List of The last word Archive

The 'don't trust the boss' gene?

Blog

11 Mar 2010

Matthew Taylor

Another in my series ‘pop evolutionary psychology for scientific imbeciles’. Or as someone put it to me the other day ’the charming thing about your blog, Matthew, is that while other people use theirs to display their knowledge, you use yours to parade your ignorance’.

Will e-harmony.co kill the Conservative Party?

Blog

09 Mar 2010

Matthew Taylor

The day started with a seminar hosted by the RSA-based 2020 Public Services Trust focussing on social media and the ‘post bureaucratic age’. The ‘PBA’ is often talked about as the Conservatives’ big idea: the future lies in strengthening the capacity of individuals and communities to meet their own needs rather than relying on an ever clumsier and more overbearing central state.

The Robin Hood Tax

Video

09 Mar 2010

With Jeffrey Sachs, Alan Beattie, Richard Curtis, Bill Nighy, Clare Melamed and Major Ivor Telfer

The Peterborough principle

Blog

08 Mar 2010

Matthew Taylor

Another big day for the RSA. As well as another of our ever more dynamic new Fellows’ evenings, tonight sees the launch of our partnership with Peterborough City Council and Arts Council East.

Soliphilia and Citizen Power

Comment

08 Mar 2010

The strength of attachment to what Indigenous Australians call their ‘country’ is difficult for many people from contemporary ‘European’ cultures to fathom. A translation of a song from the Oenpelli region in the Top End of the Northern Territory captures the emotional power of this connection:

New partnership to boost active citizenship within Peterborough

Press release

08 Mar 2010

The RSA launches Citizen Power: Peterborough, an innovative partnership that aims to create active citizenship within Peterborough so that local people feel engaged with their community and can help to shape the city in which they live

Reason, Fiction and Faith

Video

05 Mar 2010

With Rebecca Goldstein and Steven Pinker

The me gene?

Blog

05 Mar 2010

Matthew Taylor

Following yesterday’s discussion about whether some folks have a ‘people gene’ which makes them innately adept as social networking, I fell to pondering whether I have any special abilities…. 

Is Rigorous Advocacy an Oxymoron?

Blog

04 Mar 2010

Jonathan Rowson

I gave a talk on the social and educational value of chess in Dallas, Texas recently. The person driving me to the event, John Jacobs, read on the blurb that I worked at the RSA, "a think tank in London", and asked, in a melodious southern drawl:  "I see that you work in a think tank. So what do you think about?"