Battle of Ideas 2009 31 October & 1 November, London

The Battle of Ideas 2009 will be a two-day festival of high-level, thought-provoking debate organised by the Institute of Ideas and hosted by the Royal College of Art.

2009 Ticket Information

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 Battle News

The Political Significance of the Economic Crisis

Battles in Print 2006 republished

Battle of Ideas 2008 on video

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 Reading for Battle

The Chinese Dream: A Society Under Construction, Neville Mars & Adrian Hornsby

Religion remains fundamental to US politics, Susan Jacoby

Time to no platform 'no platform', Dennis Hayes & Richard Reynolds

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 Battles in Print

Questioning the carnivalesque , Ashley Frawley

Refocusing remembrance , Ted Harrison

Some myths of the ‘Work-Life Balance’ discussion , Para Mullan

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 Speakers include
Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at the universities of Oxford and Warwick; chair, Neuroscience Research Partnership, Singapore; chair, general advisory committee on science, Food Standards Agency
Frank Field, MP, Labour MP for Birkenhead; co-chair, Cross Party Group on Balanced Migration; author, Neighbours from Hell: The Politics of Behaviour
Frank Furedi, professor, sociology, University of Kent, Canterbury; author, Wasted, Politics of Fear and Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?
Leela Gandhi, professor of English, University of Chicago; author Affective Communities: anticolonial thought, fin-de-siècle radicalism, and the politics of friendship; founding co-editor, Postcolonial Studies journal.
Susan Jacoby, author, The Age of American Unreason; programme director, Centre for Inquiry - NYC; fellow, Centre for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library.
Bronwen Maddox, chief foreign commentator, The Times; author In Defence of America
Ashis Nandy, senior honorary fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi; recipient of Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize (2007); author, omnibus edition of writing, Exiled at Home, Return from Exile, and A Very Popular Exile.
Lionel Shriver, novelist, We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Post-Birthday World; commentator for the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Sunday Times.
Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, Financial Times; author, Fixing Global Finance
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 Festival Buzz

Watch Battle of Ideas 2008 video...

"The audience were the stars of the Battle of Ideas - engaged, informed and enthusiastic. As a panellist, I felt both ashamed and educated. Exactly as it should be."
John Street, professor of politics, University of East Anglia

 Partners
The Battle of Ideas is produced by
Institute of Ideas

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