An ambitious 18-month project from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to elicit a wide range of views on what constitutes today's 'social evils' is being launched with a Royal Society of Arts lecture on 19 July.
When Joseph Rowntree set up his three trusts over a century ago, he wanted them to address "the under-lying causes of weakness or evil in the community, rather than remedying their more superficial manifestations." Back in 1904, he was most concerned about the evils of war, slavery, poverty, excessive drinking, gambling and the drug trade.
JRF Director Julia Unwin, who will deliver the RSA social evils lecture, said, "From the very start, our founder had amazing far-sightedness in predicting that both the causes and manifestations of social evils would change over time. In his 'Founder's Memorandum', he entreated the three trusts he set up to keep examining contemporary social evils and to identify the best solutions to address them." Following Julia Unwin's lecture, RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor will offer his own views then chair a debate with an expert panel of commentators and the audience. These include Kate Green OBE, David Seymour, James Bartholomew and Mary MacLeod. RSA Fellows will also be invited to put forward their own opinions.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is setting out to explore what people judge to be today's social evils. Beyond speaking to experts who regularly comment on social issues, they will seek out the voices of those who often remain unheard: children in schools, congregations in places of worship, ex-offenders and many others.
Matthew Taylor said, "The RSA is delighted to be associated with this timely initiative, we are committed to driving progressive social change. Identifying the contemporary social evils that act as barriers to that progress is a vital step that will help us to inspire and equip our Fellowship and others to work together to remove them."
Julia Unwin added, "Using the RSA lecture to kick-start the debate, I will share some of my own observations on what I feel to be today's social evils. But between now and October, we want to hear from as many individuals and organisations as possible. To keep the debate open, we are not defining social evil in any detail - other than to say that we are using the term to denote those underlying social problems that cause the most damage to British society as a whole or the most misery to its people.
"Once gathered, we will place the contributions within an analytical framework to understand them and explore how a number of them might be addressed through JRF evidence based research. We also hope that this work will help inform the work of other organisations seeking to address social ills."
Anyone wishing to contribute to the debate can submit their views on the website http://www.socialevils.org.uk (this site goes live from 19 July).
