RSA Events

Households, businesses and even essential services are feeling the pressure, with the poorest in our society most harshly affected.To add to the burden, wages and salaries have failed to rise in line with inflation. The past summer saw several sectors push back on this, as train operators, posties, barristers, dock workers and more went out on strike. Some success was achieved, but for many, their battle is ongoing. With cost of living pressures expected to worsen over the winter, what kind of support is needed now from employers and from the government? And what can the ‘summer of discontent’ teach us about the power of collective action and how people can best make their voice heard in the workplace and wider society?Hear representatives from Citizens Advice, the Living Wage Foundation and the Trades Union Congress as they explore these urgent questions and their potential solutions.  #RSAdiscontentBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficial 

Rejecting both New Labour’s embrace of free markets and the statism of Corbynism, Blue Labour thinking sought to reconnect Labour with its working-class base, and to bring assets, power and dignity back to local communities. As workers' rights and futures - and the future of the places they live - take centre-stage in politics once more, Blue Labour’s founder, political scientist Maurice Glasman, is joined by Shadow Levelling-Up Secretary Lisa Nandy MP to explore what left-conservatism has to offer the Labour Party, and the country, in the post-Brexit, post-Covid era.#RSAcommongoodBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU 

But, despite affording billions greater material wealth, health and freedom, the age of plenty has not delivered the utopia it initially seemed to promise.  Brad DeLong, one of the world’s leading economists, argues that instead of ushering in an era of prosperity, wellbeing and unlocked human potential, the gains of what he terms the ‘long twentieth century’ have not only been equivocal and double-edged, but also unfairly distributed.   DeLong’s magnum opus, Slouching Towards Utopia was an instant NYT bestseller, and has been universally lauded as the must-read account of 20th century economics.  Join us as we explore why true economic and human progress is a complicated game of snakes and ladders, and what we need to do to create a better world.#RSAutopia Become an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Across the 19th and 20th centuries, the Huxley family reshaped how we think about humanity and our relationship with the natural world. Within a family of scientists, educators, novelists, mystics, and filmmakers, two men led the way: ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’, the zoologist T.H. Huxley and his grandson and intellectual inheritor, the ecologist and conservationist, Julian Huxley.From religion to genetics, to human psychology, the Huxleys’ impact was felt across some of the most controversial and significant topics of their day. In studies of the natural world, they contributed to the foundation of the new sciences of ecology and animal conservation.Adept at writing about themselves in painfully revealing, honest and unprecedented ways, the family’s lives, marriages, successes and failures were also subject to their fascination with emotional, sexual, and psychological experience.At the RSA, leading historian of science Alison Bashford is joined by historian Thomas Dixon and writer Stuart Jeffries to discuss the impact of three generations of Huxleys, exploring how the roots of the Huxley legacy reach deep into scientific and cultural conversations we are still having today. #RSAhuxleyBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Estimates suggest that the planet’s average temperature could rise by up to four degrees Celsius. From heatwaves and hurricanes to flooding and droughts, the extreme weather this would bring could render certain parts of our planet unliveable. Changes on this scale may leave many people with no other option but to migrate to more liveable parts of the planet. Those who do migrate may have to navigate national borders and a public image that paints migration as a problem that needs to be solved. If mass migration is to be an inevitable part of our future, how can we more proactively approach the scale of the challenge and view it as a key solution to climate-related threats? How can we ensure people driven to migration have agency over their experience and ensure that we build a future that does not exaggerate existing social inequalities?Here, Gaia Vince will set out her manifesto for this era of planetary change. After outlining likely futures for our planet and the changes this will require from countries, communities and cities, Gaia will explore key questions that will shape the future of human geography and explain how we should see these changes as key solutions to build a better, greener and fairer future.#RSAClimateMigrationBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

There’s no scientific impediment - even with present knowledge - to achieving a sustainable world in this century. We live under the shadow of new hazards - but these can be minimized by reprioritizing the thrust of the world’s technological effort - and optimizing the educational system and the institutions where research is done.   Astronomer Royal Martin Rees has spent a lifetime exploring science’s most profound questions, and advocating for its place in our common culture, at the heart of our democracy and decision-making.At the RSA, he insists that we can be technological optimists, despite the pessimism engendered by intractable politics and sociology.  Environmental degradation, unchecked climate change, and unintended consequences of advanced technology could trigger serious, even catastrophic, setbacks to our society, he warns – and our world is so interconnected that a collapse - societal or ecological - would be a truly global catastrophe. So it’s ever more crucial to ensure that science is deployed optimally, and that brakes are applied to applications that are dangerous or unethical.  Scientists have a special obligation to promote beneficial applications of their researches, and to warn against the downsides. But priorities in how their work is applied are matters for the wider public - so it’s crucial that the education system should offer everyone enough 'feel' for science to permit an informed debate on its ethics and hazards.Join one of our most eminent and far-seeing scientists to explore the future of scientific endeavour at a time when innovation must be guided by values science alone cannot provide. The stakes have never been higher. #RSAscienceBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Society tells us that to be successful we must be tough, stubborn, and resilient. We can all achieve success if we just work hard enough. Across all corners of society, from sport to science and beyond, there are many examples of people who have overcome great hardship to achieve next-level success. However, this view focuses on individual achievement and can easily ignore many of the external factors that can undermine our confidence, take away our agency and stack the odds against us. When we look closely at the context around achievement and resilience, the road to extraordinary success is far more complex than it first appears.Join Bruce Daisley as he explores how success is achievable today and re-examines what it means to be resilient. In conversation with the RSA’s Andrea Siodmok, Bruce will put forward an empowering new programme for building self-confidence and tenacity that can benefit us all, not just the elite few. #RSAsuccessBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

The ways we work have seen huge changes in recent years. Technology has reformed entire sectors, remote working has become commonplace and age demographics have shifted as more people retire early or rethink their chosen careers. Such huge change means that the ways we measure good work are now outdated, with familiar notions of productivity criticised as being unfair to women and having more relevance to the industrial economy than to the knowledge economy. There is much to reflect on and much we need to understand about this new world of work. Over the past 12 months, the RSA’s Good Work Guild has brought together a global community of practitioners to share experiences, expertise and ideas and explore some of the most pressing issues related to the future of work, economic security, and labour market transformation. This event brings together three experts on what makes good and meaningful work. Join Laetitia Vitaud and Hilary Cottam in conversation with, Sharmi Surianarain as they reflect on their research, discuss issues highlighted by the Good Work Guild and reflect on their own research to ask how we can build a social revolution for work, imagining what work could and should be and what impact good work could have.#RSAgoodworkBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

The design industry’s relationship to the field of business has long been established and continues to become further entangled each year. But designers aren’t just satisfied with only disrupting the business sector—they’re keen to disrupt the social sector too. Unfortunately, the weaknesses baked into the discipline of design (that have been present from the start) are readily exposed when designers enter complex social issues and treat them like any other human-centred innovation challenge. The lack of a moral framework, let alone a set of ethical guidelines, put designers at great risk of doing more harm than good. What needs to change to protect communities and participants?Join designer George Aye for this special digital event in partnership with the London Design Festival to explore what happens when design and ethics collide, and how design practitioners can become better prepared to recognise and navigate situations of complexity, compromise and ethical risk.www.thersa.org/fellowship/festival/design-for-lifewww.londondesignfestival.com#RSAdesignBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU

Andrew Mawson and Sam Everington first pioneered social prescribing at the Bromley by Bow Centre in East London by offering services that go beyond what people typically receive at GP surgeries. Their approach recognises how patients often have more than one need and makes it easier for individuals to access different levels of practical and emotional support in their local area. RSA Chief Executive Andy Haldane will present Sam Everington and Andrew Mawson with the 2022 RSA Albert Medal for their pioneering work in integrated healthcare, and in their award address they will describe their ongoing efforts to put social prescribing at the heart of building healthier communities.The RSA Albert Medal is awarded annually to recognise the creativity and innovation of individuals and organisations working to resolve the challenges of our times. The Medal was instituted in 1864 as a memorial to Prince Albert, former President of the Society.The RSA has been at the forefront of significant social impact for over 260 years. Find out more about our global network of entrepreneurs, educators and innovators working together for the advancement of society, the economy and the environment.#RSAhealthBecome an RSA Events sponsor: https://utm.guru/udI9xDonate to The RSA: https://utm.guru/udNNBFollow RSA Events on Instagram: https://instagram.com/rsa_events/Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEventsLike RSA Events on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rsaeventsofficialListen to RSA Events podcasts: https://bit.ly/35EyQYU