Latest thinking

RSA Fellowship - matching supply to demand

Blog

16 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

The demand is there, the supply could be too, but for the RSA Fellowship to be all it could we need new skills, a different culture and examples of good practice.

Clare Patey | Feast on the bridge

Blog

16 Sep 2009

The artist-inspired Feast has become a remarkable part of London's calendar, bringing together Londoners to produce food for a giant community meal. For the last two years it's culminated in a giant Feast on the bridge on Southwark Bridge. Created by artist Clare Patey and colleagues, Feast on the bridge took part last weekend - another extraordinary example of arts transformational involvement in horticulture and community that I've written about earlier here, here and here.

Bad news Ringen in New Labour ears

Blog

15 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

For all of you dismissive of New Labour’s record there is now a perfect primer for your case. Its diagnosis is powerful but, in my view, its prescription less so. 

Public spending - any light amidst the heat?

Blog

14 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

The RSA has a double interest in the debate about public spending. In its lectures and Journal and other platforms for ideas, the Society aims to frame issues in ways which shed light, rather than heat, and also encourage us to understand the role we, as citizens, play in creating and solving policy problems. Also, our research programme is exploring various aspects of public service reform, with a particular emphasis on how public services can build social capacity. The question is whether the current row over public spending will be one that enhances public understanding.

The Economic Consequences of Mr Brown

Video

14 Sep 2009

Stein Ringen is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Oxford. Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist and broadcaster.

Lonely planet

Blog

11 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

The epidemic of loneliness is a powerful symptom of how modernity offends human nature. But do we understand what loneliness is?

Chelmsford Fellows lead the way

Blog

10 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

Off to Chelmsford tomorrow. A group of RSA Fellows has worked with the local council to organise a forum about the town centre. I am to offer them some ideas and explore how the RSA could continue its involvement.

Environmentalism is the new religion? So what if it is?

Blog

10 Sep 2009

Sceptics often say that environmentalism is a religion rather than a science. It was the late Michael Crichton who stirred this one up originally, writing: "environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths." Fair enough: just like Marxism, which predicted a paradise to come after the end-time collapse of captalism, much of environmentalism undeniably draws its inspiration from 19th century millenarian Christianity. There is a catastrophic reckoning coming; there are saints and sinners. We're all going to BURN in the post-Six Degrees world. And so on.

God, Tony Blair, and human agency

Blog

08 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

Last night we kicked off the new season of RSA events, and a pretty good start it was too. My old boss, Tony Blair, was the first speaker in a series of events on faith that we are hosting along with partners Oxfam, Islamic Relief, DFID and World Vision. We even had the internationally acclaimed writer on religion and inter faith activist, Karen Armstrong, in the chair.