Under embargo until: 00.01hrs Wednesday 24 September 2008
Key social commentators to debate social evils
Over the next four months, key social commentators from across the political spectrum will describe what they think about today’s social evils. The first event – at the RSA on 24 September – entitled A decline of values will feature Anthony Browne, Professor AC Grayling and Baroness Julia Neuberger
Julia Unwin, JRF Director, said: "Our founder, Joseph Rowntree, wanted the trusts he set up to address society’s problems as they changed over time. Last year, thousands of people told us what concerned them most about Britain: now we are asking a wide range of the UK’s great thinkers to give us their views."
Rabbi, social reformer, and House of Lords member, Baroness Neuberger believes Britain today is unkind, risk averse and untrusting – and that we have become more self-obsessed, making it harder for individuals to help people. She argues that we can change society for the better by rebuilding trust and by stopping the 'blame culture' which prevents simple acts of kindness and altruism. Baroness Neuberger says: "We seem to have become less and less caring for, or even aware of, the suffering of the most vulnerable in our society."
AC Grayling, Professor of Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London, is convinced that it is the responsibility of each of us to confront today’s difficulties by getting them in proportion; working out if they really are problems; and deciding what we can do about them, individually and collectively.
He says: "Every generation thinks that the past was a better place and that its own time is one of crisis. Yet by almost any standard one cares to mention, contemporary Western liberal democratic societies offer greatly better lives for the great majority of people than was the case 50 or 100 years ago."
Director of the Policy Exchange, Anthony Browne, argues that there has been an unprecedented and unsettling decline in values and that discussing the problem and its causes is the first step towards making things better. He says: "While values change, panic about their decline is one of the constants of history."
Other debates will take place in Edinburgh, York and Bradford, with a second event in London later this autumn. The JRF is also publishing the eleven opinion pieces written by each of the speakers at the events.
Notes to Editors:
- The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK. Its purpose is to search, demonstrate and influence to provide evidence, solutions and ideas to overcome the causes of poverty, disadvantage and social evil.
- The events will be broadcast live and then be available as a podcast at www.socialevils.org.uk
- Full biographies of all participants for the autumn events are available at www.socialevils.org.uk
Issued by Nasreen Memon, JRF Head of Media:
01904 615919 / 0207 278 9665
