What we're reading at RSA Global

Have a look at the selection of articles the RSA Global Team have been reading over the past month! They include articles on artificial intelligence (the view from Davos), impact investing, the diminishing role of facts in US public discourse and how design thinking can support schools.

Education

For the first time ever the 2018 World Bank World Development report focuses on Education. The report entitled “Learning to realize Education’s promise” explores four main themes: 1) education’s promise; 2) the need to shine a light on learning; 3) how to make schools work for learners; and 4) how to make systems work for learning. Check out the report located here.

Interested in what educational programmes and practices work in the US? Have a look at the What Works Clearing House which is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). It is responsible for the "synthesis and widespread dissemination of research collected by 10 Regional Educational Laboratories.   

The OECD recently released working paper on Academic Resilience which examines what schools and countries do to help disadvantaged students succeed at PISA. For more on the working paper, please visit this link.

Last year, the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) released a report in collaboration with IDEO “Thinking and Acting Like a Designer: How design thinking supports innovation in schools” on how design thinking is used to reimagine school models and systems. For more on the report please visit this link here.

Economy

Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Business Insider hosted a panel discussion on the Artificial Intelligence and its implications for society with Microsoft president Brad Smith, Princeton University professor Jennifer Rexford, and McKinsey Global Institute chairman James Manyika. For the full discussion, please visit this link.

What happens when impact is put at the heart of impact investing? A recent report  from the Rockefeller Foundation investigates the case study of the Toniic’s T100 Project. This case study documents and analyses the impact of a collection of impact investment portfolios. This project gathers information about these impact investments into a single data base, so that its members and investors can be better informed and select investments “based on risk, impact theme, and asset class.”

Notably this case study is the first to connect its impact investments to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For more, please visit this link.

What if block chain technology and digital currencies were used to transform the non-profit sector? Have a look at this recent article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review which explores this idea.

According to a Special Report from The Economist, military robotics will dramatically change warfare as we know it and can possibly fuel an arms race that will further generate instability.

For more on this, please visit this link.

Public Services and Communities

Here is timely and sobering report by the Rand Corporation entitled: “Truth Decay - An initial exploration of the diminishing role of facts in American Life.” The report defines “truth decay,” explores if it is a new phenomenon, what are its root causes and consequences.

Relatedly, recent research of 38 countries from the Pew Research Centre reveals that global publics are deeply divided politically on their level of satisfaction with their media outlets. They however prefer unbiased reporting.   For more in the report, please visit Pew here.

In their recent book on The New Localism – how cities thrive in the age of populism, Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak explore cities such as Pittsburgh was able to “catalyse inclusive growth by inventing and deploying new industries and technologies.” Here is an excerpt which outlines Pittsburgh’s reinvention as an innovation hub and centre for advanced manufacturing and robotics.

What will a transatlantic trade relationship with the US look like Post Brexit from the point of view of cities? Have a look at this recent Brookings event entitled “Trans- Atlantic trade and local governance: A conversation with US and UK mayors.”

How can we make research evidence count? Our colleagues at the Overseas Development Institute recently published key insights from the Finland’s Policy Analysis Unit and how evidence is used to inform policy and improve decision making.

For more on this, please visit this link.