List of The last word Archive

Issue 3 2013

Journal

15 Jan 2014

Does the answer to economic and social recovery post-crash lie with cities and town halls, more than national or global corridors of power?

DIY higher education in the global swamp

Blog

15 Jan 2014

The South Central Region of the RSA has recently concluded its series of events aimed at sharing ideas about education. These events were run by and for RSA Fellows with the aims of:

There's more to shops than shopping

Blog

14 Jan 2014

Jonathan Schifferes

While several retailers sit reflecting on a disappointing Christmas trading period, 2014 promises to buzz with excitement about online, mobile and social network tools to get you to buy things. We've heard plenty about the 'death of the High Street'; its time to contemplate the future of the 'big box' out-of-town superstores in the online era. Shops are about more than shopping, their advantage remains face-to-face interaction. Retailers need to make physical stores community hubs to entice shoppers, appease a restless public, and help a stretched public sector.

Shopping for shared value

Blog

14 Jan 2014

Matthew Taylor

This morning I chaired an event in a packed Great Room to launch an RSA report on the scope for large retailers to be active contributors to community life. It is easy to see corporate responsibility as a marginal issue in comparison to the big questions of public policy. Also, as the report focussed in particularly on one initiative – Asda’s community life programme - the research could be seen as public relations flim flam. But having read the report and chaired the event I think the future of retail sector and its relationship to local communities is significant and am reassured that the RSA and Asda have flagged up some of the significant challenges ahead for what we term ‘community venturing’.

Michael Pollan on Cooking

Video

14 Jan 2014

Can you really have your cake and eat it? According to Michael Pollan, you can. In this fun RSA Short, Pollan explains how to eat well by following one simple rule without the need for fad diets or deprivation.

Every little helps: How supermarkets can protect local communities as tough times bite

Press release

14 Jan 2014

Large supermarkets can help lessen the impact of lower living standards and cuts to local authority spending by becoming ‘community hubs’ through which customers can access public services, charities and other community groups, an RSA report has concluded.

The Big Idea: making cities fully transparent

Blog

13 Jan 2014

 Nathan Boublil FRSA co-founded Stat.io, a Cambridge-based software company aggregating the millions of statistical spreadsheets released by government units. While the data-driven software is mainly intended for professional decision-makers, Stat.io is now partnering with cities to launch OpenCity portals. These virtual townhalls allow any citizen to be able to seamlessly view all available data points about their city and engage with other citizens as well as their local policy makers.

Latest news from RSA Academies

Fellowship news

13 Jan 2014

2014 had kicked off with a bang with Whitley Academy being judged as 'outstanding' by Ofsted. The deadline is also drawing near for the crowdfunding campaign to pilot our Student Design Awards to secondary school students from the RSA Academies.

We need a creativity revolution: four ideas to stir it up

Blog

12 Jan 2014

How do you transform a nation into the most creative place on earth? Or for that matter how do you transform a region, city or town? In short, how do you unlock a creativity revolution?