Latest thinking

An open and shut case for shame

Blog

15 Sep 2014

Matthew Taylor

Generally in this blog I have avoided complaining about the impact of austerity. I largely accept the inevitability of the overall scale of cuts. I find the third sector’s favourite sport of semi-competitive shroud waving not only unedifying but counter-productive. In more and more places and services, the cuts really are impacting now but the public has, I fear, become jaded by years of hearing stories of doom and alarm. Indeed some sectors have managed to cope pretty well. In heritage, for example, local cuts have actually been accompanied by an aggregate growth of activity as organisations have been forced to be more innovative and entrepreneurial.

The next American Revolution?

Blog

21 Aug 2014

Jonathan Schifferes

When we look back on the final years of Obama’s 8-year presidency, it will appear obvious that America’s political landscape was in revolution. There is rising anger at injustice and inequality, covering a range of concerns including labour market regulation, policing, housing affordability and social mobility. But the US Federal Government is close to impotent in its ability to deliver the changes citizens are demanding.

Can collective impact work here?

Blog

05 Aug 2014

Matthew Taylor

Like a reformed smoker I am lifetime policy wonk who has now turned against my former habit. This is how I put the argument in a recently co-authored review article on ippr’s recent Condition of Britain report:

Francis Maude, Jack Dee - and the transformation of government

Blog

30 Jul 2014

Matthew Taylor

How’s this for an admission guaranteed to alienate old comrades and make me look like a geek? I am a really big fan of Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude.

Let citizens spend tax revenues rather than the technocrats at the top

Blog

20 Jul 2014

This post is jointly written by Director of the RSA Action and Research Centre, Adam Lent, and the Director of Institutional Reform at the RSA, Anthony Painter.

Heritage for the future

Blog

14 Jul 2014

Matthew Taylor

Can heritage help close the identity gap at the centre of place shaping?

Power to Create

Video

08 Jul 2014

Matthew Taylor is chief executive of the RSA

Fiscal Devolution: Complexity and Contradiction

Blog

07 Jul 2014

Dave Yates (Blog)

This week I have been mostly... reading about fiscal devolution.

Devolve ‘impoverished’ skills strategy to metro level says RSA City Growth Commission

Press release

03 Jul 2014

The political debate around the skills agenda remains “impoverished” and it’s unclear how government initiatives add up to an overall strategy that contributes towards wider economic growth, according to a report published today by the RSA City Growth Commission, with support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).