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 IN SEARCH OF ORIGINALITY: NAVIGATING THE ARTISTIC CANON http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6781 The Prado and the Louvre, the Barbican Centre and the Lincoln Center, the Concertgebouw and the LA Philharmonic: all champion the greats, th...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WHO NEEDS ART ANYWAY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6756 The title of the Arts Council’s major 10-year vision, ‘Achieving great art for everyone’, captures the contemporary drive to increase audiences for the arts. But the associat...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe OCCUPY: ILLUSORY RADICALISM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6813 From its beginnings in New York’s Zucotti Park last Autumn, there is little doubt that the Occupy movement has been highly successful at grabbing a lot of media attent...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe MONARCHY IN THE UK http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6820 At first glance, the monarchy of 2012 seems to be in rude health. The Diamond Jubilee has been not so much an occasion for jingoistic national fervour as for quiet satisfaction...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe SOCIAL MEDIA: GOOD? OR BAD? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6773 There are plenty of reasons, it seems, to champion social media. For some, it played a key role in the Arab uprisings, allowing the disparate and the silenced to give v...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe AUSTERITY: HERE TO STAY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6763 The election of François Hollande as president of France at the same time as the Greek elections in May acted as a rallying call for many eager to reject the politics and...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ILLUMINATING THE MIDDLE AGES http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6764 Historically, our understanding of the Middle Ages has tended to be coloured by the ‘Dark Age’ label, which casts this as a time of cultural famine and stagnation in c...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CAMPAIGNING FOR FREEDOM http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/7066 Campaigning for freedom Saturday 20 October, 3.30pm until 5.00pm, Hammerson Room A discussion, led by the civil liberties group Manifesto Club which campaigns against the h...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BATTLE BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE PRESS Mick Hume, editor-at-large of online magazine spiked will discuss his new book There Is No Such Thing As a Free Press with Patrick Hayes, reporter for spiked. The aim of this book is...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe ENGINEERING DESIGN OR DESIGN ENGINEERING? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6778 Engineering is sexy again – not old-fashioned and dirty, but novel and creative. On 22 May 2012 private company SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket blasted off with...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE POPPY: TO WEAR OR NOT TO WEAR? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6794 Many people wear Remembrance Day poppies as a sign of respect for British soldiers who died in the two World Wars. More recently, the Royal British Legion, which...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DEBATING MATTERS COMPETITION INTERNATIONAL FINAL http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6788 The Battle of Ideas will host the fourth UK versus India Debating Matters Championship, a showdown between the winners of Debating Matters Competit...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe THE LAW'S DRUGS PROBLEMS: THE CHALLENGE OF LEGAL HIGHS http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6917 Few would claim existing drug policies have prevented the widespread use of illicit drugs. On the contrary, many believe prohibition has actu...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DO WE LIVE IN A TOP-SHELF SOCIETY? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6801 Sexually explicit material has always challenged censors and traditional moralists. From the 1960s, liberal values on sex and sexual relationships became one of...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IN THE NEWS: INC INK. HAVE TATTOOS BECOME MAINSTREAM? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/7694 According to a recent Channel 4 documentary, the UK is now the most tattooed nation in Europe. But what if anything do tattoos mean? Native Am...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe CHARACTER: SKILL OR VIRTUE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6807 ‘Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man.’ So claimed Jesuit leader Ignatius Loyola. A recent Demos report agreed the early years are ‘the criti...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe GAS GALORE? FRACKING AND THE FUTURE OF ENERGY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6774 While headlines have been dominated by financial instability in Europe and the fallout from the Arab Spring, another revolution has quietly taken plac...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe MANUFACTURING: THE GREAT COMEBACK? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6758 Manufacturing has long been argued to be the heart of any modern economy. It produces valuable exports, boosts the balance of trade, provides skilled jobs and ge...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE: NOT ALLOWED TO USE IT http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6783 The hosepipe ban introduced in England earlier this year was the signal for it to rain for months on end. Soaked commuters on London platforms faced...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe DRINK, SMOKE, EAT: PROHIBITION TODAY http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6814 Are we entering a new prohibitionist era? Drinking and even smoking are still perfectly legal, but there is a palpable sense that they are less acceptable than...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe LONDON BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION: SNOBS' LAW: CRIMINALISING FOOTBALL FANS IN AN AGE OF INTOLERANCE WITH STUART WAITON http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/7052 Dr Stuart Waiton, a sociology and criminology lecturer at the University of A...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe NO FUTURE: HAS POP LOST ITS RADICAL EDGE? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6821 When some commentators described the student anti-fees protest in 2010 as a ‘dubstep rebellion’ they fed into a tradition of the powerful relationship of...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe US ELECTIONS: THE END OF GREAT EXPECTATIONS? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6765 In 2008, in the middle of an economic crisis, Barack Obama was elected Forty-Fourth President of the United States. He promised ‘hope and change’ and a...

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IS ANTI-AUSTERITY PRO GROWTH? http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/6827 In France, Hollande came to power on the back of promises to finish “these destructive austerity measures”, spend more on teachers and the state, to push for growth....

Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe IN THE NEWS: DEVILS IN OUR MIDST - THE SAVILE SCANDAL AND OUR CULTURE OF MISTRUST http://archive.battleofideas.org.uk/2012/session_detail/7684 Since the first accusations of child abuse were made against the late Sir Jimmy Savile at the start of the month,...