Rsa Events

In this exclusive ‘in conversation’ event at the RSA, Adair Turner and John Kay will respond to each other’s work and to the sometimes contrasting, sometimes complementary conclusions and policy recommendations they arrive at – and tackle the key questions: What does ‘good’, socially useful finance look like? Is banking too important to be left just to bankers? Do we need to revisit our understanding of money and debt? Or should we stop treating finance as special and demand that a much simpler industry conform to the same market disciplines as other industries? What are the regulatory and institutional reforms that we’d need to enact to get us there?

Can businesses have both endless growth and be fair and sustainable? Is it possible to conceive an economic model that’s not tainted by our current financial system? Economist Christian Felber introduces an international movement that’s aiming to radically reshape our future economy.

Writer and journalist Lynsey Hanley explores the idea of class in Britain today, examining how people are kept apart, and keep themselves apart, and the costs involved in the journey from ‘there’ to ‘here’.

Professor of Chinese history and philosophy Michael Puett draws from ancient teachings to help us challenge deeply-held assumptions about how to live our lives and follow a path of self-cultivation and engagement with the world. He invites us to re-examine the impact of Western philosophy on our lives and to "unlearn" many ideas that inform modern society.

Science journalist Helen Pearson reveals insights and from five birth cohort studies of over 70,000 people begun in 1940s Britain. These rich findings have been brought together for the first time and help form the basis of how we understand inequality and health today.

The Inclusive Growth Commission is an independent, impactful inquiry designed to understand and identify practical ways to make local economies across the UK more economically inclusive and prosperous. At this Commission Launch event, we heard from Lord O'Neill, Commercial Secretary to the Treasury; Stephanie Flanders, Commission Chair and Chief Market Strategist for the UK and Europe, JP Morgan Asset Management; Tony Travers, Professor of Government, London School of Economics and Cllr Claire Kober, Leader of Haringey Council, Chair of the LGA Resources Board, and Deputy Chair of London Councils.

How can engineering concepts help us make better decisions and create innovative solutions in a complex world? At the RSA, biomedical engineer and policy adviser Guru Madhavan reveals how the engineering toolkit can be useful in designing systems-based strategies and policies that could help in many areas of society, from easing traffic congestion to improving efficiency in health care.

Iris Bohnet, professor of public policy at Harvard University, demonstrates the tools we need to ‘move the needle’ on gender, from classrooms to boardrooms, and offers new research-based solutions for improving businesses, governments and people’s lives.

Is growing inequality a price worth paying for London’s continued economic success? As London’s economy continues to outpace the rest of the UK, so does the inequality gap. Is such inequality an inevitable by-product of the city’s growth, rewarding those who risk their capital to create employment, for example? Or, will it eventually derail the city’s upward progression, and push out those whom London relies on to keep it moving? Panel includes Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford; Mark Littlewood, Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs; Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School and Faiza Shaheen, director, Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class).

Who really drives transformation in society? And how do they do it? Skoll Foundation President and CEO Sally R. Osberg and strategy guru Roger L. Martin set forth a bold new framework for social entrepreneurship, demonstrating how and why meaningful change actually happens in the world, and providing concrete lessons and a practical model for businesses, policymakers, civil society organisations, and individuals who seek to transform our world for good.

Whilst we strive for stronger personal relationships, to conquer our bad habits or to get ahead in our careers, we often get caught in negative emotional and behavioural patterns that prevent us from moving forward. Meanwhile, the demands of our culture increasingly make us even less able to perform at our best. But by becoming more aware of our own emotional nature, learning how to face our feelings and unhooking from our negative thoughts, we can begin to evaluate them and to change our actions to match our values. Drawing on more than twenty years of research in the field of behavioural science, Harvard psychologist Susan David reveals how ‘emotional agility’ is the key to flourishing in work and life.

In 2015, Yanis Varoufakis became the world’s most prominent opponent of austerity when, as finance minister of Greece, he refused to accept the terms of the loan agreement dictated to his bankrupt country by the eurozone’s leaders. Since resigning his post he has become the figurehead of an international grassroots movement, joining together to put the ‘demos’ back into European democracy. At the RSA, in conversation with Matthew Taylor, Yanis Varoufakis will explore the origins of the crisis of 2008, which wiped out half a dozen national economies and brought several more to the brink of collapse. Since then, he argues, by pursuing plans based on more debt and harsh austerity rather than reform, European leaders have ensured that the weakest citizens of the weakest nations pay the price for the bankers’ mistakes, while doing nothing to prevent the next collapse. Instead, the principle of the greatest austerity for those suffering the greatest recessions has led to a resurgence of racist extremism. And once m

Western Culture has long separated the mind from the body; and the mind, with its home as the brain, has been privileged as the source of intellect, with the rest of the body annexed as mere matter. But the new field of ‘embodied cognition’, which draws on the latest advances in neuroscience and psychology, offers a richer, more holistic view of intelligence that involves the whole body. At the RSA, author and education reformer Professor Guy Claxton introduces this new field, explores the far-reaching implications of the persistence of the Cartesian mind/body ‘error’, and reveals how an appreciation of the whole body’s intelligence can enrich all our lives.

Lack of affordable housing is one of the defining social justice issues of our times. Eviction can lead to a cascade of events that can trap families in a cycle of poverty for years. Matthew Desmond is a social scientist and ethnographer, co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project at Harvard University, and a 2015 MacArthur ‘Genius’ award winner. In this election year, Desmond’s landmark work of reportage Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City offers a searing portrait of the contemporary US, where fewer and fewer people can afford a roof over their head. At the RSA, Matthew Desmond is joined by Shelter’s CEO Campbell Robb; journalist Owen Jones and Sky News editor Afua Hirsch, to explore the impact of eviction on the lives of the urban poor and its role in perpetuating racial and economic inequality.

In the evolution of human culture from pre-history to the present, changes in ethical values have been driven by the most basic force of all: energy. In a bold new theory, historian Ian Morris argues that humans have found three main ways to get the energy they need – foraging, farming and fossil fuels – and that in each of these epochs, the dominant energy source sets limits on the kinds of societies that can succeed, and each society in turn rewards specific values. Small forager bands valued equality but were ready to settle problems violently. In larger farming societies those who valued hierarchy but avoided conflict did best. In huge fossil-fuel societies, the pendulum has swung back toward equality but further away from violence. But if our fossil-fuel world currently favours open, democratic societies, the ongoing revolution in energy capture may well soon signal a new values shift. If so, what might come next?

The world is changing fast and public education needs to change with it. But debates about innovation in education can reinforce existing divides – between ‘progressives’ and ‘traditionalists’, between the converted and the sceptical, between the confident and the constrained. How do we break through these divides and craft a unifying challenge to both teachers and systems to grasp how public education must change to enable learners and institutions to thrive in the new conditions which confront them? And then how would we go about creating a movement, supported by new systems, platforms and relationships, that would promote radical innovation at all levels, with teachers front and centre but also engaging with a broader range of partners within and beyond schools?

What makes us who we are? Child psychologist and writer Oliver James shares his new findings on the nature-nurture debate. Genetics is often cited as the key factor in explaining what makes us who we are. Recently, however, there is increasing weight given to the importance of our childhood in the formation of our ‘persona’. It is our upbringing, and less so our genes, that is critical to achieving wellbeing and fulfilment across our lifespan. The implications of this are profound. As adults we retain the ability to change, but what we learn as children is crucial and, therefore, education is key to shaping who we are individually - and our society as a whole.

Can any of us be creative, and if so, how we do we nurture our creativity? How can we advance courageous new ideas, policies and practices without risking it all? New York Times bestselling author and one of Malcolm Gladwell’s favourite thinkers, Professor Adam Grant shows us how to improve the world by championing novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battling conformity, and bucking outdated traditions. But how do we know if we’re harbouring a great idea? How do we counteract fear and self-doubt? Grant debunks the myth that successful nonconformists are born leaders who embrace risk, and encourages us all to spot opportunities for change and innovation.

Author Dawn Foster, Fawcett Society CEO Sam Smethers and ‘Token Man’ founder Daniele Fiandaca debate the values that shape the way we live and work together.

Leading innovation expert and former adviser to the US Secretary of State, Alec Ross visits the RSA to give an insider's perspective on the industries of the future.