Battle of Ideas 2011 29 & 30 October, London. Two days of high-level, thought-provoking, public debate organised by the Academy of Ideas, hosted by the Royal College of Art.
75 sessions, 350 speakers, 2250 attendees
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Battles In Print

Should schools be engines of social mobility?, Sally Millard

Remaking citizens for the ‘Big Society’, Kathryn Ecclestone

In drug policy, pragmatism is the only moral approach, Roger Howard & Leo Barasi

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Speakers include
Mark Vernon, journalist; author, God: all that matters and The Big Questions: God

Phil Booth, coordinator, medConfidential

Paul Mason, broadcaster; author, Financial Meltdown and the End of the Age of Greed; technology editor, BBC's Newsnight

KAS Quinn, children's writer; lecturer and educationalist; author, The Queen Must Die, first part of a time-travel trilogy

Katharine Birbalsingh, teacher; author, To Miss with Love

Zoe Williams, columnist, Guardian; author, What Not to Expect When You're Expecting

Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator, Financial Times; author, Fixing Global Finance

Kenan Malik, writer and broadcaster; author, The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics and From Fatwa to Jihad

Brendan O'Neill, editor, spiked; columnist, Big Issue; contributor, Spectator; author, A Duty to Offend: Selected Essays

GM Tamás, visiting professor, Central European University; author, Les Idoles de la Tribu

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Readings

Creativity and curiosity: Do we make stuff up or find it out?, Professor Colin Lawson

Islamophobia: Why we have to get over our fears, Rania Hafez

The growing epidemic of stats misuse, Hilary Salt

Dreaming spires for all? Only if we face up to some hard truths, Jacob Reynolds

Fat tax: Does obesity really cost society a fortune?, Rob Lyons

Surely by now we’ve outgrown the body?, Sandy Starr

Charities should accept their game is up, Dave Clements

Facebook’s impact on the brain, Rob Clowes

A world of seven billion people like you, Daniel Ben-Ami

Corporate Social Responsibility – more harm than good, Bill Durodie

Electric selves?, Rob Clowes

From the sublime to the ridiculous: can we measure the value of the arts?, Tom Hutchinson

Angels: a very short introduction, David Albert Jones

What if we aren’t alone after all?, Richard Swan

The rise of the machines? Not any time soon, Katherine Richardson

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"In few places does the free exchange of views take place on so wide a range of issues as at the Battle of Ideas. Whatever the headlines of 2011 prove to be, the Battle of Ideas is where they will be most robustly debated."
Andrew Copson, chief executive, British Humanist Association

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