RSA Events

Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life, right? Wrong.This neoliberal ideal of “doing what you love” is actually a recipe for exploitation that is wreaking havoc on our lives and communities. Whether it’s working for exposure and experience, or enduring long hours and poor treatment in the name of ‘being part of the family,’ many of us have fallen into the trap of making sacrifices for the ‘privilege’ of fulfilling work.Understanding the trap, and why we so readily buy into it, will empower us to work less and demand what our work is actually worth. And once freed from those binds, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy and satisfaction. Drawing on a series of interviews with workers in the cultural, healthcare, sports sectors, among others, author, journalist and podcaster Sarah Jaffe invites us to reimagine a future built on care rather than exploitation. At a time when so many of us have been forced to look again at the way we work, this could not be more important.#RSAWorkThis conversation was broadcast online on the 28th January 2021. Join us at: www.thersa.org

How can 2021 become a turning point for progress on climate change?With COP26 on the horizon and the incoming Biden administration poised to rejoin the Paris Agreement, climate action will be high on the agenda in 2021. But to make urgently necessary progress towards decarbonisation, the world must go further, embedding transformative economic changes across the board and building on them in the decades to come.This will mean connecting the climate crisis to economic strife and addressing both together, understanding the intersections of social, economic, and environmental policy. It will mean directing investment towards communities that need it most, ending extractive and exploitative practices, and tackling the root causes of our problems instead of just addressing their symptoms.The authors of A Planet to Win join us to discuss the Green New Deal as the most promising and ambitious plan we have at our disposal for saving the planet whilst building a more just society. They explore the principles, practical changes, and alliances we will need to embrace to set ourselves free from what currently binds us, and reflect on what the political opening created by crisis could mean. Business as usual can’t continue, they say, if we’re to have a future – but that what awaits us next could be much better.#RSAGreenNewDealThis conversation was broadcast online on the 21st January 2021. Join us at: www.thersa.org

Societies showed remarkable resilience and adaptability in 2020: in the face of public health crisis, political polarisation, and economic insecurity, we witnessed extraordinary examples of community solidarity and social innovation.And yet deep uncertainties and challenges lie in wait in the year ahead. To meet these challenges, we need to strengthen the ties that bind us. To reimagine and renew our social contract. To build stronger, more resilient communities, from the ground up.As we look for sources of inspiration and optimism, what lessons can be learnt from the way individuals and communities have navigated past national and global crises? What are the everyday values and practices that we need to re-discover, honour, create and share so that everyone, in every place, can thrive?Authors Hilary Cottam and Marc Stears join Anthony Painter in conversation to explore where we are as a nation in 2021, our hopes and resolutions for the future, and the new ways of thinking, working and organising that we need to embrace in order to face the challenges ahead, united.#RSAFuturesThis conversation was broadcast online on the 14th January 2021. Join us at: www.thersa.org

An unprecedented global pandemic. The worst global economic recession since the Great Depression. The tipping point for systemic racism. Growing polarisation and conflict. One of the biggest non-nuclear explosions of all time. An alarming increase in wildfires across five continents. 2020 has presented huge challenges for us to respond to.It is human nature to design for need, to design for better, to design for change. We design at our best in times of urgency and crisis, embracing uncertainty as space for creativity and imagination. The crises of 2020 have created the perfect conditions for timely, relevant, optimistic and proactive responses, amongst those of us who lean the most into that designer mindset – whether by nature or nurture, and whether we identify as designers or not. This event brings four 2020 crisis responders together to tell their stories of triumph and failure. From the thinkers creating Covid19 response models for health and care communities in the UK, to the designers innovating towards carbon neutral cities in Zagreb. From the innovators improving bushfire community resilience in Australia, to the tech entrepreneurs reducing polarisation and conflict through social media in the US and Kenya. Storytellers come from the design community and beyond, from grassroots to institutions. What they share in common is their design mindset, their resilience in the face of 2020 crises, and their openness to share their learning with humility. This event is brought to you in partnership with the Social Innovation Masters Programme (MDes) at Ravensbourne University LondonThis conversation was broadcast online on the 12th December 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org

Competition laws are failing us on a whole host of issues vital to the public interest. But campaigning lawyer Michelle Meagher has a bold new agenda for reform.We live in the age of big companies, where power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, monopolies are the gold standard, and workers’ rights, the environment and democracy are bulldozed at every level.  With markets further narrowing due to the recent collapse of smaller businesses, emergency cartelising of industry-giants, and the passing of secret government contracts to allied suppliers, it is becoming ever more obvious that our current approach to market regulation is failing us. But there is another way.Author and lawyer Michelle Meagher proposes an alternative framework to control capitalism from the inside - a fair and comprehensive competition law that limits unfair mergers, enforces accountability and redistributes power through stakeholder governance. This conversation was broadcast online on the 3rd December 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org

Changing what we do with our money could be one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for tackling the climate crisis – but putting our money where our values are can be complicated. How do we match our priorities with the opportunities available for investing ethically? Is divestment the only way? And how can we tell what is genuinely transformative, and what is just ‘greenwashing’?What matters, says finance expert Alice Ross, is not just avoiding harmful companies and practices, but directing what we have towards initiatives that actively make a difference. She explores the key questions at the heart of green investing, and shows how we can harness our own economic power, however large or small, to protect the environment, decarbonise the economy, and accelerate the move towards a greener future.#RSAclimateThis conversation was broadcast online on the 26th November 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org

RSA President’s Lecture 2020As we navigate a series of urgent global crises, how might cities and communities be empowered to respond in ways that are ecologically safe and socially just?Doughnut Economics proposes a set of core principles for creating economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. What happens when these principles are put into practice? In her 2020 RSA President’s Lecture, Kate Raworth, author of the book, and co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab, tells the story of what happens when the Doughnut meets the City, and what it takes to turn a radical idea into transformative action that is now starting to spread, spontaneously, around the world.The event will be introduced by HRH The Princess Royal, RSA President.The RSA’s programme of work on Regenerative Futures  explores how a regenerative approach can unlock better ways of organising our economy and our societies, to tackle the complex challenges society faces today.This podcast contains references to a presentation given here.#RSAeconomyThis conversation was broadcast online on the 25th November 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org

Creativity matters now more than ever. But for too long we’ve been told that it’s a mysterious gift granted to a select few. Nonsense, says Seth Godin. Creativity is a choice.The turbulent events of 2020 have presented an opportunity for pause and self-reflection. A moment to look at our lives, and to ask what truly gives them meaning and purpose.In the face of crisis and constraint, many people have been moved to rediscover their innate creativity. To renew their commitment to doing good work that matters. To seek new sources of connection with others. And new ways to apply creative thinking to the challenges of our times.Seth Godin and Adam Grant are two of the world’s leading thinkers on good work and creativity. Their writings and teaching have helped millions put the desire to lead a more creative and generous life into daily practice.To celebrate the publication of Seth Godin’s new book The Practice, they come together for an exclusive, unmissable RSA conversation.Join these two masters of their craft to learn how to find your voice, figure out the change you seek to make, and commit to impact.#RSAgoodworkThis conversation was broadcast online on the 19th November 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org

There is growing concern that Covid-19 disruption is creating the conditions for a rise in school exclusions. Who do we need to listen to, what needs to change, and how can we work better together to support educators, parents and policymakers to address the problem of exclusions at its roots?The RSA’s Pinball Kids project explores the underlying factors that lead to school exclusions, and looks to learn from best practice to support those students most at risk.As exclusion rates in England remain stubbornly high, and pandemic upheaval only increases the complexity of the challenges involved, RSA Associate Director Mark Londesborough is joined by an expert panel to explore the impact exclusion has on lives and learning, and to ask: how can we support the young people who most need our help not only to stay in, but to thrive in school?Read the report here.This podcast contains references to a presentation given here.#PinballKidsThis conversation was broadcast online on the 12th November 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org

Black women’s experience is now moving from the private to the public sphere, bringing with it new opportunities and challenges for those on the frontline of change.Following on from the acclaimed Slay in Your Lane, timely new anthology Loud Black Girls invites a new generation of writers, artists and activists to explore the richness and variety of what it means to exist as a black woman in a turbulent political age.At a time when black women find themselves increasingly courted, and yet continuously minoritised and stereotyped, essayists Paula Akpan, Jendella Benson and Kuba Shand-Baptiste join leadership coach and equality campaigner Michelle Moore to explore how to navigate an uncertain terrain while staying true to your values. How to wield influence with authenticity. How to own your history, your narrative, your work. How to empower your community and carry the torch forward for others. Join us for an unmissable conversation with ‘loud black girls’ determined to build a future where every voice is heard and celebrated.#loudblackgirlsThis conversation was broadcast online on the 28th October 2020. Join us at: www.thersa.org