Battle of Ideas 2014
Festival weekend overview

The full list of sessions over the weekend. You can also view Saturday or Sunday sessions only.

Saturday 18 October: 9.30-9.50
Festival Attractions 2014 Free Stage
Battle of Ideas 2014 welcome address
Saturday 18 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Why are we afraid to judge?
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Judge rule: is the law taking over politics?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
The robots are coming: friends or foes?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
From Yid Army to Green Brigade: free speech for football fans?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Is demography destiny?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Hunger in the UK: the food banks phenomenon
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
Cotton-wool campus?
Defending Everyday Liberties Free Stage
Busking - the clash between liberty and noise pollution (with performance)
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
The FGM controversy
Saturday 18 October: 12.00-13.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Hashtag feminism: radical or banal?
Saturday 18 October: 12.00-13.00
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
‘Cinderella law’: criminalising parental authority?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
Year of coding: programming kids for work?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Computer says no? Vetting, barring and child protection revisited
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Feeding the world: can we engineer away hunger?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Business bashing: should corporates ‘care’?
Eye on the World Cinema 3
In conversation: Israel
Free Stage
Bookshop Barnie with Professor Rana Mitter on China’s War with Japan
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
D'ya get me? Does proper English matter?
Saturday 18 October: 13.10-13.50
Festival Attractions 2014 Free Stage
Classical Music Jam
Saturday 18 October: 13.20-13.40
Special topical sessions Garden Room
Toxic on Twitter: should we clamp down on trolls?
Special topical sessions Conservatory
What should we do about Ebola?
Saturday 18 October: 13.45-15.00
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
After Gaza: the return of anti-Semitism?
Saturday 18 October: 14.00-15.30
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Victims' law: therapeutic justice or moral crusade?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
Forever friends? Negotiating online relationships
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
From betting to minimum pricing: saving the poor from themselves?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
Energy futures: how can we keep the lights on?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
From Canary Wharf to China: is the bubble going to burst again?
Special topical sessions Hammerson Room
After the Scottish referendum:
what next for the Union?
Interrogating Megatrends Cinema 2
Cities in the machine age: all systems, no soul?
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
Romantic love: just an illusion?
Creative Conundrums Library
What does literacy mean today?
Saturday 18 October: 16.00-17.15
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Judgement by our peers: is the jury out?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Policing the night-time economy: killing the lads’ night out?
Interrogating Megatrends Conservatory
From bullet trains to driverless cars: where is transport going?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
PIGS can't fly? Surviving austerity
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 2
After the floods: can we tame the weather?
Therapy Culture Cinema 3
The trouble with boys: is masculinity in crisis?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
DRIP by drip: have we given up on privacy?
Eye on the World Hammerson Room
Young Arab Voices: has the Arab Spring made us more polarised?
Creative Conundrums Free Stage
Trust me, I'm a music critic
Saturday 18 October: 17.30-18.45
Legal Challenges Pit Theatre
Community Treatment Orders: the psychiatric ASBO?
Technological Innovation Frobisher Auditorium 2
The gamification of society: time to grow up?
Defending Everyday Liberties Frobisher 1-3
Immigration: who should control our borders?
Austerity Dilemmas Garden Room
Multinationals: curse or blessing for the developing world?
Therapy Culture Frobisher 4-6
What is wrong with disciplining children?
Frobisher Auditorium 1
Debating Matters Competition International Final 2014
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
Balloon debate: what's the best poem ever?
Contemporary Controversies Level 1 Balcony
Fighting for freedom – the next 10 years: a working seminar for activists to discuss what next
Saturday 18 October: 18.45-21.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Conservatory
Battle of Ideas 2014 festival drinks reception
Sunday 19 October: 10.00-11.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Should we fear democracy?
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
Dose of reality: the ethics and politics of drug development
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Who gives a damn about ‘student satisfaction’?
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Lessons from Asia: what is a world-class education?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
What is connoisseurship?
Eye on the World Garden Room
America: the twilight years?
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
Do films warp minds?
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
From Amazon to ebooks: are libraries outdated?
Sunday 19 October: 11.00-15.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Art Space C
Free Speech Read-a-thon
Sunday 19 October: 12.00-13.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Our morals, their moralism?
Sunday 19 October: 12.00-13.00
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
What do animals know?
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Me, my selfie & I: narcissism or empowerment?
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Data overload: what is the point of exams?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
Artistic freedom and political activism: to boycott or not to boycott?
Eye on the World Garden Room
Do they mean us? International views on Britain
Cinema 3
Why is Ayn Rand so popular today?
Special topical sessions Hammerson Room
ISIS: damned if we do, damned if we don’t?
Sunday 19 October: 13.10-13.50
Special topical sessions Free Stage
Votes for prisoners: essential for democracy or human rights gone mad?
Sunday 19 October: 13.20-13.40
Special topical sessions Conservatory
Shale gas: fracking hell or the future of energy?
Sunday 19 October: 13.10-13.40
Festival Attractions 2014 Hammerson Room
Learn Latin in 30 minutes
Sunday 19 October: 14.00-15.30
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Growth is good: mission or mania?
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
The science of public health: where’s the evidence?
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Are we all vulnerable now?
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Keeping the faith schools?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
Are museums turning into playgrounds?
Eye on the World Garden Room
Ukraine: Cold War rebooted?
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
What makes a great sporting leader?
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
To boldly go: what is the point of space exploration?
Contemporary Controversies Free Stage
Election 2015: what next?
Sunday 19 October: 16.00-17.15
Keynote Controversies Cinema 1
Big Data: big danger?
Biomedical Battles Pit Theatre
Belgium’s ‘right to die’ for children: a slippery slope?
Me, Me, Me Politics Cinema 2
Hell is other people? Modern misanthropy
School Fights Frobisher Auditorium 2
Evidence-based education: marks out of 10?
Creative Conundrums Conservatory
What is good architecture?
Eye on the World Garden Room
Whose borders are they anyway? The nation state unravelling
Contemporary Controversies Cinema 3
Shopping and fretting: the ethics of buying the right thing
Contemporary Controversies Hammerson Room
Kindergarten culture: why does government treat us like children?
Sunday 19 October: 17.30-18.45
Festival Attractions Milton Court
The next 10 years: why philosophy matters now more than ever
Sunday 19 October: 18.45-20.30
Festival Attractions 2014 Milton Court Level -2 Bar
2014 Tenth Birthday End of Festival Drinks
Saturday 18 October: 10.30-18.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Level G
Festival Bookshop 2014
Saturday 18 October: 17.30-19.00
Festival Attractions 2014 Advanced Box Office, Level G
Special Barbican architecture tour

Hunger in the UK: the food banks phenomenon

"Although 'battle' suggests destruction, these were some of the most constructive debates I've taken part in. This was civilised conflict in the best sense of both words."
Julian Baggini, author, Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind, and The Ego Trick

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