Latest thinking

RSA / Google Interactivism Challenge - 4 days remaining

Blog

22 Jan 2012

Benedict Dellot

There are now only 4 days left to submit an idea for the Interactivism Challenge, led in partnership with Google, the RSA, FutureGov and Livity.

Time, memory and the importance of documenting progress

Blog

15 Jan 2012

Benedict Dellot

“We live in time – it holds us and moulds us”. So says Tony Webster, the central character in Julian Barnes’s Man Booker-winning novel, The Sense of an Ending. In case you haven't read it, the book tells the story of one man’s relationship with his memory and the way in which it becomes distorted and twisted with age, to the point where it no longer provides an accurate portrayal of past events.

New year, new internship opportunities

Blog

03 Jan 2012

Benedict Dellot

As part of the RSA's rolling programme of internship opportunities, we are pleased to announce that we have three new paid positions opening up in early 2012. These are designed to give successful applicants the chance to experience what it is like to work within a fast-paced research organisation, to get to grips with emerging theories and concepts in different fields, and to hone their abilities in everything from fundraising, to project management, to the research itself.

Entrepreneurs in the valley of death

Blog

02 Dec 2011

Julian Thompson

Having rather excited myself with the entrepreneurial potential of Gen Y in yesterday's blog, I was subsequently given the research equivalent of a cold shower, courtesy of some fascinating data and insights provided by Prof David Storey of Sussex University.

Government’s rehabilitation revolution on knife-edge

Press release

05 Nov 2011

The government's proposals for working prisons risk becoming a good idea turned bad, according to a report out by the RSA. The report, RSA Transitions, is published at the start of the bidding process for new contracts worth £2.5bn for running nine UK prisons.

I Shop Therefore I Am: Can brands deliver placebo effects?

Blog

03 Nov 2011

Benedict Dellot

George Orwell once described advertising as the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket. The famous comedian Bill Hicks even went as far as telling those who in dabble in it to “go kill yourself… seriously”. Though few would consider themselves to have feelings that run parallel with those of Orwell and Hicks, it’s highly likely that most of us instinctively sense that there is something untoward about the level of advertising which is present in our lives. We are often told that we are bombarded with thousands of messages a day, and indeed there is rarely a day that goes by without the sheer number of adverts actually provoking a conscious reaction to them. More often than not it will be to ask ourselves, who would actually fall for this kind of thing?

tales of the strangely successful

Blog

14 Oct 2011

Julian Thompson

So in a further bid to overcome my blogophobia, today I am going to take a different tack. Yesterday I got some ribbing from Matthew "blogatron" Taylor, saying that he was surprised my "day in the life"  blog on Wednesday didn't detail my bowel movements alongside everything else. No time you see, Matthew.

RSA to reveal flaws in government pensions plan

Press release

12 Oct 2011

The RSA gives evidence to the DWP Select Committee showing that the government is undermining its own pension policy.  

Start it Up: Creating a successful enterprise

Video

14 Sep 2011

Luke Johnson is RSA chairman and an entrepreneur