Peace, love, money and denial†..

..not necessarily in that order.

This week the Events team welcomed Stan Cohen to investigate why human beings cocoon themselves in denial. From the personal to the political, Cohen provided an insight into the nature of denial and how it creates problems such as “passive bystanders” and “compassion fatigue”. The original text, States of Denial, is due to be updated in the autumn and will include Cohen’s views on climate change denial, which helped to set the stage for a lively and controversial debate, ably chaired by Laurie Taylor.

And speaking of keeping your eyes shut, this particular member of the Events team normally spends her Tube journey in just such a fashion, but today she woke up for long enough to notice that several people in the carriage were reading publications that were recently lecture subjects. Feeling the love, she smiled benignly at them, but in denial of the crazy woman beaming on the Tube, they buried their heads in said books and ignored her.

Against a background of City gloom, this week’s Thursday featured Brooke Harrington examining "pop finance" and the massive rise in popular engagement in the US stock market in the 90s through the spread of investment clubs. We were particularly pleased to hear from Brooke, as her work has a range of implications for accepted thinking on social capital, and has real relevance for RSA Networks and our new Tomorrow’s Investor project, which aims to change the way we think about share ownership and encourage civic involvement in socially responsible investing.

We ended the week with Jonathan Powell giving us invaluable insights, personal and professional, into the Northern Ireland peace process. It was a gripping and touching account which fully illustrated the reasons why he sees it as the most worthwhile thing he’s ever done. As well as exploring the process of conflict resolution, Jonathan shared the emotional aspects of dealing with such a role. This was not without humour, as shown by the tale of a mobile phone having an unexpected swim at a key moment, and politicians enjoying spontaneous boogie nights together! You can find out more in his new book, Great Hatred, Little Room.

There’s a bumper week coming up for the team next, with four events covering tales of gig-going, communal creativity, the Bin Ladens and the future of the world wide web. Variety is certainly the spice of events life!

No comments yet.

If you already have an account please sign in below, or sign up for an account.

If you cannot login, or have forgotten your password, please go to our Password Reset page to change your password.

If you have any other queries regarding your account please email fellowship@rsa.org.uk.