Sunday 1 November, 6.40pm until 7.30pm, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery What next for...?
The 2009 Battle of Ideas will finish with a question time session, where five of the festival speakers will be asked to name the two biggest challenges they think society will face over the next year, before taking questions from the audience.
The Battle of Ideas is more than a ‘talking shop’, or even a festival. It’s a declaration: that ideas matter and it’s time to get serious. If we are really to shape the future through debate, however, we need to think about challenges beyond the festival weekend itself. As the aim of the festival is to understand the world with a view to changing it for the better, we need to identify the key social trends affecting every aspect of life, without getting bogged down in the minutiae of everyday policy.
Speakers and audience alike will be asked to initiate a conversation that will carry on over the coming year about what matters and what needs to be investigated, interrogated and challenged.
Listen to the session audio…
Other formats are available here
 | James Boyle former controller, BBC Radio 4; founder, Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music; chair, British Council Scotland |
 | Anthony Horowitz author and creator, Alex Rider and Power of Five novels; creator and screenwriter, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War and Collision; journalist; critic |
 | Professor Susan Neiman director, Einstein Forum; author, Moral Clarity: a guide for grown-up idealists and Evil in Modern Thought |
 | Dr Katherine Rake CEO, Family and Parenting Institute |
 | Dr James Panton head of politics, Magdalen College School, Oxford; associate lecturer in politics and philosophy, Open University; co-founder, Manifesto Club |
| Chair: | |
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Claire Fox
director, Academy of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze; author, I Find That Offensive |
