A word (or two) from Tony Greenham, Director of EEM

It seems that, just like buses, all three of the Economy, Enterprise and Manufacturing team’s (EEM) core themes have arrived on the political and social agenda at once.

How the fourth industrial revolution is driving changes to the way we work and earn has become an urgent political and economic question, reflected in the Government commissioning our own CEO to lead the Taylor Review into Modern Employment. Forthcoming EEM reports will explore the impact of automation, artificial intelligence and new sharing economy business models. Our Work and Enterprise programme will also shine a spotlight on the nature of institutions, rules and power relationships in the new economy. How can we support more people to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality while also building a new and universal economic safety net fit for the 21st century?

Our Manufacturing and Innovation theme will span every scale from local maker spaces to space exploration. A new project will focus on bringing small scale distributed manufacturing back to European cities. On the other hand, we are collaborating on mission-led industrial strategy with Professor Mariana Mazzucato’s new Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL.

Last but not least, the concept of Economic Democracy has become a central plank in the vital task of rebuilding citizen engagement and trust in economic policy and institutions. This year we aim to demonstrate how respectful and well-facilitated citizens’ deliberations on complex economic issues, can provide an important antidote to the yah-boo politics and ‘post-truth’ as we explore democratic and financially resilient solutions to the real social and economic needs of people in communities across the UK.

We are now building multi-year programmes on all three of these strands in which we combine our award-winning policy think-tank capability with our platform for creating social change. If you would like to help us shape these programmes in the future please get in touch with Laura Partridge, Head of Business Developments and Partnerships at Laura.Partidge@rsa.org.uk

Yours,

Tony Greenham,

Director of RSA Economy, Enterprise and Manufacturing