Institute of Ideas

The Battle of Ideas returns this month - bigger and better than ever. After months of preparation, it all kicks off on the weekend of 27/28 October. Join over 200 speakers including Alexander Cockburn, David Aaronovitch, Frank Furedi, Camilla Cavendish, Tristram Hunt, Nicholas Kenyon, Esther Rantzen, Matthew Taylor, Sue Palmer, Chris Rapley and many more to debate the most pressing issues of our time.

This year's expanded festival also encompasses an art exhibition, music performances, multimedia attractions, three satellite events, and more.

In the meantime, look out for the Friction.tv online video debates and the IoI & spiked 'Battle Talk' video interviews with high-profile Battle speakers.

After two sold out festivals in 2005 and 2006, tickets are going quickly, so buy your tickets now. And if you're a school pupil, the ESRC are offering a limited number of free tickets as the Battle of Ideas 'Schools Champion'. Apply to schoolschampion@instituteofideas.com

See you there!

BATTLE OF IDEAS **Satellite Events**
Design in Denial?
Monday 1 October, 7.15-8.30pm @ Design Museum, London
Design is seldom discussed in its own terms, with many designers increasingly defending design by doing stuff-other-than-design. Does this simply capture the cultural ‘zeitgeist’ or is design in denial?

Information and speakers

What Good Is E-Learning?
Friday 5 October, 6.30-9pm @ london knowledge lab
What is the best way of thinking about the innovatory potential of new technologies in education? How can we make the most of what these can offer while keeping the best of what a teacher-led, subject-based curriculum has provided in the past?

Information and speakers

The Battle Over Ethics and Regulation
Friday 26 October, 2-3.30pm @ Genomics and Society conference
Are we striking the right balance between encouraging new research and scientific endeavour and regulating new science to reassure the public it is safe, ethical and beneficial – especially in the fields of genetics and embryology?

Information and speakers

IoI & SPIKED present 'BATTLE TALK'
Every Wednesday at 7.30pm, from 26 September to 7 November
'Battle Talks' are video interviews with high-profile Battle of Ideas speakers. Interviews are broadcast Wednesdays at 7.30pm on 18 Doughty Street Talk TV.

In the first show, Brendan O'Neill (editor, spiked) interviews Ceri Dingle (director, WORLDwrite). Watch it here

FRICTION.TV ONLINE VIDEO DEBATES
Friction.TV, a Battle of Ideas specialist media partner, is hosting online video debates on their special Battle of Ideas channel in advance of the festival. You can join the debate now or get involved on the day, when a Friction.TV 'comment booth' will be on site for you to record your views.

IoI MANCHESTER SALON
Tuesday 9 October
Prof Raymond Tallis, physician, philosopher and poet, will introduce a discussion on biological determinism. See the Battle of Ideas debate, My Brain Made Me Do It for recommended readings.

For more information, email Hilary Salt at manchestersalon@instituteofideas.com

BRIGHTON SALON
Wendesday 10 October
Dr Bill Durodié will introduce the discussion 'Suicide bombers are made in the West'.

For more information visit the Brighton Salon website

*SPIKED* EVENTS:
WHAT FUTURE FOR THE MOBILE FOOTPRINT?
Wednesday 3 October, 6.30-8.30pm @ The Commonwealth Club, WC2
What is the best way to manage the future of mobile’s impact on the environment?

THE FUTURE OF THE MEDIA
Wednesday 17 October, 6.30-8.30pm @ Royal Society of Arts, WC2
Is the citizen journalist a symbol of the rise of the democratised media, or a decline of journalistic standards?

Information and speakers

INTERN AT THE INSTITUTE OF IDEAS!
The IoI is looking for interns. If you have an interest in politics, the arts or science, or just want to help out organising the Battle of Ideas, contact geoffkidder@instituteofideas.com.

POSTGRADUATE FORUM
The new series of the Postgraduate Forum will begin on 17 October. Dr Dennis Hayes will introduce a discussion on academic freedom. Contact postgrad@instituteofideas.com

Claire Fox will give the ‘Friday lecture’ at St Paul’s Girls School on ‘Challenging contemporary taboos – a critique of climate change orthodoxy’, Friday 5 October, 11.20am.

Claire Fox will give a keynote address at the IRRV annual conference on 'Ideas for the Public Sector', Thursday 11 October, 2pm at Hilton Brighton Metropole.

Tony Gilland will be chairing the debate, Biology of Freedom at the DANA Centre on 3 October.

VIDEO / AUDIO

Claire Fox will be on the Moral Maze on 3, 10, 17 and 24 October.

Claire Fox News on 18 Doughty Street:

• On Monday 8 October, 8pm, guests Tara McCormack and Chris Bickerton will discuss Europe - referenda, constitutions and democracy, and the EU’s role in foreign policy.
  
  See Battle of Ideas debates on democracy and on foreign policy.



• On Monday 22 October, 8pm, guests Dave Clements, Sean Bell and Genevieve Macklin will discuss housing, localism and the politics of behaviour.
  
  See Battle of Ideas debates on housing and behaviour.

Previous shows were on:

• Further education, the government’s obsession with skills and the expansion of the school leaving age.
  
  See the new book out by IoI Education Forum members Alec Turner, Dr Dennis Hayes and Toby Marshall - A Lecturer’s Guide to Further Education.
  
  See Battle of Ideas debates on education.



• Design in Britain - business, social engineering, green issues and innovation.
  
  See the Battle of Ideas debate and satellite event on design.

IN THE PRESS

Gunning for the headlines, Claire Fox, MJ, 19 September 2007

Claire Fox was ranked no. 65 in the Telegraph list of Britain's most influential people on the Left, 23 September 2007

In defence of 'radicalisation', Dolan Cummings, spiked Review of Books, 21 September 2007

Review of In Defence of Atheism, Dolan Cummings, Culture Wars, 6 September 2007

Death to freedom of expression!, Dolan Cummings, Printed Project, Issue 8, October 2007

Shirley Dent's articles on the Guardian Unlimited Arts Blog:
We need creative critics and critical creators, 27 September
The collective work of a single author, 17 September

Highlights on Culture Wars this month:

Coverage of the Forward Prize for Poetry, and the British Museum's Terracotta Army exhibition.

In Books and Ideas, reviews of Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons, The Cultural Contradictions of Democracy, War in Human Civilisation, and more.

Current film reviews include Atonement, Evening and As You Like It, and London theatre reviews include The Ugly One, A Disappearing Number, and The Merchant of Venice.

Coming in October: the Booker Prize shortlist, Seduced at the Barbican and more books and music.

The Institute of Ideas and Pfizer Debating Matters Competition 2007/08 will be launched at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on 11 October. We are delighted to announce that A C Grayling, a guest director of the festival and Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College has agreed to judge the second debate of the day on the motion ‘Closed Circuit Television is a threat to our freedom’. Members of the winning team and the Best Individual prize winner will each receive a signed copy of Prof Grayling’s new book Towards The Light: The Story of the Struggles for Liberty and Rights that Made the Modern West kindly donated by Bloomsbury Publishing.

The dates for the other 31 qualifying rounds are coming in thick and fast, and both judging and school team slots are being taken up with enthusiasm. There are still a number of judging slots to be filled however and the Debating Matters team are keen to involve new judges. If you are interested in judging at this year’s Qualifying Rounds or would like more information about the competition, please call the team on 0207 269 9232 or email helenbirtwistle@instituteofideas.com.