RSA Events

The world is rapidly changing and the future is more unknown than ever – Jens Beckert and Richard Bronk explore the narratives and predictions we use to help navigate economic uncertainty. We all make decisions with an eye to the future; we form expectations, calculate likelihoods, and predict the outcomes of every action we take. But in a culture of restless innovation, we can’t always be sure that the future will resemble the past, and as the pace of change increases, we often have to make decisions based on forecasts of a future that is still being written. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 1st November 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/11/economics-for-uncertain-times

What can hidden histories teach us about multiracial society in Britain today? With author Emma Dabiri, footballer Eartha Pond and gal-dem deputy editor Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. Emma’s status as a professional footballer, in one of Britain’s earliest women’s football matches in 1895 attended by thousands of paying spectators, is hugely significant. That she travelled the country, accompanied by widespread media coverage, demonstrates the profile she would have enjoyed in the 1890s. But while her male contemporaries are championed as global icons with statues, TV dramas and fame, Emma’s life slipped into obscurity. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Tuesday 31st October 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/celebrating-emma-clarke-black-female-football-pioneer

Sir Ian Cheshire welcomes an expert panel to discuss the interim findings of the RSA’s Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Since the Commission launched last autumn, we’ve reviewed 1000 policy proposals, and hosted roundtables and discussions to explore the current policy domain. We’ve cycled right round the UK to meet people in their communities and workplaces, and set up separate long-term inquiries in the devolved nations and in three English counties to help us test ideas and understand more about what will work in practice. At this interim stage of our inquiry, we will be outlining some draft proposals which we believe provide radical and practical ways to address the challenges we’ve heard across the country. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 25th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/our-common-ground

Migration has long been a high-profile political issue. A panel including HOPE Not Hate’s Rosie Carter gathers to discuss the state of the conversation and how and why public opinion has shifted over time. Research suggests that public attitudes towards immigration in the UK are less extreme than national headlines and social media would have us believe, but it remains a contentious subject. Migration has been a key pivot point in the ongoing Brexit debate, and the Windrush scandal and “hostile environment” policy have kept migration at the centre of political attention. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 25th October 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/immigration-beyond-the-headlines

Award-winning social psychologist Michele Gelfand explains how the clash between ‘tight’ and ‘loose’ cultures drives many of our most polarised and intractable global challenges. With rave reviews from heavyweights such as Steven Pinker, Robert Cialdini, Anne-Marie Slaughter and Carol Dweck, Professor Michele Gelfand’s ‘ground-breaking analysis’ of cultural divides ‘Rule Makers, Rule Breakers’ has been hailed as the manual for how we approach today’s most intractable challenges. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 18th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/how-culture-divides-us

Youth champion Ruth Ibegbuna; Sam Conniff Allende, chair, Generation Change; Dame Julia Cleverdon, founder, Step Up To Serve; and education activist Adam Ramgoolie on young people leading change. As the RSA launches its latest report ‘Teenagency: how young people are changing the world’, which reveals the continued gulf between public perceptions and the reality of young people’s experiences and aspirations, we explore how to give every young person, from every background, the opportunity to engage in the kinds of social action that meet their altruistic impulse and creative potential. This is critical to delivering the “double benefit” of helping them develop personally, while making a positive difference to their community. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 15th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/teenagency-how-young-people-are-changing-the-world

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon delivers a speech on the current state of play of the UK Government’s Brexit negotiations and the future of the UK and Europe. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 15th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/keynote-address-by-first-minister-of-scotland

How can we tackle our ignorance about what the world is really like? Bobby Duffy, Director of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute, explains how we can get a handle on the facts in a ‘post-truth’ era. Evidence suggests that most of us are very wrong about what goes on in the world around us. Misinformation in the media is a growing worry, but it’s not all about fake news. No matter how impartial we think we are, we’re all biased towards information that confirms what we already believe – and our ability to filter and tailor what we see online only distorts our perceptions further. To avoid panic and gloom in a ‘post-truth era’, it’s more important than ever to check our facts, challenge our biases, and demand better from our media outlets. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Thursday 11th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/why-were-wrong-about-nearly-everything

Child and adolescent mental health is in the headlines almost daily. How can we support young people’s wellbeing and build mentally healthy school communities? Join our expert panel as they share the latest insights. The issue was identified as one of the “burning injustices” of our time by the Prime Minister during her first Downing Street address. Whilst the problem has been rising up the political agenda in recent years, parents, carers and children alike have been demanding more and better access to services due to increased need, but also due to acute service pressure. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 8th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/a-whole-school-approach-to-mental-health

Sociologist and best-selling author Eric Klinenberg shows how social infrastructure holds the key to health, happiness, safety and healing our divided society. Too often we take for granted and neglect our libraries, parks, markets, schools, playgrounds, gardens and communal spaces, but decades of research now show that these places can have an extraordinary effect on our personal and collective wellbeing. Why? Because wherever people cross paths and linger, wherever we gather informally, strike up a conversation and get to know one another, relationships blossom and communities emerge – and where communities are strong, people are safer and healthier, crime drops and commerce thrives, and peace, tolerance and stability take root. This event was recorded live at The RSA on Monday 8th September 2018. Discover more about this event here: https://www.thersa.org/events/2018/10/how-to-build-a-more-equal-and-united-society