RSA Events

Professor of Chinese history and philosophy Michael Puett draws from ancient teachings to help us challenge deeply-held assumptions about how to live our lives and follow a path of self-cultivation and engagement with the world. He invites us to re-examine the impact of Western philosophy on our lives and to "unlearn" many ideas that inform modern society.

Science journalist Helen Pearson reveals insights and from five birth cohort studies of over 70,000 people begun in 1940s Britain. These rich findings have been brought together for the first time and help form the basis of how we understand inequality and health today.

The Inclusive Growth Commission is an independent, impactful inquiry designed to understand and identify practical ways to make local economies across the UK more economically inclusive and prosperous. At this Commission Launch event, we heard from Lord O'Neill, Commercial Secretary to the Treasury; Stephanie Flanders, Commission Chair and Chief Market Strategist for the UK and Europe, JP Morgan Asset Management; Tony Travers, Professor of Government, London School of Economics and Cllr Claire Kober, Leader of Haringey Council, Chair of the LGA Resources Board, and Deputy Chair of London Councils.

How can engineering concepts help us make better decisions and create innovative solutions in a complex world? At the RSA, biomedical engineer and policy adviser Guru Madhavan reveals how the engineering toolkit can be useful in designing systems-based strategies and policies that could help in many areas of society, from easing traffic congestion to improving efficiency in health care.

Iris Bohnet, professor of public policy at Harvard University, demonstrates the tools we need to ‘move the needle’ on gender, from classrooms to boardrooms, and offers new research-based solutions for improving businesses, governments and people’s lives.

Is growing inequality a price worth paying for London’s continued economic success? As London’s economy continues to outpace the rest of the UK, so does the inequality gap. Is such inequality an inevitable by-product of the city’s growth, rewarding those who risk their capital to create employment, for example? Or, will it eventually derail the city’s upward progression, and push out those whom London relies on to keep it moving? Panel includes Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography, University of Oxford; Mark Littlewood, Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs; Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School and Faiza Shaheen, director, Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class).

Who really drives transformation in society? And how do they do it? Skoll Foundation President and CEO Sally R. Osberg and strategy guru Roger L. Martin set forth a bold new framework for social entrepreneurship, demonstrating how and why meaningful change actually happens in the world, and providing concrete lessons and a practical model for businesses, policymakers, civil society organisations, and individuals who seek to transform our world for good.

Whilst we strive for stronger personal relationships, to conquer our bad habits or to get ahead in our careers, we often get caught in negative emotional and behavioural patterns that prevent us from moving forward. Meanwhile, the demands of our culture increasingly make us even less able to perform at our best. But by becoming more aware of our own emotional nature, learning how to face our feelings and unhooking from our negative thoughts, we can begin to evaluate them and to change our actions to match our values. Drawing on more than twenty years of research in the field of behavioural science, Harvard psychologist Susan David reveals how ‘emotional agility’ is the key to flourishing in work and life.

In 2015, Yanis Varoufakis became the world’s most prominent opponent of austerity when, as finance minister of Greece, he refused to accept the terms of the loan agreement dictated to his bankrupt country by the eurozone’s leaders. Since resigning his post he has become the figurehead of an international grassroots movement, joining together to put the ‘demos’ back into European democracy. At the RSA, in conversation with Matthew Taylor, Yanis Varoufakis will explore the origins of the crisis of 2008, which wiped out half a dozen national economies and brought several more to the brink of collapse. Since then, he argues, by pursuing plans based on more debt and harsh austerity rather than reform, European leaders have ensured that the weakest citizens of the weakest nations pay the price for the bankers’ mistakes, while doing nothing to prevent the next collapse. Instead, the principle of the greatest austerity for those suffering the greatest recessions has led to a resurgence of racist extremism. And once more, Europe is a potent threat to global stability. How did we get into this mess and can we fix it? As the UK draws closer to its historic referendum decision, can we revive the original ideals of the European project in which so many have lost faith? Do we have to choose between surrendering to the EU or leaving it – or is there a third way that puts the citizens back in control?

Western Culture has long separated the mind from the body; and the mind, with its home as the brain, has been privileged as the source of intellect, with the rest of the body annexed as mere matter. But the new field of ‘embodied cognition’, which draws on the latest advances in neuroscience and psychology, offers a richer, more holistic view of intelligence that involves the whole body. At the RSA, author and education reformer Professor Guy Claxton introduces this new field, explores the far-reaching implications of the persistence of the Cartesian mind/body ‘error’, and reveals how an appreciation of the whole body’s intelligence can enrich all our lives.