Academy of Ideas

#BattleFest2021: Hate, heresy and the fight for free speech

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HATE, HERESY AND THE FIGHT FOR FREE SPEECH
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/hate-heresy-and-the-fight-for-free-speech/
Would a public square that embraced free expression be a dangerous thing? Can words be as dangerous as physical violence? Are we in danger of creating a new form of heresy when so-called social-justice warriors complain about hate speech on Twitter and governments simultaneously ban protests? Or should we embrace moves to get tough on hate? Could an increasingly volatile debate about free speech mean that more people are likely to self-censor for fear of being called a bigot? And if we decide that we do value free speech as a fundamental tenet of a liberal society, how can we mount a modern case for it in the twenty-first century?

#BattleFest2021: Feminism’s civil war

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FEMINISM'S CIVIL WAR
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/feminisms-civil-war/
Does feminism know what it stands for anymore? Are the current divides reflective of a sea-change for feminism, or does the current infighting stem from its roots in identity politics? Can feminism survive its current civil war, or is it time for a new women’s liberation movement?

#BattleFest2021: From profits to prophets - why has big business gone woke?

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021.
FROM PROFITS TO PROPHETS: WHY HAS BIG BUSINESS GONE WOKE?
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/from-profits-to-prophets-why-has-big-business-gone-woke/
This debate was run in partnership with the Academy of Ideas Economy Forum.
Is it a positive sign that big corporations are starting to care about something more than profits? Are woke campaigns and branding a distraction from the need to provide good products and services that consumers want? Is there any truth in the critical joke ‘Get woke, go broke’? What does it mean for democracy if corporations play an increasingly activist role in pursuing a liberal agenda?

#BattleFest2021: Is there a case for fossil fuels?

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021.
IS THERE A CASE FOR FOSSIL FUELS?
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/is-there-a-case-for-fossil-fuels/
This debate was held in partnership with the Ayn Rand Centre UK
Governments have been striving to phase out fossil fuels in favour of renewables, particularly in the past decade, to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. But renewables are intermittent and unreliable. So how can we get secure supplies of energy that are reliable and affordable? Have we been too hasty in phasing out fossil fuels? Is there still a place for them until a new technology, like nuclear fusion, can easily supply all the energy we need? Or is climate change such an immediate danger that we need to learn to live without coal, oil and gas?

#BattleFest2021: A ’nudge’ too far? The rise of behavioural science and technocratic rule

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021.
A ‘NUDGE’ TOO FAR? THE RISE OF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOCRATIC RULE
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/a-nudge-too-far-the-rise-of-behavioural-psychology-and-technocracy/
All societies need expert advice, but what is the line between legitimate advice and sinister attempts to shift behaviour? Why has psychology especially become so prominent in how the government relates to the public? Does the rise of experts and ‘evidence-based policy’ capture a real shift in how people are seen, no longer as agents of their own destiny but as data-points to be managed to generate better policy outcomes? What is the line between a gentle nudge in the direction of better choices and an authoritarian shove? Who even decides what is the better choice? What happened to the traditional model of the self-directing citizen, or was it always a mirage?

#BattleFest2021: 20 years in Afghanistan - what happened?

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20 YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN: WHAT HAPPENED?
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021: https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/20-years-in-afghanistan-what-happened/
With the withdrawal of Western forces now complete, will 20 years of Western-led occupation and the promotion of liberal-democratic values have an impact on the future of Afghanistan, or will conservative, religious values predominate? Has military intervention and nation-building had a small, but positive impact or was attempting to impose democracy from above simply a doomed act of Western hubris?

#BattleFest2021: Who are we? Identity in crisis

Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review. Check back next week for more recordings from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021.
WHO ARE WE? IDENTITY IN CRISIS
A new #BattleFest recording from the Battle of Ideas festival 2021:
https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/who-are-we-identity-in-crisis/
Do we know who we are anymore? And does embracing our sense of identity hinder or help our ability to engage in collective ambitions, like figuring out what society stands for? How has the atomisation of modern life changed our identities – particularly when the online world offers opportunities to curate and manicure our own view of ourselves? Is identity important, or should we be telling young people that it’s what they do in the world, rather than who they are, that matters? And can today’s culture wars be seen as part of this identity crisis – or should we accept that all aspects of life are now up for grabs on the political stage?
Thanks for listening to the BattleFest podcast - you can support us by subscribing, sharing and leaving us a review.

#EducationForum: Teaching white privilege: making schools less racist or more divided?

Recording of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum discussion on Monday 29 November 2021.
INTRODUCTIONHow should we view the teaching of ‘white privilege’? Is it a helpful tool in combating racial inequality or a divisive idea that sows mistrust?
The concept originated in American academia in the 1980s, but entered British schools last year in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd.
White privilege asserts that white people are automatically advantaged by their skin colour, because they do not have to endure lives beset by racialised systemic discrimination. The fact that black people are more likely to be paid less, sectioned under mental-health rules, or stopped and searched by police is cited as evidence of white privilege at work by advocates of the theory.
Yet opponents of the concept say this reading of the data fans the flames of an unnecessary culture war. They counter-claim that those least likely to go to university, for example, are poor white teenagers in former industrial and coastal towns. White working-class children also trail their Indian, Chinese, Bangladeshi and Black African peers In GCSE attainment, they argue.
To what extent, then, does white privilege help or hinder us in understanding how pupils might make the best progress in education?
Teaching white privilege as an uncontested fact in schools is indoctrination and illegal under the 1996 Education Act, according to the women and equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch. Her pronouncement has prompted the Black Educators Alliance and the Coalition of Anti Racist Educators to accuse the government of censorship and chilling free speech in the classroom.
On the other side of the debate, the campaign group Don’t Divide Us claims it is inundated with concerns from teachers and parents. It says the former fear being publicly accused of racism if they speak out against teaching white privilege, while the latter describe having to list their privileges and unconscious bias in their children’s homework.
In the United States, opposition to the teaching of white privilege was seen as an important factor in Republican Glenn Youngkin taking the key governorship of Virginia from the Democrats recently. The result has been widely interpreted as a bellwether of wider public rejection of the kind of educational social-justice programme proposed by the Democrats, which favours schools adopting the principles of ‘critical race theory’, such as countering the effects of white privilege.
So how should we judge the focus on white privilege and unconscious racial bias in lessons, reading lists and school staff training? Will it make schools more anti-racist – or divided?
The Education Forum explores this important issue in a friendly, open and respectful panel discussion. Are the majority of parents and teachers unaware of the term ‘white privilege’ and not likely to give it a second thought? Or is white privilege in the curriculum about to become the next big issue in education?
SPEAKERSAlka Sehgal CuthbertEducation Forum member; co-ordinator, Don’t Divide Us (DDU); educational advisor and writer. Alka is critical of the term ‘white privilege’ and thinks it does more harm than good.
Andre Ediagbonya-DaviesAndre went to school in Tottenham and is a second-year historian at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He supports expanded discussion on race within education. He believes white privilege is a reality and talking about it is a useful way of helping combat racism.
Julie DupontJulie is a North London parent of three school-age children. She is a committed anti-racist, but is concerned at the way white privilege is communicated in some of her children’s lessons and homework, and in school communications to parents. She thinks it is divisive and does more harm than good.