Latest thinking

The Brain is Wider than the Sky

Video

16 Nov 2011

With Bryan Appleyard and Rod Liddle

My name is Bond, ‘Bond for hope’

Blog

16 Nov 2011

Matthew Taylor

The unemployment statistics, and particularly the figures for young people, are truly dreadful. The evidence that people who are out of work for an extended period in their younger years are more likely to be vulnerable to unemployment throughout the rest of their life makes an important point: While the Government may say its strategy is putting long term stability ahead of short term demands, the social impact of today’s slump will itself be long term.

Thinking, fast and slow

Blog

15 Nov 2011

This evening, a lucky audience will have the privilege of listening to Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman in conversation with Richard Layard at an event hosted by LSE. They will be discussing Kahneman’s new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, which distils the author’s lifetime of work on the triumphs and pitfalls of conscious and unconscious thinking.

The century of the brain?

Blog

15 Nov 2011

Matthew Taylor

Yesterday I posted on my favourite subject – the social aspiration gap. The question being how do we enable people to be the people they need to be to create the future they say they want? One consequence of this citizen-centric way of thinking is that policy makers need to think more deeply about human nature; what is it that makes us behave as we do?

How many more times? BEWARE THE GAP !

Blog

14 Nov 2011

Matthew Taylor

The American political strategist James Carville is reputed to have said something along these lines: ‘it is only when a politician thinks he will be physically sick if he says the same line again that the ordinary voter is just beginning to recognise it’. I am not a politician but I was reminded of Carville’s view when someone recently e-mailed after hearing me deliver a speech.

A holiday from methadone?

Blog

14 Nov 2011

This weeks guest blog is from Russell Webster. Russell blogs on the rapid changes in the way we deliver public services especially in the arena of crime and substance misuse treatment at: www.russellwebster.com/Blog

There's no business like social business

Blog

11 Nov 2011

Whilst being far from a new idea, those considering business as a force for social good have been in the minority over the past three decades of profit-driven capitalism. However, since 2008’s financial crash caused many to question the sustainability of such a system (David Harvey’s RSA Animate and Matthew Taylor’s annual lecture in June this year, to name but two) it seems more businesses are putting social impact at the heart of what they do. It’s a subject that many of our Fellows care deeply about.

Fellows, Forums and the Environment

Blog

11 Nov 2011

At this time of economic unrest individuals, businesses and organisations try to find ways to make them stand out from the rest.

The medical model of mental illness: we’re not convinced

Blog

11 Nov 2011

A great systematic review has been published in this month’s British Journal of Psychiatry. It has the slightly less than tabloid-friendly title Biogenetic Explanations and Public Acceptance of Mental Illness: Systematic Review of Population Studies, but behind the dense title is a really useful and important piece of work.