Academy of Ideas

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe NIHILISM AND TERROR: HOW POLITICAL IS THE NEW JIHADISM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11614 Attacks by Islamist terrorists pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) have occurred in Europe with grim regularity over the past few years....

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe EASTERN MENACE: A NEW EUROPEAN CULTURE WAR http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11584 The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was greeted with elation, as many observers saw the ‘reunification’ of Europe as the fulfilment of the continent’s destiny...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARE YOUNG PEOPLE SCARED OF SEX? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11514 Sex is everywhere we look. Popular television programmes like Big Brother, Love Island and Ex on the Beach actually show people having sex; magazines publish quizzes and...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ARE THE MILLENNIALS REVOLTING? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11513 Just a few years ago, anyone under the age of thirty with a strong interest in the UK’s membership of a trading bloc of wealthy European nations would have been considered...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe GENOME EDITING: SHOULD WE CHANGE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11520 For 30 years, humans have had the ability to edit DNA in living beings, albeit imprecisely. But methods have steadily improved, to the exten...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS LONDON OVER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11508 During this year’s London mayoral election, the position was widely called ‘the best job in the world’. From a political perspective, the claim is difficult to argue against. London is w...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DID CATHY COME HOME? HOMELESSNESS TODAY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11504 When docu-drama Cathy Come Home, directed by Ken Loach, was beamed into the nation’s living rooms in 1966, depicting the troubled lives of a couple losing their h...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe SCHOOLS AND SOCIAL MOBILITY: A GRAMMATICAL ERROR? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11525 ‘A welcome consensus has begun to emerge that schools can – and must – be engines of social mobility,’ said schools minister Nick Gibb in a speech to th...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CHINA'S URBAN REVOLUTION http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11507 When seeking insight into the future of the city, it is often to China that architects and critics now turn for answers. For some, China’s rapid urbanisation is a cause for cele...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe SOWETO TO #RHODESMUSTFALL: THE CHANGING FACE OF SOUTH AFRICAN RESISTANCE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11585 South Africa’s local government elections this year showed a mass disaffection with the ruling African National Congress. Neverth...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ZAHA HADID: HER LIFE AND LEGACY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11505 Zaha Hadid, who died on 31 March 2016, was a world-famous architect. She was described in a CNN interview in 2013 as ‘one of the most celebrated - and divisive - designer...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WOMEN'S TROUBLE? THE PAY GAP DEBATE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11595 After Germany last year enacted legislation imposing a 30% gender quota for the boards of publicly listed companies, calls have grown for the UK to enact similar meas...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAN NEUROPARENTING SAVE THE FAMILY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11536 ‘Neuroparenting’ is on the rise. The idea has taken hold that because of progress in neuroscience, ‘we now know’ that babies need more, and earlier, ‘brain-attuned’ n...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe YOUNG PEOPLE AND MENTAL ILLNESS: A GROWING PROBLEM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11512 According to the Office for National Statistics, one in 10 children has a diagnosable mental health condition. Half to three quarters of mentally ill...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CRUMBLING BRIC: WHAT FUTURE FOR BRAZIL? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11586 In the past decade or so, the rapidly growing economy of Brazil has been regarded as one of the world’s development success stories. Having only relatively recent...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe POST-SOCRATIC DIALOGUE ON LOVE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11613 This lunchtime session is a chance to participate in a modern day, Post-Socratic Dialogue about the universal theme of love, with philosopher Dr Greg Scorzo. This is diffe...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe REAL-LIFE ARCHERS: POLICING AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11527 This year, The Archers, BBC Radio 4’s everyday story of country folk, broke out of its usual cult following and made headlines. Amid storylines on organ...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS MASCULINITY TOXIC FOR BOYS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11593 Where have all the good men gone/And where are all the gods?/Where’s the street-wise Hercules/To fight the rising odds? – Bonnie Tyler (‘I Need A Hero’) The three most des...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT'S WRONG WITH MEN'S RIGHTS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11590 19 November is International Men’s Day. Last year in the UK this was the focus of a headline-grabbing spat in parliament and a major university controversy. More broadly,...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe HOW TO LOOK AT A PAINTING http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11531 Crowded galleries demonstrate people’s interest in art. But most people spend little time looking closely at the individual works on display. Paintings on gallery walls surely...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS BRUTALISM BACK? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11506 Brutalist architecture is now in the midst of a revival. The World Monument Fund added Brutalism as a category on its watch list, while there has also been a number of a campaigns to...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE BUSYBODY STATE http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11524 In recent years, there has been a widely recognised rise of ‘busybodies’ in public spaces: private security guards or council officials who approach somebody playing music or skateboa...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe TURKEY: IS THERE HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11583 The broad and active public opposition to the attempted military coup d’etat in Turkey in July was a victory for Turkish democracy. Nevertheless, it also brought int...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe PEER-TO-PEER SEXUAL ABUSE: MYTH OR TIME BOMB? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11594 Child abuse professionals have long been concerned to protect the young from predatory adults, whether in the form of stranger danger or exploitation within...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHAT IS GENDER? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2016/session/11588 For many people and for many purposes, the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ mean the same thing - a straightforward way of distinguishing between two types of people (males and females, or men a...