Academy of Ideas

#PodcastofIdeas: climate change and the pope, Rachel Dolezal and the DM final

In this week’s Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons and David Bowden dissect the week’s news including the pope’s encyclical on climate change, the Rachel Dolezal fiasco and the oppressive licensing laws killing off the nation’s nightlife. Professor Alan Hudson talks about University in One Day, the Institute’s new initiative for sixth formers, and why the Renaissance matters. Jason Smith tells us about next week’s Debating Matters National Final, and we hear some of the highlights from the recent Birmingham Salon event on the rise of transgender issues as a political force. 

#PodcastOfIdeas: FIFA Scandal, professionalism in crisis and a new approach to primary teaching

#BattleFest2014: Are we all vulnerable now?

In official terms, ‘the vulnerable’ used to be narrowly defined by the 1995 Care Commission report as referring to people in extreme circumstances, like the homeless, or those unable to look after themselves mentally or physically. Today, however, it is the term of choice to describe anyone and everyone deemed to be in need of sympathy, especially those hit by government cuts – ‘a savage attack on the most vulnerable members of our society’, etc - but also much more widely.The unemployed are vulnerable to depression; women are vulnerable to ‘everyday sexism’; immigrants are vulnerable to trafficking or even slavery, not to mention FGM; teenage girls are vulnerable to body-image issues; and teenage boys are vulnerable to being warped by pornography. A coroner recently called on the Ministry of Defence to review its care for vulnerable soldiers at risk of suicide and bullying. Meanwhile, more radical campaigners increasingly seem to see ‘vulnerability’ as a collective condition affecting just about everyone under rampageous capitalism.Solutions invariably involve calls for more support and protection for those deemed vulnerable. Nurseries, schools and universities create new systems and activities to support growing numbers of these deemed ‘vulnerable’ – often merely by dint of youth – aiming to ‘build resilience’ and develop ‘survival strategies’. Politicians have called for teacher training to include methods for helping children develop ‘grit, determination and the ability to work in teams in challenging circumstances’. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility has said schoolchildren should be taught character and given the resilience and determination to overcome setbacks in life.But can grit and determination really be taught? Or does a preoccupation with vulnerability actually threaten to sap our resilience, making us dependent on external support? If we begin by defining ourselves and others as powerless, how can we hope to change the conditions that undermine material, physical and mental well-being? And with so many labelled vulnerable, how do education and welfare professionals differentiate between competing claims and judge how to allocate scarce resources?SPEAKERSDebora Green head of student support and wellbeing; University of SheffieldJen Lexmond director, Character CountsDr Mark Taylor deputy head of school, Addey and Stanhope comprehensive school; London convenor, IoI Education ForumProfessor Sir Simon Wessely head, department of psychological medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London; president, Royal College of PsychiatristsCHAIRKathryn Ecclestone professor of education, University of Sheffield; author, Governing Vulnerable Subjects in a Therapeutic Age (forthcoming)

#PodcastOfIdeas: Fighting for the right to party and the history of theatre

#BattleFest2011: Can conservatism survive the 21st century?

#PodcastOfIdeas: The EU in crisis, the UK economy and the General Election campaign

#BattleFest2013: Time to get serious about irony

#PodcastOfIdeas: Solving the housing crisis, scrapping the Human Rights Act and a breakthrough in autism research

In this edition of the Podcast of Ideas, Rob Lyons talks to Alastair Donald from the Future Cities Project about what can be done to solve the UK's housing crisis and barrister Jon Holbrook comes in to tell us why he would scrap the Human Rights Act. Rob also talks to Dr Fiona McEwen from King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry on new research, which appears to show that autism is largely caused by genetic and not environmental factors, members of the Institute of Ideas team give us their opinions on the week's stories, and Geoff Kidder reports back from the inaugural session of the Dublin Salon.