List of The last word Archive

Quiet

Video

27 Mar 2012

Susan Cain is a negotiation consultant and author of 'Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking'.

Re: The Understandable Madness of Economic Growth

Blog

27 Mar 2012

“I've been rich and I've been poor. Believe me, honey, rich is better.” This ‘brilliant insight’ by Sophie Tucker is one thing that came to my mind reading Jonathan Rowson’s blog about a major economic/environmental conundrum. We are running out of planet due to our exploding consumption but we don’t yet have an economic model that would be stable without this on-going explosion. Yet, I believe, the real challenge here is not a technical one but an adaptive one. Most likely we will have to go to being somewhat poor again eventually.

The Understandable Madness of Economic Growth

Blog

26 Mar 2012

Jonathan Rowson

Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must. - Tim Jackson

Has the Department of Health been misusing behavioural economics?

Blog

26 Mar 2012

Atif Shafique

It seems that as soon as Andrew Lansley announced plans to “nudge” the population towards healthier and more socially responsible behaviour, scathing criticisms have been levelled at the alleged naivety – and to some the danger – of his policy backing for voluntary pledges, grounded in nudge theory. The Commons health select committee criticised the Department of Health’s (DH) Public Health Responsibility Deals as ineffective for tackling health and social problems such as smoking, excessive drinking and obesity – warning that they could widen health inequalities; that self-interested companies should not be allowed to set the agenda; and that the government should use legislation if “nudging” fails. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee similarly questioned the efficacy of using voluntary mechanisms without sufficient regulatory measures to achieve behaviour change. Even internally within government the idea has had little traction; a National Audit Office report last year noted government departments were not consulting the Behavioural Insight Team on issues around alternatives to regulation at the assessment stage. Oliver Letwin even acknowledged that it was “open to question whether any of this would have any effect whatsoever.” The Behavioural Insights Team itself cautioned that “’nudge’ approaches should not be seen as a hard alternative to other policy approaches, but a useful complement or additional tool.”

Everyone a Changemaker

Video

26 Mar 2012

Bill Drayton is the founder of Ashoka

Oh no, not again

Blog

26 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

Marx famously said that history repeats itself; the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. If so, what is the appropriate aphorism as yet another tawdry party funding scandal explodes onto our front pages: Party funding history repeats itself first time as tragedy, second time as farce, twenty fifth time as a badly translated repeat of On the Buses shown on a flickering black and white TV in a mini-cab office in Tajikistan?

If only you could bottle it! Reflections on a year in the Spotlight and the Social Entrepreneurs Network so far…

Blog

23 Mar 2012

The latest event from the Social Entrepreneurs Network (on Wednesday 7th March) drew to a close the first and pilot year of Social Enterprise Spotlight. Hopefully you’ve heard about the network and the Spotlight initiative but if not here’s a brief (or not so brief) history and an update about the future of Spotlight:

Are Coalition ministers the biggest threat to free schools?

Blog

22 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

I have to admit to feeling ambivalent about the Government’s free schools policy.  I am all for fresh thinking about schools but think it is the content of teaching and learning, and the relationship between schools and communities which are most important, not who owns and governs.

Networked: The news in transition

Video

22 Mar 2012

Adrienne Russell is a leading new-media academic