RSA Events

What does the revolution in work mean for us today? With an ever-increasing divide between the rich and the rest, the traditional solutions – improved education or wage subsidiaries, for example – will no longer work as they once did. In order to navigate our way across today’s rapidly transforming economic landscape, we must radically reassess the very idea of how, and why, we work. Join the Economist’s Ryan Avent at the RSA as he tackles the future of work, the state we’re currently in - and how we could get out of it.

What are the benefits and risks of the increasing scale and power of data assets controlled by governments and corporations? In a time of rapid advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, if we are to make better use of the vast quantities of data produced by new technologies - from gene sequencing to driverless cars – it’s crucial to mitigate the risks as well as embracing the advantages of Big Data. Roger Taylor, writer and chair of the Open Public Services Network at the RSA, joins other key players to discuss the need to understand the scale of the information about ourselves held by governments and corporations, and to ensure that this access is constantly open to democratic challenge.

In its recent ‘Five Year Forward View’, the NHS set out a bold new vision for its future. In the face of ever growing pressure on services, the report argues the need for large-scale transformation and new models of care if we are to maintain a sustainable and universal health service. What exactly are social movements, however, and what does it take to start one? How can innovative local ideas be scaled up? How can we measure whether this model really does make services more effective and efficient? In short, does it work?

How can it be that more governments are wealthier than ever, and yet fewer citizens enjoy the benefits that such wealth can bring? “Citizens’ wealth” – creating an additional source of revenue by turning states into wealth-owners - is a long-established idea. And yet we are still to see this powerful tool used to its full potential effect, and in the service of ensuring the interests of its rightful beneficiaries – the people. At the RSA, political theorist Angela Cummine outlines what measures are needed to ensure that the management of sovereign funds truly reflects, promotes and protects the interests and values of their citizen-owners.

The world is facing urgent challenges – and design can help us solve them. Carrie Bishop is a director at FutureGov, the digital and design company for public services, where she works on projects focused on using social technologies for better collaboration, open innovation and organisational change. To celebrate the launch of the 2016/17 Student Design Award briefs, Carrie shares her thoughts on why we need design now more than ever as a tool for tackling global problems.

Why do some policies succeed in bringing about widespread social change, but others founder? In his annual RSA Chief Executive’s Lecture, Matthew Taylor examines the relationship between policy-making and social change. What distinguishes successful policy changes - for example, the smoking ban - from other ideas that seemed to have everything in their favour at the outset, and yet ultimately failed to deliver? Is there a key to truly impactful policy creation and implementation? Or, to meet the scale and urgency of the challenges we’re currently facing, do we need to start thinking differently about how change happens - looking beyond policy to nothing less than a new paradigm for society and social progress?

What is the next stage of human evolution? As the self-made gods of planet earth, which projects should we undertake, and how will we protect this fragile planet and humankind itself from our own destructive powers? We were delighted to welcome Yuval Noah Harari - bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – for his second much-anticipated RSA appearance. Where Sapiens was a wide-ranging exploration of humankind’s history, in his new work Homo Deus he envisions our future: a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges and possibilities. With his trademark blend of science, history, philosophy and every discipline in between, Harari will investigate the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century – from overcoming death to creating artificial life.

Former technology editor at Newsweek and co-producer and writer of HBO’s Silicon Valley, Dan Lyons spent many years reporting on the tech explosion. But when he joined one of the buzzy Boston start-ups that typify the industry, he ended up with a fascinating inside perspective. Lyons is one of the lone dissenting voices amongst the tech hype, and visits the RSA to reveal the dysfunctional culture that prevails in a world flush with money and devoid of experience. He provides a unique analysis of the sometimes bizarre start-up world; a de facto conspiracy between those who start companies and those who fund them.

As part of a series of Radio 4 programmes reflecting and examining the political and cultural landscape in Britain after the Brexit vote, Front Row will pick up from Today with a live broadcast in front of an audience at the RSA. Hosted by John Wilson, the discussion will feature leading creative figures, including actor and director Samuel West, novelists Val McDermid and Dreda Say Mitchell, TV producer Phil Redmond and designer Wayne Hemingway, to consider the artistic impact of the decision to leave the EU and how our culture will change over the next 10 years.

Krista Tippett joins the RSA to explore the enduring question of what it is to be human, and how we can learn to live with greater, joy, compassion and wisdom, both individually and collectively. By weaving together insights from these conversations, she offers a distinctive, grounded and optimistic vision of 21st century humanity. The central challenges of our time, she argues - from definitions of life itself, to the meaning of community and family and identity, to our relationships to technology and through technology - are individual and civilizational all at once. Personal growth and the renewal of our common public life are inextricably linked.