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We are increasingly reaching for cards, apps and even cryptocurrencies to make payments and manage our money. Though cash is still widely used, the narrative around it suggests it is outdated and presents cash dependency as a problem we need to solve. The shift to digital, ‘cloudmoney’ is presented as inevitable and defended by claims of consumer convenience.

Developments in the global payments arena are fuelling this change. Big banks, FinTech apps and Big Tech are forming new alliances and launching joint products, attracted by the great volumes of personal data that can be gathered from digital payments.

If a cashless society really is inevitable, how can we ensure this future is fair, inclusive, and not a threat to data privacy?

Join campaigner and monetary anthropologist, Brett Scott, as he explores the forces shaping the war for our wallets, who stands to gain from a cashless society, who gets left behind and what role cryptocurrencies might play in our future finances.

If you're interested in the benefits and drawbacks of the growing cashless economy, read our Cash census report (March 2022). 

#RSACash

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The West Midlands and Greater Manchester are leading the way on devolution with more control over transport, planning, housing, policing and skills. The combined authorities were both singled out in the Levelling Up White Paper for trailblazer devolution deals with Government, with negotiations beginning imminently. 

The elected Mayors in these regions act as a single point of accountability – both to local people and central government. Should Mayoral combined authorities be given even more autonomy in order to bring back prosperity and pride to the places they govern? Are they on the right track to become examples for other areas of the UK to follow? And how are they approaching their negotiations with Government?

#RSADevolution

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From ‘take back control’ to ‘levelling up’, from the tragedy of Morecambe Bay to the remaking of English football culture, award-winning journalist and editor Jason Cowley re-examines recent key news events and reflects on the human stories behind the headlines, taking stock of the state of the nation in 2022, and searching for the shared experiences and values that unite us through difference and change.

#RSAStories

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Design Emergency: How can design help us to build a better future?

Join us for this special event celebrating the 2021/22 RSA Student Design Awards programme and the power of design to help us build a better future.

The 2022 SDA keynote address will be delivered by award-winning design critic, author and co-founder of Design Emergency, Alice Rawsthorn.

In her address, Alice will describe how she and MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli are using their research platform, Design Emergency, to explore the work of the global design leaders who are giving us hope by developing ingenious solutions to problems caused by the climate emergency, refugee crisis, abuses of technology and other complex challenges.

Following the address, the RSA’s chief impact officer Andrea Siodmok will present the 2022 awards, sharing an overview of each winning project, and inviting the people behind these inspiring ideas on stage to receive their awards.

The RSA Student Design Awards is a global competition focused around a set of project briefs that challenge participants to tackle pressing social, environmental and economic issues through design thinking. Winners receive practical and financial support from the RSA and our partners, as well as the opportunity to join a remarkably diverse community of alumni.

#RSAdesign

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The pandemic exposed and intensified the deep-rooted problems gripping the nation – from poverty to precarity to underfunded public services. But social distance has been at the heart of our biggest challenges since long before Covid-19 struck: in particular, the distance that those in power often keep from the issues they are in charge of solving.

If proximity to a problem makes us better placed to understand how to address it, then it’s no wonder we are faltering. The distance – be it geographical, economic, or cultural – between those who make decisions and those on the receiving end of them has never been clearer, and the parameters of the discussion about social inequality are set by those who have little experience of it. Prize-winning writer, commentator and rapper Darren McGarvey interrogates the social remoteness at the root of our biggest problems, and explores what it would take to centre lived experience in developing clear-sighted, hopeful solutions.

#rsainequality

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We unthinkingly grant internet companies access to our homes, relationships, and most private thoughts. This information is used to mould our realities, influencing our everyday choices and actions – from who we date to how we vote. How can we safeguard our freedom of thought in an age when our minds are for sale?

As human rights lawyer Susie Alegre explores, this is a new frontier in an age-old struggle: the powerful have always sought to influence how we think, and these latest tools for doing so threaten our mental freedom like never before. She examines the long history of the effort to liberate our minds, and lays out how we can recast our human rights for the digital age to protect our most fragile and fundamental freedoms. 

#RSAFreedom

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From policing and politics to education and the media, systemic gender prejudice is embedded in the pillars of our society. Potential solutions often require change from the women experiencing the problem rather than the systems that perpetuate the problem.

Whether for walking home alone at night or for not demanding a seat at the table, we blame women for not overcoming odds that are stacked against them. In the wake of violent behaviour from men, we turn to women to change lifestyles and behaviours.

By combining overlapping themes from thousands of personal stories with shocking statistics, Everyday Sexism founder, Laura Bates demonstrates why asking women for change is not fair or effective. We need to fix the system, not the women. Here with Pragya Agarwal, Laura paints a shocking picture of gender inequality in Britain today and explores how society can usher in systemic change.

#RSAGenderInjustice

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Minority ethnic teachers are still under-represented in all lanes of education, routes into education lack focused training on structural racism and unconscious bias, and exclusion rates for mixed white and black Caribbean boys continue to be disproportionally higher than that of white British boys. The education system in Britain needs drastic change.

With experience both as a black teacher and a black student, Jeffrey Boakye’s journey through education has been one of exploration, from the outside looking in. Reflecting on what he has observed and learned, Jeffrey will discuss the habits, presumptions, silences, and distortions that underpin British education and offer his thoughts on the change that is urgently needed. 

#RSAeducation

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Sebastian Mallaby is one of the world’s most admired and respected financial storytellers. In his new book The Power Law he draws on unprecedented access to insiders and legendary figures of the venture capital community to tell the origin stories of the VC-backed enterprises that have changed our world in recent decades, from Apple and Google to eBay and Alibaba. 

The key to understanding the venture capitalist mindset, he explains, is to grasp that they operate according to an enduring financial ‘power law’ which justifies big bets on ‘moon-shot’ projects due to the outsize rewards of rare success. 

But can we trust the path of innovation and the global economy to a tribe of maverick risk-takers? The VC community is notorious for its lack of gender and racial diversity. High profile scandals, toxic cultures and profound imbalances of power and equity have soured the public mood towards the tech-industrial complex that it has hugely shaped. 

Is a VC-funded future compatible with the pursuit of a more democratic and inclusive economy and society? 

Mallaby insists venture capital has an important role to play in liberating the finance and expertise that will create the transformative scientific and technological innovations that will improve all our lives. 

Indeed, he argues, VC networks combine and complement the roles of markets and corporations to form an essential ‘third pillar’ of modern capitalism. And so it’s more important than ever to understand how VCs think and operate so their skills can be harnessed more effectively for the global common good.  

#RSAVenture 

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Farming is the single greatest cause of environmental destruction: we have plundered our land and pillaged our rivers and oceans to feed ourselves, yet millions still go hungry and our food system is faltering. We need a food revolution – and the answer, says author and environmental activist George Monbiot, lies beneath our feet.

Exploring incredible advances in soil ecology, Monbiot lays out a vision for a new food future in which we farm less but grow more, producing cheap and healthy food in abundance. He reveals the people and initiatives already paving the way towards a new era in food – from perennial grain crops to innovators uncovering new ways to grow proteins – and considers how a radical reimagining of our food could transform our relationship with the living planet.

#RSAfoodfuture

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