The RSA Blog

What to make of an afternoon

Blog

21 Dec 2011

Bringing nearly thirty social entrepreneurs supported by RSA Catalyst together with Fellows leading social enterprises and from social enterprise intermediaries meant that there were many opportunities for good things to happen…

Holding our Nerve

Blog

25 Nov 2011

In Tessy Briton’s insightful blog on How Do We Create New Knowledge for Creative/Collaborative Participatory Paradigm?, Tessy outlines some vulnerabilities for this time of emergent shifts in ways of working together and how this reflects changes in our own thinking and behaviour. This link between organisational change, for example, change in how we deliver services and how we reconsider our own personal responsibility in this, is one we are examining within our work with the public services in Peterborough. And Tessy is so right – it is difficult and can be deceptively difficult because it must be about the doing and not the talking about doing – a much easier option. The Wikipedia entry on the principles of positive deviance suggests it is easier to change behavior by practicing it rather than knowing about it. “It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting”. This is the route the RSA team of Citizen Power and The Map are taking with an ambitious cross public sector delivery programme in Peterborough called the single delivery plan. We are most definitely seeing seeing a new participation ‘Creative/Collaborative’ paradigm emerging.

Can I afford to feel self-satisfied?

Blog

20 Jan 2011

Matthew Taylor

Vanity is a funny thing. There is a passage in ‘Swann in Love’ by Marcel Proust in which he describes how people can be vain in surprising ways: the maestro orchestral conductor doesn’t mind you criticising his recent concert performance but if you were to question his cooking or gardening he would take terrible offence. I guess it’s to do with how much security we feel in our talents. Perhaps we most need praise where we feel least self-assured.

Social Capital Innovation Network

Blog

26 Nov 2010

The RSA is delighted to be convening a network for people interested in innovation in social capital. The launch event will be on 14th December at 6:30pm at the RSA, 8 John Adam Street, WC2N 6EZ

The Need for Design and Designing for Need

Blog

23 Sep 2010

Sevra Davis

“Design isn’t radical enough.”

Frugal innovation

Blog

07 Jun 2010

When I studied product design as a student, I loved the combination of thinking about people and how they interact with technology. One of things that makes product or industrial designers distinct from engineers and other technologists is that they don’t start with what the technology can do, but with what people want (or moreimportantly I suppose, what people need).

Enterprise for a better world

Blog

24 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

New Labour politicians used to say their core belief was that economic dynamism and social justice go forward hand in hand. It is simplistic but a good corrective to the Thatcherite view that all social spending was a drag on economic prosperity. But perhaps the future holds a more ambitious version of New Labour’s sound bite; a major driver of future economic dynamism will be meeting social need.

Is he or isn't he (the world's first industrial designer)?

Blog

10 Jul 2009

Yesterday afternoon, at the awards ceremony for Shine at the V&A Sackler Centre, David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, began a little 3-question quiz by asking "Who was the world's first industrial designer?" While my brain auto-prompted "Christopher Dresser", discursive noise-interference stopped my mouth. It depends what you mean by an industrial designer, obviously. Didn't Alice Rawsthorn in Gary Hurstwit's new film Objectified date the birth of industrial design to the rationalisation of armaments by mediaeval Chinese knights? Christopher Dresser, however, was the "right" answer.

Celebrating innovation

Blog

13 Mar 2009

I am quietly reassured when I read things in the media like this courtesy of Eric Allison. This week, Timpson, the shoe people, announced a new Academy at Liverpool prison to train up prisoners with a view to employ them on release. Yet another example of some of the fantastic initiatives in this sector. Bravo Timpson!