Demos Greenhouse
- Are we happy? Recently, there has been much talk of happiness. Media coverage of "happiness", or lack of it, has exponentially grown in recent months with an daily array of articles on the topic. With the exception of some, most articles may be categorized into continue reading on 4th July 2008 in Changing British Communities
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Getting to know you
Today we are launching our new discussion paper Making the most of collaboration: an international survey of co-design. It sets out the findings from an international survey of 466 public service practitioners.
You can download the paper here. continue reading on 30th June 2008 in Co-Design: barriers and enablers - The Cultural Age - Integration and Cohesion Earlier this week, we held the second of our two seminars on The Cultural Age.It focused on integration and cohesion. One of the most interesting things to emerge was that much is going on in the cultural sector, policy-making and academic research but, often, each is unaware of what is going on in the other. At the very least, some of those ends could be tied up in conversations between participants of Monday's session. Another area of debate was long-term change. ... continue reading on 27th June 2008 in The Cultural Age
- Cultural and Artistic Practice and Democratic Participation Last week, I spoke at the launch of Peckham Space, a project run by Camberwell College of Arts that looks at the role or participation in contemporary art.The speech covered a range of topics, in particular that of creative and artistitc production as a democratic space and its potential in relation to politics. You can read a text of the speech, here ... and a podcast of the event will follow soon. continue reading on 27th June 2008
- Innovative Bedtime Reading As commentators, policy wonks, party activists and other political nerds either rejoice or grief over this week's coverage of the first year of Gordon Brown's leadership, there is hope for all revealed in what the Prime Minister is reading whilst tucked up in bed at No. 10.No Harry Potter, self help books or Dan Brown for our PM. According to today's Guardian, the PM is reading none other than 'We Think' by Demos Associate Charlie Leadbeater - a book which explores how the web is creating a... continue reading on 25th June 2008
- TechnoPresident? In 2006, David Cameron famously described Gordon Brown as an 'analogue politician in a digital age'. It's an image painted consistently by the opposition - a man out of touch with the pace of change. Whatever the merits of these allusions, a similar dynamic seems to be playing out in the US, between Obama and McCain. That's been picked up in the coverage of this year's Personal Democracy Forum Conference. continue reading on 24th June 2008 in For Your Information
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Swinging in public
From Seen and Heard:
Until now, action to improve the lives of children and young people has tended to focus on the institutional spheres of home and school. Yet quality of life also depends on the access to and quality of shared resources such as streets, parks, town centres and playgrounds. And here, in the everyday spaces of our towns and cities, we increasingly exclude and marginalise the young....' that was until someone had this bright idea continue reading on 23rd June 2008 Comments (2) -
The new public diplomacy– an appetiser
Our project on the new public diplomacy is beginning to produce some interim outputs. You may be interested in the following talks:
The new public diplomacy and Afghanistan – a talk at a Defence Academy seminar on Strategic Communications, Public Diplomacy and Afghanistan.
Technology and public diplomacy – a talk to the University of Westminster Symposium on Transformational Public Diplomacy
Next month, the Foreign Office will publish a book on the new public diplomacy, with a chapter from David and Alex that offers a preview of their Demos pamphlet. The book will be launched in Washington at the Brookings Institution and in London at Chatham House.
continue reading on 20th June 2008 in The New Public Diplomacy Comments (1) -
Truly, madly, politically
From the current edition of the New Statesman:
We all know a week is a long time in politics - but a weekend? Long enough, it seems, for a man to go from nuts to visionary. The David Davis saga brings to the surface the myriad underlying assumptions, relational synapses, summary judgements and convenient shortcuts that underpin political life. If politics were a good book, it would more often look as it did over the past few days - full of surprise, spontaneity, revolt, disbelief, judgement, repentance, suspicion, self-sacrifice, posturing and even conversion. continue reading on 20th June 2008 - Social Capital and the Material World Last week, I spoke at a summit on Conservation Education convened by the Textile Conservation Centre. I presented the interim thinking from our project, Saved for the Nation.I've put the speech and the presentation I gave on the website. They outline one of the ideas we are developing in the project, which is about the symbolism of caring for the material world, and what it means in relation to wider agenda, from identity and communities, to building cultural literacy. continue reading on 20th June 2008 in Saved for the Nation