Latest thinking

The illusion that is the decline of deference

Blog

23 Oct 2014

Benedict Dellot

Regular readers of this blog will know that the RSA has a new worldview called the Power to Create. In short, this is about helping more people in more places to turn their ideas into reality, and thereby become the authors of their own lives. The animation below gives you the gist of what it’s all about.

From Eggs to Education: why diversity allows the flock to flourish

Blog

03 Oct 2014

Alexandra Barker

In the most recent RSA Journal, I read with interest the piece on competition by Margaret Heffernan – particularly, the part that describes an experiment designed to engineer a 'super flock' of hens. To see whether increased competition would create higher levels of production, geneticist William Muir pulled the top egg-producing hens out of a regular flock and put them together. After just two generations of this new flock, the results were remarkable - six of the super hens had been pecked to death by the remaining three, whilst the original flock was performing better than ever.

The Power to Create - more than just a pretty phrase?

Blog

28 Sep 2014

Matthew Taylor

The RSA has a new way of thinking about the world and the impact we want to achieve. We call it the Power to Create. It was the subject of my annual lecture, of this RSA Short and of many blogs by my colleagues, for example this excellent recent post by Adam Lent (which prompted me to contribute to his crowd funding campaign). As we had hoped, when people approach a set of ideas positively but with different perspectives those ideas can develop in many interesting ways.

Every child should have an education in arts and culture

Blog

23 Sep 2014

Joe Hallgarten

Guest Blog Column: Vikki Heywood, chair of the RSA, argues that a strong cultural education is vital for the UK's social and economic future. This article was originally published on the Royal Opera House website.

Creativity, learning and tigers in the Forest of Imagination

Blog

09 Sep 2014

Kate Monkhouse

The Forest of Imagination took place in Bath this summer and attracted over 2,000 visitors. It was a 4 day contemporary arts, creativity and learning event organised and led by RSA Fellows and hosted by Bath Spa University. Over the past year I’ve blogged a number of times about the ArtSpace Bath and the Forest of Imagination (from now on Forest) project and I had been involved in many meetings, discussions and communications about it. That said, when the Forest launched I still wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What I discovered was a creative world full of surprises and learning.

Carl Rogers, Creativity and the RSA

Blog

09 Sep 2014

Jonathan Rowson

When it comes to words, I'm never quite sure whether I'm the hunter or the hunted.

Creativity in public services

Blog

18 Aug 2014

This is a guest blog from London-based RSA Fellow Steven Trevillion. Steve is interested in connecting with like-minded Fellows with a view to establishing a framework for small, experimental social and community projects that could feed into the national debate about 'welfare reform'. He is an Emeritus Professor of Social Work at the University of East London and a visual artist.

10,000 hours or 10,000 friends? eight perspectives on talent in music

Blog

18 Aug 2014

Jonathan Schifferes

It's about time we reconsidered what we mean by talent: how it is defined, who gets identified as talented, and how they are developed, recognised and rewarded. Is talent the product of 10,000 hours of devoted practice, or the reward of cultivating 10,000 followers?

The money to create

Blog

13 Aug 2014

Jonathan Schifferes

We’ve talked a lot this year about the power to create. The RSA is focusing its efforts on unleashing the creative powers of all citizens to shape their own lives and society around them. One of the most obvious creative expressions is art. Artists at their best can show us something of who we are, honing our ability to make critical, aesthetic and moral judgements about the world around us. In our increasingly image-saturated information society these skills are invaluable. But what about the money to live on in order to create? Expressing your creativity is rarely a profitable career path.