Blogs & articles

From a knowledge economy to a wisdom economy

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03 Mar 2010

Our world is undergoing a series of convulsions. We don't know where they'll end up, or where any of us will be when the dust settles, if it ever does. Will we have a job? A pension? A home? Someone to care for us in old age?

Enterprise for a better world

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24 Nov 2009

Matthew Taylor

New Labour politicians used to say their core belief was that economic dynamism and social justice go forward hand in hand. It is simplistic but a good corrective to the Thatcherite view that all social spending was a drag on economic prosperity. But perhaps the future holds a more ambitious version of New Labour’s sound bite; a major driver of future economic dynamism will be meeting social need.

Is he or isn't he (the world's first industrial designer)?

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10 Jul 2009

Yesterday afternoon, at the awards ceremony for Shine at the V&A Sackler Centre, David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, began a little 3-question quiz by asking "Who was the world's first industrial designer?" While my brain auto-prompted "Christopher Dresser", discursive noise-interference stopped my mouth. It depends what you mean by an industrial designer, obviously. Didn't Alice Rawsthorn in Gary Hurstwit's new film Objectified date the birth of industrial design to the rationalisation of armaments by mediaeval Chinese knights? Christopher Dresser, however, was the "right" answer.

Celebrating innovation

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13 Mar 2009

I am quietly reassured when I read things in the media like this courtesy of Eric Allison. This week, Timpson, the shoe people, announced a new Academy at Liverpool prison to train up prisoners with a view to employ them on release. Yet another example of some of the fantastic initiatives in this sector. Bravo Timpson!

Do we need a Charter for Rehabilitation?

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12 Mar 2009

What would it do, what would it mean?

Public spending and service innovation

Blog

01 Dec 2008

Matthew Taylor

My working week started early with an interview last night on The Westminster Hour. The discussion topic was the impact on public services of the sharp deceleration in spending planned to start in 2010.

Civil society - its unexplored potential

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27 Nov 2008

Matthew Taylor

Notwithstanding my Kerry Katona like mood swings, I find myself increasingly convinced that the economic downturn is going to be very, very bad; so much so that our lives and our country will never be the same again. Even if we have seen the beginning of the end of the problems in the financial sector (and there is still a huge amount of leveraging to unwind), and even if the economy starts to pick up slowly towards the end of next year, we then face severe cuts in public investment. On the one hand, this could kill off any recovery (as we now know, much of the job creation of the last decade has been in the publicly funded sector) while on the other, we will all suffer diminished public provision and many will face real hardship.

The path to civic innovation

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30 Jul 2008

Matthew Taylor

I have been spending time recently with some amazing social innovators. Last week it was Oli Barrett, creator of the Catalyst Awards among many other things. In just a half hour conversation Oli came up with some great ideas for Fellowship engagement.