New Book & DVD - The Yes Men

The Yes men: the true story of the end of the World Trade Organisation
The Disinformation Company, 2004, 791.437 BIC / DVD SMI








This award winning doccumentary film and acompanying book is the story of two board, middle-class American activists who set up a fake World Trade Organisation website with a subtly subversive content. Much to their surprise, it fools enough people to get them invited by various organisations to give lectures on behalf of the WTO. Naturally they jump at the oppotunity, and the film goes on to chart the hilarious but equally frightening progress of these lectures, and the staggering lengths these activists have to go to in order to expose their own prank. For more infomation, and to view the trailer, visit the The Yes Men movie. Or Why not join this new generation of activism and become a Yes Man/Woman now!

RSA Education

Lesley James, head of RSA education, appears on BBC Radio 4’s The Learning Curve 14 March edition - with a feature and discussion about the RSA curriculum and its impact on schools such as St. John’s in Wiltshire who have been successfully running Opening Minds for 5 years.

The show will be repeated on Sunday 19 March between 23:00 - 23:30 (92-95FM), or you can listen online.

Opening minds materials in the RSA Library:
Opening minds: giving young people a better chance. 2005
Opening minds: curriculum materials CD-ROM. 2003
Valerie Bayliss. Opening minds: taking stock. 2003
Opening minds: project handbook. 2003
Opening minds: project update. 2002.
Valerie Bayliss. Opening minds: education for the 21st century. 1999

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

Is Google book search "Fair Use"?

Lawrence Lessig on Google Book Search and copyright......

New Book - Capitalism: as if the world matters

Jonathon Porritt
Capitalism: as if the world matters
Earthscan, 2005, 330.122 POR
















This timely book tackles the pressing problem of how capitalism, and business, can provide a future of wealth and equity, yet symultaniously ensure ecological integrity. Porritt lays out the framework for a 'sustainable capitalism' that would cut across the political divide to achieve a more prosperous future for both our planet and its inhabitants.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Talk to the hand

Lynne Truss
Talk to the hand: the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life, or, six good reasons to stay at home and bolt the door
Profile, 2005, 395 TRU
















In the follow up to her celebrated book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the queen of zero tolerance now lends her outspoken and highly entertaining style to an assault on the sorry state of modern manners.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - State of the world 2005

WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE & Michael Renner
State of the world 2005: a Worldwatch Institute report on progress toward a sustainable society
Earthscan, 2005, 333.72 STA














Worldwatch takes a new look at the theme that has dominated international politics since 9/11: security. Focussing not the armed conflicts but the underlying social, economic and environmental pressures which determine how threatened and vulnerable people feel, State of the world 2005 seeks to understand the social and political significance of food, water, natural resources, environmental and health threats as thr key global issues of today. State of the World is a resource relied upon by national governments, UN agencies, development workers and law-makers for its authoritative and up-to-the-minute analysis and information. It is valuable for anyone concerned with building a positive, global future.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Misunderstanding science?

Alan Irwin (ed.)
Misunderstanding science?: the public reconstruction of science and technology
Cambridge University Press, 2004, 306.45 MIS
















Misunderstanding science offers a challenging perspective on the nature of modern science and its relationship with the public. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk, the environment and technological innovation. Informed theoretically by the sociology of scientific knowledge, the book draws some far reaching conclusions and makes some important suggestions about the future of the relationship between science and the public. For example, it suggests that many of the inadequacies in the social integration and uptake of science might be overcome if modern scientific institutions were more reflexive and open about the implicit normative commitments embedded in scientific cultures.


Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - The Culture of the new capitalism

Richard Sennett
The Culture of the new capitalism
Yale University Press, 2006, 306.36 SEN















Distinguished MIT sociologist Richard Sennett surveys the major differences between earlier forms of industrial capitalism and the more global version that is evident today. Sennett illustrates how our work ethic is changing, how new beliefs about merit and talent are displacing old values of craftsmanship and achievement, and how the boundary between consumption and politics is steadily diminishing.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Making happy people

Paul Martin
Making happy people: the nature of happiness and its origins in childhood
Harper Perennial, 2006, 152.42 MAR














From the author of the highly successful Counting Sheep comes a new book on the study of happiness. Looking at the origins of happiness within the individual during the lifelong process of development from birth to death, Making happy people also explores the relationship between happiness and success, and the ways in which early experience, parents and education influence each individual's capacity for happiness, the most sought-after and most elusive human property.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Multitude

Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire
Penguin, 2006, 321.8 HAR














In their previous book Empire, Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri argued that modern globalization has created a new social and political order that constitutes a new form of empire. By colonizing and interconnecting more areas of life ever more deeply, this empire has now created the possibility for a revolutionary kind of democracy. This is the thesis put forward by Hardt & Negri in their latest book Multitude, a work of socio-political idealism that is simultaneously grounded by a fierce intellectuality, creating a powerful vision of a truly democratic future that seems genuinely achievable. Multitude is a book of great significance among left wing scholarship, and consolidates the stature of its authors as two of the world's most important political philosophers.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - The Atlas of water

Robin Clarke & Jannet King
The atlas of water: mapping the world's most critical resource
Earthscan, 2004, 333.91 CLA











An in depth analysis of the changing relationship between the people of the world and their most valuable resource, The Atlas of water provides an overview of our water consumptionon a global scale, as well as highlighting the scarcity and quality of water in vulnerable regions such as California, the Middle East and India. This colour guide contains both the most up to date statistical information regarding our uses of water and a valuable discussion of the political and social issues surrounding this most vital topic.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Stonewall report - download

Tuned Out - the BBC's portrayal of lesbian and gay people
Stonewall has carried out research into how the BBC represents lesbian and gay lives.

Does TV have a positive or negative impact?
Does the BBC challenge homophobia?
Do gay licence-payers get value for money?

download the report here

New Book - The Search

John Battelle
The Search: how Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture
Nicholas Brealey, 2005, 025.04 BAT















John Battelle explains how the search industry is changing the way we live in profound and unpredictable ways. Focusing on the rise of Google, it includes exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names at the top companies, including Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
John Battelle's blog.
Interesting post here about Battelle and Penguin's disagreement over Google Book Search.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Avoiding dangerous climate change

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (ed.)
Avoiding dangerous climate change
Cambridge University Press, 2006, 363.738 SCH











In 2005 the UK Government hosted the Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Conference to take an in-depth look at the scientific issues associated with climate change. This volume is a result of this conference and presents the most recent findings from the leading international scientists that attended the conference, addressing topics such as critical thresholds and key vulnerabilities of the climate system, impacts on human and natural systems and technological options for meeting different stabilisation levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - The Culture of design

Guy Julier
The Culture of design
SAGE Publications, 2000, 306.470 JUL













The Culture of design is an exploration into the far reaching influence of design on our lives. Combining a history of the development of design in recent years, with a discussion of the design process and the role of the consumer, Guy Julier writes with a strong understanding of the dialectical relationship that exists between the design industry and the society for which it designs. The Book strikes a useful balance between theoretical material and background information, while analyzing in detail the examples it uses - such as the issue of the convergence of design with advertising.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Emotionally durable design

Jonathan Chapman
Emotionally durable design: objects, experiences & empathy
Earthscan, 2005, 658.575 CHA












Jonathan Chapman explores the essential question, why do users discard products that still work? He transports the reader beyond symptom-focused approaches to sustainable design such as recycling, biodegradability and disassembly, to address the actual causes that underpin the environmental crisis we face. Proposing the emergence of a new genre of sustainable design that reduces consumption and waste by increasing the durability of relationships established between users and products, Chapman seeks to find creative strategies that will enable designers from a range of disciplines to explore new ways of thinking and designing of objects capable of supporting deeper and more meaningful relationships with their users.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New report and download - Post Party politics

Post Party politics: can participation reconnect people and government?














Someone has turned off the people. Just as electricity powers our homes and workspaces, it is the public that power politics and government. Without a good reliable supply of people our institutions stutter and stop working. Much like electric lights in a power cut.
Historically it has been the role of political parties to both represent the people and equally importantly to galvanise society behind specific political agendas. In essence to supply the people upon which our institutions legitimacy and effectiveness depend. On both counts political party’s are currently left wanting.
With no obvious signs that party’s intend to radically reform beyond becoming ever harder to distinguish, what are the other options for reconnecting people and government?
To download a free copy click here.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Safe: design takes on risk

Paola Antonelli
Safe: design takes on risk
The Museum of Modern Art, 2005, 745.2 ANT










As part of the extensive work the RSA has undertaken in the fied of design, the RSA's Design Directions project covers a broad range of design issues, Safe: design takes on risk is a design resource in the area of Design for Patient Safety.

Safe: design takes on risk is a book devoted to this category of design objects and prototypes that seek to respond to situations of emergency, to protect the body and the mind from dangerous or stressful situations, and to provide a sense of comfort and safety. This book combines essays and illustrations to explore these objects, featuring designs and objects in areas such as protective gear, everyday safety devices, emergency shelters, life support equipment, bioengineering and emergency vehicles.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Porcupines in winter

Alessandra Buonfino (ed.) & Geoff Mulgan (ed.)
Porcupines in winter: the pleasures and pains of living together in modern Britain
The Young Foundation, 2006, 302.1 BUO











German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once described human beings as being like porcupines in winter, huddling together for warmth, then pulling apart when their quills pricked each other, and constantly striving for the right balance between being together and apart. Looking at how modern Britons are negotiating this difficult balance, Porcupines in Winter maps out the state of the relationships that matter most in our daily lives in order to paint a compelling picture of how Britain has changed and of the challenges we face in creating stronger and more mutually supportive communities.

Exploring different places - from Grimethorpe and Shropshire to Glasgow and London's East End, and different communities - including Polish migrants and Jamaican transnational families, Porcupines in Winter presents a society not without great faults and problems, but is ultimatly a celebration of the diverse and changing faces of modern Britain. It is a varied and engaguing text that has been published to accompany the launch of the Young Foundation which has been set up to build on 50 years of pioneering social research and action led by Michael Young.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.

New Book - Breaking the spell

Daniel C. Dennett
Breaking the spell: religion as a natural phenomenon
Allen Lane, 2006, 200 DEN











In his latest book leading academic Daniel Dennett, who speaks at an RSA Lecture in March 2006 , brings us a bold and timely exploration into cultural and psychological role of religion in human societies. Discussing why and how different faiths have commanded allegiance and shaped so many lives, Dennett provides a detailed history of the development of religion and uses this to unravel the complex way religion has penetrated our social and psychological consciousness. He argues for the need, not to simply challenge religion, but to understand it as a powerful multifaceted phenomenon, as Breaking the spell presents us with a comprehensive explanation for religion that seeks to objectivity question this controlling foundation of our society.

Available to borrow by RSA Fellows - contact the Library for details. Ask about our Freepost service.