from climate change to the problems of managing chronic health conditions, to the challenges of ageing populations, to meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. If innovation is part of the answer, how can public policy be used to steer it towards tackling these kinds of global problems? This special event marks the launch of a new collaboration between the RSA and UCL’s new Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose to develop mission-oriented innovation policy in practice. Chaired by the RSA’s director of innovation Rowan Conway, the event will consist of provocations and conversation between IIPP's founder and director Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, UCL (from

International bestseller and so-called ‘Darwin of technology’ Steven Johnson argues that the pursuit of novelty and wonder has always been a powerful driver of world-shaping technological change. He finds that throughout history, the cutting edge of innovation lies wherever people are working the hardest to keep themselves and others amused. In describing a vivid history of innovation, Johnson explains how popular entertainment - games, cinema, music, food and fashion – have played a crucial role in shaping our world. These amusements did more than just entertain, they directly contributed to economic and social revolutions that transformed the modern world.

Self-employment is once again on the rise. The number of people working for themselves has grown by 40 percent since 2000, and is set to reach a record 5 million by the end of the decade.A debate rages as to whether this is a trend to be lauded or lamented. While some hold that the self-employed are just another legion in a growing army of precariat workers, others hail an entrepreneurial renaissance among spirited self-starters. Join us as we launch The Entrepreneurial Audit, a new RSA report that examines the past, present and future of self-employment policy in the UK.

People in the West tend to think of corruption as a problem unique to the lower-income countries. But are we fooling ourselves? Development economist and co-founder of Transparency International, Laurence Cockroft and anti-corruption expert Anne-Christine Wegener have analysed the driving forces behind such cases, particularly the role of political finance, lobbying, the banking system and organised crime. In the course of their investigation, Cockroft and Wegener have uncovered why anti-corruption legislation has not been more effective, and why there is an increasing discrepancy between regulation and commercial and cultural practice.

We are living in an age of anger: from American 'shooters' and ISIS to Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world to racism and misogyny on social media. Renowned author and essayist Pankaj Mishra visits the RSA to discuss how and why we got to this point.

We are all aware that we are living longer – and for some of us, that’s a scary prospect, especially when we consider that it has been estimated that by 2030 there will be 2 million people aged over 65 without adult children to look after them. And 230,000 of those will be in need of more than 20 hours' care a week and yet will have no informal support. But, what if we lived longer AND with better health? Our expert panel explore what people might do differently in the future to become a healthy, active and engaged member of the “150 Club”. In partnership with Philips UKI

We are bombarded with more information each day than our brains can process. It’s raining bad data, half-truths, and even outright lies in amongst the facts. But how can we know if we are being sold mistruths? Neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Daniel J. Levitin visits the RSA to help us sort the wheat from the digital chaff.

Could drones, and other robotics, provide an answer to some of the most persistent humanitarian and development challenges? Drones are just one example of a range of new frontier technologies that “tech for good” advocates claim as potentially paradigm-shifting for developing countries. However, even as sources of investment and knowledge-sharing increase, there remain obstacles and concerns – including issues around regulation, privacy and data protection, health and safety, and public understanding – and critics seek more evidence of cost-effectiveness and more positive engagement with the communities served. In this special event in partnership with Crown Agents Foundation, RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor discusses how we fulfil the humanitarian promise of technological advance with Tamara Giltsoff, Head of Innovation at the Department for International Development, whose ambition it is to bring tech innovation into day-to-day leadership and delivery of UK aid; and former Africa Correspondent at the Eco

Schools are generally recognised as playing a crucial role in developing citizens of the future, helping to equip young people with the ability to debate and deliberate, to question, critique and understand differences in their communities. But with an already crowded curriculum, do we have to accept that the responsibility for citizenship education can’t – and indeed, shouldn’t - lie solely with schools?

Alex Evans of NYU’s Center on International Cooperation argues that today we have a ‘myth gap’. He visited the RSA to contend that in this time of global crisis and transition – mass migration, inequality, resource scarcity and climate change – it is only by finding new myths that we will navigate our way to a better future. It is stories, rather than facts and pie-charts, that have the power to animate us and bring us together to change the world.

Conflict, refugee and migration crises, an extraordinary US election race - and result, and post-Brexit-vote tumult for the UK and the EU - 2016 has been a year of exceptional, world-changing events. Join us at the RSA as our group of expert reviewers – historian and author of The Silk Roads Peter Frankopan; academic and cultural critic Sarah Churchwell and political scientist Matthew Goodwin - reflect on what has been a turbulent year in national and international political, social and cultural events.

In a world increasingly dominated by winner-take-all markets, good fortune and what may seem as trivial initial advantages often translate into guaranteed success over time. Despite this, false beliefs about luck and personal success persist, and can often shape individual and political choices in harmful ways. At the RSA, influential economist and New York Times columnist Robert Frank argues that it is vital that we gain a more accurate understanding of the role of chance if we are to create better, fairer economies and societies, and shows how inequality driven by chance can be mitigated by adopting relatively simple policy solutions.

As a teacher in an inner-city school, Lucy Crehan was exasperated with ever-changing government policy claiming to be based on lessons from ‘top-performing’ education systems. She became curious about what was really going on in classrooms of the countries whose teenagers ranked top in the world in reading, maths and science. Lucy visits the RSA to document some of her journey, weaving together her experiences with research on policy, history, psychology and culture to offer extensive new insights and provide answers to three fundamental questions: How do these countries achieve their high scores? What can others learn from them? And what is the price of this success?

Peter Tatchell is awarded the 2016 RSA Albert Medal for tireless campaigning on human rights and social equality. In his Albert Medal Lecture, Peter Tatchell will speak about the ecology of campaigning for social transformation. In less than 50 years, LGBT rights has gone from the margin to the mainstream. How was this transformation achieved? Peter Tatchell began his LGBT advocacy and activism half a century ago, combining both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary action to secure changes in public attitudes, the law and the way institutions treat LGBT people. In his speech, Peter will talk about the ideals and methods, the setbacks and triumphs that led to one of the fastest, most successful social reform campaigns in British history.

The nature of work and employment is changing rapidly. In the face of an uncertain economic future, what steps do we need to take, and what new models do we need to build in order to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to engage in work that has meaning and value? Does an increase in the number of companies and organisations that are employee-owned offer a route to a more stable, sustainable and inclusive form of productivity and prosperity? Our speakers explore the relationship between employee share ownership, business ethics and effectiveness with three leading figures: Stephen Bampfylde, founding chair, Saxton Bampfylde; Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman, John Lewis Partnership; and Sacha Romanovitch, CEO, Grant Thornton.

Economic issues are often moral issues. If you know where a person stands on the left-right spectrum, you can easily predict their preference for economic approaches like austerity or stimulus. One’s moral compass tends to dictate their response to even ‘factual’ matters like whether or not raising the minimum wage increases unemployment. What we believe influences what we perceive far more than we would like to admit to. Renowned social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that most of us stick unswervingly to one of two persuasive stories about capitalism - with predictable consequences. He believes we must push ourselves beyond these entrenched narratives and develop a ‘third story’ – one that incorporates some of the objective truths of both, and abandons the gut-level assumptions on either side.

It may be a post-pollster, post-pundit, post-truth landscape – but can we predict where the world goes from here? An extraordinary US presidential election campaign has resulted in an outcome that few could have predicted at its outset: Donald J Trump will become the 45th US President of the United States. The implications of this historic decision are, for now, highly unpredictable, and for many, deeply concerning, with many questions unresolved around the course of future US policy on the economy, security, environmental protection, and human rights. Our panel of experts consider what a Trump presidency says about, and means for America and the world in the days, months and years to come. Panel: Melanie McDonagh, Leader writer, Evening Standard and contributor, The Spectator; John Prideaux, US editor, The Economist; Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Deputy Director-General of RUSI; Stephen Bush, Special correspondent, New Statesman; James O'Brien, Presenter, LBC & BBC Newsnight

At a time of low growth and increasing income inequality, innovation-led growth is more necessary than ever. But, just as it needs it most, has capitalism lost its ability to adapt, experiment and invent? Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy Fredrik Erixon and innovation strategist Bjorn Weigel argue that companies and policy makers are actually hindering innovation, and through research and case studies, including Uber and Apple, will reveal both the obstacles to our future prosperity and a possible roadmap to reversing this trend.

We bring together representatives from civil society, thinktanks, and the media in a panel discussion to explore how we can improve the quality of public discussion about the economy – and, in doing so, change economics itself for the better.