Latest thinking

A prescription for fun

Blog

08 Jan 2009

It has recently been reported that Ofsted are to 'crack down' on 'boring' teaching as part of an effort to refocus inspectors' attention on teaching and learning.

"... an artist is also a citizen."

Blog

08 Jan 2009

In a passionate, furious post Georgia Kotretsos blogs from Greece for Art21 | blog wonders what part, if any, art has to play in the current upheaval in her country:

Pessimism, optimism, pt 3

Blog

07 Jan 2009

Robert Butler of the Ashden Directory, one of the best bloggers in the arts/ecology zone, has an excellent article in the Economist's Intelligent Life magazine about the high level of public indifference to climate change, suggesting that our strategies are all wrong.

Bill McKibben on 350.org

Blog

06 Jan 2009

I've just put up the Bill McKibben interview. He's asking artists to become involved working somehow with the figure 350. (That's the number of parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere which NASA scientist James Hansen thinks will allow a sustainable civilisation).

Dear Barack and Michelle

Blog

05 Jan 2009

From the recent open letter from NASA climate scientist James Hansen to Michelle and Barack Obama, urging radical action when he takes office:

Status, health and inequality

Blog

05 Jan 2009

Chris Dillow suggests that perhaps one’s perception of status has not much to do with one’s health. Yet he also suggests we should still pay attention to the affect of inequality on health. But a definitive study by Richard G Wilkinson shows that these two factors should be linked: how we perceive our status in terms of inequality vis a vis wider society is massively determinant of how healthy we perceive ourselves to be, and how healthy we actually are. The study shows that it is not absolute poverty that counts, but poverty in relation to the society in which one lives – that it is this status-related relative poverty that makes all the difference.

Zadie Smith, brain plasticity and optimism about human nature

Blog

05 Jan 2009

Happy New Year from the Social Brain!

The dangers of being labelled 'progressive'

Blog

08 Dec 2008

Matthew Taylor

I look forward to reading the interim report on the primary school curriculum in England by Sir Jim Rose. The BBC, needing as broadcasters always do, to turn the story into an argument, is presenting Sir Jim’s recommendations as a return to progressive education. The Today programme managed to get the head of the Campaign for Real Education to express grave misgivings, even though it was clear he hadn’t actually read the report.

The official opening of the RSA Academy - a big success

Blog

06 Nov 2008

Matthew Taylor

In the next couple of weeks I hope to unveil a new format for my blog. As well as linking to all my favourite bloggers and making it much easier for people to make comments, I want to be able to cover both current affairs and news from the RSA. I promised on Tuesday to update readers on the Academy launch but then, like everyone else, I got caught up in Obama fever. My new blog will contain a reserved space for news about the Society.