RSA Library Update - June 2007

What follows is a complete list of RSA library acquisitions for the month of June 2007. Fellows are welcome to e-mail library@rsa.org.uk if they wish to borrow any of these items, or search the library catalogue for thousands of other titles....

000s – Generalities

Nassim Taleb
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Allen Lane, 2007, 003.54 TAL
Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a concept that has implications on almost everything, from the rise of religions, to events in our own personal lives. A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principle characteristics: it is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random and more predictable than it was. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb reveals, we are hard-wired not to truly estimate risk, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the 'impossible'.

100s – Philosophy & Psychology

Gordon Brown
Courage: Eight Portraits
Bloomsbury, 2007, 179.609 BRO
What is it that makes some men and women take difficult decisions and do the right thing against the odds when easier and far less dangerous alternatives are open to them? To answer this question, Gordon Brown explores the lives of eight outstanding twentieth-century figures including Edith Cavell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

200s – Religion

Scott Thomas
The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations: the Struggle for the Soul of the Twenty-First Century
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 201.727 THO
This book is about the global resurgence of culture and religion in international relations, how these social changes are transforming our understanding of International Relation theory, and the key policy-related issue areas in world politics.

Ziauddin Sardar
What do Muslims believe?
Granta, 2006, 297 SAR
The teachings of Islam emphasise unity, humility, forgiveness and love of God, the Qur'an sings the virtues of knowledge and rationality, and the life of Muhammad demonstrates the importance of tolerance, social justice and brotherhood. So, why is Islam so associated with hatred, violence, obstinacy and bigotry? Ziauddin Sardar examines the true teachings of Islam and explores the reality of the Muslim world today.

Ziauddin Sardar
Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim
Granta Books, 2005, 297.092 SAR
Desperately Seeking Paradise is Ziauddin Sardar’s attempt to intellectually reconcile Islam with modernity through a vivid account of his explorations of different branches of Islam and of his travels throughout most of the Islamic world.

300s – Social Sciences

Hugh Barton
Shaping Neighbourhoods: a Guide for Health, Sustainability and Vitality
Spon, 2005, 307.12 BAR
Current policies in planning emphasise the importance of rejuvenating neighbourhoods. This new guide seeks to bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality, promoting an inter-professional and collaborative approach to making localities work. The objective is to design neighbourhoods that are healthy, safe, friendly and attractive for residents and users, whilst being more self-sustaining in terms of water, energy, local services and work.

Nassim Taleb
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
Penguin, 2007, 332.601 TAL
Everyone wants to succeed in life, but what causes some of us to be more successful than others? Is it really down to skill and strategy - or something altogether more unpredictable? This book is all about luck and more precisely, how we perceive luck in our personal and professional experiences.

Lynn Johannson
Going for the Green: A Manufacturers Guide to Lean and Green
E2 Management Corporation, 2006, 333.717 JOH
Simple to understand and designed specifically for small businesses, Going for the Green provides valuable insights into improving productivity, being more competitive and being considerate of the environment at the same time.

Anthony Mancuso
Nolo's Quick LLC: All You Need to Know about Limited Liability Companies
NOLO, 4th edition, 2007, 346.07 MAN
Nolo's Quick LLC explains, in plain English, the advantages and drawbacks of forming an LLC – including limiting your personal liability. It provides all the essential information business owners need to know about this valuable business option.

Richard E. Neustadt & Earnet R. May
Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers
Free Press, 1988, 350.007 NEU
Two professors of government analyze both the political disasters and successes of recent decades in order to provide telling lessons on how to use history to improve decision-making. A dozen case studies are drawn in great detail, explaining just how to examine a situation to help decide what to do today to improve the prospect for tomorrow.

Chris Goodall
How to live a Low-Carbon Life: The Individuals Guide to Stopping Climate Change
Earthscan, 2007, 363.738 GOO
How to Live a Low Carbon Life provides a comprehensive, one-stop reference guide to calculating individual carbon emissions. Covering all aspects of modern life from transport to home heating to where our food comes from and the difficult issue of holiday travel, the book provides easy-to-use tables for conducting a personal lifestyle 'carbon audit'.

Steve Rolles, Danny Kushlick & Mike Jay
After the War on Drugs: Options for Control
Transform Drugs Policy Foundation, 2006, 364.177 ROL
After the War on Drugs is a major new report examining the key themes in the drug policy reform debate, detailing how legal regulation of drug markets will operate, and providing a road map and time line for reform.
Fellow’s donation.

Tim Grant, & Gail Littlejohn (eds.)
Teaching about Climate Change: Cool Schools Tackle Global Warming
New Society Press, 2001, 372.357 GRA
Making reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is a national focus in developed countries all over the world. Schools are well-placed to combine conservation strategies with an education program that makes links between lifestyle choices and the future of the planet. This exciting resource provides educators at all grade levels with strategies to teach about global warming and engage students' interest in doing their part to help cool the planet.

400s – Language

500s – Natural Sciences & Mathematics

600s – Technology (Applied Sciences)

Denise Grocke & Tony Wigram
Receptive Methods in Music Therapy: Techniques and Clinical Applications for Music Therapy Clinicians, Educators and Students
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006, 615.851 GRO
This practical book describes the specific use of receptive (listening) methods and techniques in music therapy clinical practice and research, including relaxation with music for children and adults, the use of visualisation and imagery, music and collage, song-lyric discussion, vibroacoustic applications, music and movement techniques, and other forms of aesthetic listening to music. The authors explain these receptive methods of intervention using a format that enables practitioners to apply them in practice and make informed choices about music suitable for each of the different techniques.

David Parrish
T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity
Merseyside ACME, 2006, 658.11 PAR
T-Shirts and Suits is a book for creative entrepreneurs to help them to become even more successful by bringing together creative talent and business best practice.
Fellow’s donation.

700s – The Arts

Philip Jodidio
Calatrava: Santiago Calatrava – Complete Works 1979-2007
Taschen, 2007, 720.92 JOD/CAL
Santiago Calatrava is not only one of the world's most prominent architects, but is also an engineer, sculptor, and painter. His recent projects include the stadium for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and the new railway station in Liege, and he it the only architect ever to have his work exhibited at both the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Currently designing the main transport hub for the Ground Zero site in Manhattan, Calatrava is one of the greatest and most innovative architects alive and this book places his architecture in the context of his art, where nature meets engineering.

Neal Gabler
Walt Disney: the Biography
Aurum, 2007, 791.43 GAB
His classic films illuminated everyone's childhood. The theme parks are on every tourist itinerary. The movie empire is one of Hollywood's biggest players. Walt Disney is one of the few men who unquestionably changed our culture. Neal Gabler is the first author to have had complete access to the Disney Archives, enabling him to write the definitive biography of this remarkable man.

David Goldblatt
The Ball is Round: a Global History of Football
Viking, 2006, 796.334 GOL
In this extraordinary book, David Goldblatt describes the rise of football, from a chaotic folk ritual to a sector of the global-entertainment industry. It is the story of players and managers, fans and owners, clubs and national teams; a chronicle of who won and who lost. But it's also a history of states and markets, money and power, and, above all, how all these forces interact.

800s – Literature

900s – Geography & History

Andrew Duncan
Secret London
New Holland, 2006, 914.21 DUN
Aimed at visitors and Londoners alike, this fully updated edition of Secret London unlocks the city's most fascinating secrets - both above and below ground. Celebrated historian Andrew Duncan strips away bricks, mortar and tarmac to uncover parts of the capital that even born-and-bred Londoners may never have seen.

Satish Kumar & Freddie Whitefield (eds.)
Visionaries of the 20th Century: a Resurgence Anthology
Green Books, 2006, 920.009 KUM
Visionaries of the 20th Century brings together the lives and works of 100 great men and women who offered inspiration, hope and healing. The 20th century was marked by wars, dictatorships and environmental destruction, yet many individuals kept alive the hope of a sane and sustainable future through their example, ideas and vision.

Chris Stringer
Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain
Allen Lane, 2006, 936.101 STR
Homo Britannicus tells the epic history of life in Britain, from man's very first footsteps to the present day. Drawing on all the latest evidence and techniques of investigation, Chris Stringer describes times when Britain was so tropical that man lived alongside hippos and sabre tooth tiger, times so cold we shared this land with reindeer and mammoth, and times colder still when we were forced to flee altogether.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Yo, Blair!: Tony Blair's Disastrous Premiership
Politico's, 2007, 941.085 WHE
We want you to get up the arse of the White House and stay there. Blair aid Jonathan Powell to incumbent US Ambassador Christopher Meyer in 2001 Bestselling journalist and writer Geoffrey Wheatcroft's timely and coruscating polemic argues that Tony Blair has signally failed in his principal responsibility to defend the interests of his country. Instead, by taking us to war on America's coattails, by reducing British foreign policy to the level of self-righteous sound bites and expensive foreign travel, and by chasing his childish infatuation with his own image as an international statesman, Tony Blair has doggedly pursued the interests of the United States whilst blatantly disregarding the warnings from his own experts and the demands and needs of his own people.

Philip Humphrey
A Century of Colt Hill
Ellingham Press, 2006, 942.273 HUM
A Century of Colt Hill is an intimate portrait of a small Odiham community throughout the twentieth Century. Skilfully blending individual accounts of residents with a painstaking search through the archives, RSA Fellow Philip Humphrey has created an intriguing account of life in regional England.
Fellow’s donation.

Benjamin Franklin
The Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin
The Arion Press, 2006, 973.3 BEN
Commonly known as The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, this edition has been published in celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth. A storyteller of genius, Franklin is a significant figure in American history and was strongly connected to the RSA.
Fellow’s donation.

Reference

Peter Marcan (ed.)
The Marcan Visual Arts Handbook: Where to go for British Contacts, Expertise and Speciality in the Fine and Applied Arts.
Peter Marcan, 2006, REF 702.541
This comprehensive visual arts resource contains nearly 2000 descriptive entries, which cover a range of British organisations and information sources, along with bibliographical listings.

DVD

David Attenborough
Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen it Before - The Complete Series
BBC DVD, 2006, DVD ATT
Narrated by David Attenborough, this hugely successful BBC documentary series allows the viewer to experience the earth as never before with groundbreaking footage of our planet and its wildlife.

New Book - On the Move

Bono
On the Move: Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington DC, 2 February, 2006
W Pub. Group, 2007, 261.8 BON

“6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality." – Bono.

Based upon the speech given at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, On the Move is a shining example of Bono’s ability to awaken mass desire for change and illustrates just why he has become so influential in the continuing struggle to end poverty in Africa. Whether using political means to lobby the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations, or, as in this example talking in religious terms by reflecting on his own faith and challenging people of all faiths to reach across boundaries and come together for a greater cause, Bono has proven himself to be an inspiring and powerful crusader against poverty.

Bono has once again made his significant presence felt both in the run up to and during the recent G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. By drawing the attention of the world back to the promises made at the Gleneagles G8 summit and warning of a potential backslide at this years summit, in recent weeks Bono has helped to ensure that the G8 leaders have still been under pressure to deliver. He has also met with leaders including Angela Merkel and George W. Bush during the summit itself.

The result of the discussions about aid for Africa has been a restating of the promises made two years ago, including pledging $60bn to fight Aids and other diseases. Despite this, Bob Geldof, a close campaigning ally of Bono, has been quoted by the BBC as describing this pledge as ‘a total farce’.

New Book - 'Teaching About Climate Change'

Tim Grant
Teaching About Climate Change: Cool Schools Tackle Global Warming
New Society Publishers, 2001, 372.357 GRA

Following on from the success we have had with our Personal Carbon Trading Project CarbonLimited, on 5 June 2007 the RSA will launch ‘Carbon Control’ a new initiative aimed at actively involving children between the ages of seven and fourteen in the issue of climate change. Timed to coincide with World Environment Day, the project will run a competition challenging children to come up with and share ideas for reducing carbon emissions, with environmentally friendly prizes to be won. Visitors to the site will also be able to use the ‘Carbonator’ to find out how their daily actions can help to reduce climate change.

The vital role of educating young people about environmental issues within schools, as a means of promoting social change, has been well publicised by organisations such as the magazine Green Teacher. Available to borrow from the RSA Library, Teaching About Climate Change is an anthology produced by the magazine offering a framework for teaching fundamental concepts and contains a variety of activities that can be undertaken in school, at home or in the community.

The Carbon Control website also contains resources for teachers available to download, enabling them to plan lessons at both the Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 level.

Mass Collaboration at the RSA

Don Tapscott & Antony D. Williams

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Portfolio, 2006, 658.046 TAP

A wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, and edit content, opening up new opportunities for mass collaboration. The full implications of this new method of exchanging ideas and information are still emerging. Some leaders are sceptical of the ability of large and interchangeable online communities to create value, and are also weary of the challenge they may present to traditional forms of business and government in terms of ownership and control of information and services. However many groups, the RSA included, are excited by the possibilities wiki's create. Wikinomics is a book that makes a major contribution to our general understanding of the potential of Wiki's, and is based on a $9 million research project lead by co-author Don Tapscott. The RSA itself will be hoping to publicise the potential value of mass online collaboration and discuss some of the issues surrounding it through a lecture taking place on Friday 25 May entitled The Social Impact of the Web: Society, Government and the Internet.

With 26,000 Fellows dedicated to supporting our work, and each able to contribute their own individual ideas and perspective, the RSA is currently making every effort to get fellows talking and working together both in person and via the Internet...

Our Programme Department is currently running its very own Ideas Wiki, through which any Fellow can contribute to the development of ideas for future RSA projects.

The RSA Fellows Forum is another more general means by which any fellow can start or contribute to a debate. The current question being posed in our Fellow2Fellow feature is 'Is yours a responsible workplace?’. Why not log in and get involved?

Documentary Films at the RSA

Molly Dineen: The Lie of the Land

From Al Gore's high profile call for action against climate change in An Inconvenient Truth to the BBC’s ground breaking nature series Planet Earth, the RSA Library aims to make some of the most interesting and thought provoking documentary and factual based films available to all RSA Fellows. Expanding on this resource, the RSA is also about to embark on the 'RSA Screens', a new initiative that combines screenings of new and topical documentaries with discussion and debate about the issues addressed in the films.

The RSA Screens series will kick off on Monday 21st May when, in partnership with Channel 4, the RSA will screen Molly Dineen's documentary The Lie of the Land, an award-winning film in which Dineen chronicles the decline of Britain’s small-holding, independent farming industry as the might of the ‘super’market reigns all-powerful. Sensitively depicted, the film charts the daily life of farmers and agricultural workers, exploring the destructive impact of disease, unsustainable development and how this has been exacerbated by legislation.

Since first being aired on Channel 4 at the beginning of May 2007 the documentary has generated a great deal of interest, including a review in The Observer Newspaper. This RSA screening will be of particular interest as after the screening Molly Dineen will be in conversation with journalist and former editor of The Independent and Independent on Sunday Rosie Boycott, when they will discuss the film and more generally the current threat to Britain’s rural economy and traditional way of life.

For a full list of DVD's available to borrow from the RSA Library, please visit the online library catalogue and search for "DVD".

RSA Library Update - May 2007

What follows is a complete list of RSA library acquisitions for the month of May 2007. Fellows are welcome to email library@rsa.org.uk if they wish to borrow any of these items, or search the library catalogue for thousands of other titles....

000s – Generalities

100s – Philosophy & Psychology

Charles Reed
The Price of Peace: Just War in the Twenty-First Century
Cambridge University Press, 2007, 172.42 REE
The Price of Peace argues that the lively political and public debates on war and morality since the Cold War call for a re-examination of the ‘just war’ tradition. Charles Reed suggests that despite fluctuations and transformations in international politics, the just war tradition continues to be relevant, but needs to be reworked to respond to the new challenges to international security represented by the end of the Cold War and the impact of terrorism.

Marc D. Hauser
Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong
Little, Brown, 2007, 153.8 HAU
Temptation and control are like two players in an arms race. In this book, Harvard academic Marc Hauser evaluates recent developments in evolutionary biology, cognitive science, developmental psychology, economics and anthropology to provide a new way of understanding the tension between temptation and control.

Philip G. Zimbardo
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
Random House, 2007, 155.962 ZIM
What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect he explains the myriad of reasons why we are all susceptible to the lure of "the dark side."

200s – Religion

300s – Social Sciences

Dennis Bailey
The Open Society Paradox: Why the 21st Century Calls for More Openness-Not Less
Potomac Books Inc, 2006, 323.097 BAI
How do we protect an open society from those who would use its freedoms against us? How does our society ensure security and, at the same time, safeguard civil liberties? This new book challenges the conventional wisdom of those on both sides of this debate - those leaders who want unlimited authority versus those who would sacrifice security to protect individual privacy.

Moazzam Begg
Enemy Combatant: the Terrifying True Story of a Briton in Guantanamo
Pocket Books, 2006, 323.49 BEG
Moazzam Begg is an ordinary man who has endured an extraordinary fate. Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and whose precise nature has never been determined; as far as the US government was concerned, it was enough to label him an 'enemy combatant'

Elinor Osrtom
Governing the Commons: the Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Cambridge University Press, 1990, 333.2 OST
The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved.

Charles Leadbeater & James Wilsdon
The Atlas of Ideas: How Asian Innovation Can Benefit Us All
Demos, 2007, 338.95 LEA
The rise of China and India will remake the innovation landscape. US and European pre-eminence in science-based innovation can no longer be taken for granted, and nor can the knowledge jobs that have depended upon it. This collection of reports from Demos is the first comprehensive account of the rising tide of Asian innovation.

James Wilsdon & James Keeley
China: The Next Science Superpower?
Demos, 2007, 338.95 WIL
One of a collection of four reports looking a the growth of innovation in Asia, China: the Next Science Superpower? analyses the potential for China to lead the world in scientific endeavour and illustrates the valuable research being undertaken by Demos in this area.

Molly Webb
South Korea: Mass Innovation Comes of Age
Demos, 2007, 338.95 WEB
South Korea’s transformation from ‘hermit kingdom’ to a global technology power has been the most dramatic development story of the last half century. This report looks at how they must challenge the structures which paved the way for their own emergence to have continued success in the knowledge age.

Kirsten Bound
India: The Uneven Innovator
Demos, 2007.338. 95 BOU
Understanding the future of science and innovation in India is not simply a matter of benchmarking its success against that of Europe or the US. Instead, it depends on recognising how India can pioneer an interdependent model of knowledge creation.

Kevin Donovan
Innovate or Else?: The Dynamics of Innovation in Teaching and Learning in the Learning and Skills Sector
LSDA, 2006, 379 DON
This fascinating report, commissioned by the Learning and Skills Development Agency, explores the vital role of innovation in developing ideas and creating knowledge within the Learning and Skills Sector.

400s – Language

500s – Natural Sciences & Mathematics

600s – Technology (Applied Sciences)

Guy Claxton & Bill Lucas
Be Creative: Essential Steps to Revitalize Your Work and Life
BBC Books, 2004, 650.1 CLA
With practical exercises and inspiring examples, Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas demonstrate how to break away from old habits and free up your mind in order to achieve harmony, balance and personal success through creativity.

Marilyn Pincus
Managing Difficult People: a Survival Guide for Handling Any Employee
Managing Difficult People provides managers with personality profiles of the ten most common types of difficult people. The author offers positive, proactive approaches for targeting telltale behaviour and putting an end to office strife so that, regardless of the situation, managers have the tools they need to respond properly and take control.
Adams Media, 2004, 658.304 PIN

700s – The Arts

William Lidwell
Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design
Rockport, 2003, 745.403 LID
This comprehensive, cross-disciplinary encyclopedia of design pairs clear explanations of every design concept with visual examples of the concepts applied in practice. From the "80/20" rule to chunking, from baby-face bias to Occam's razor and from self-similarity to storytelling, every major design concept is defined and illustrated for readers to expand their knowledge.

800s – Literature

900s – Geography & History

Philip Humphrey
A Century of Colt Hill
Ellingham, 2006, 942.273
A Century of Colt Hill considers the fortunes of a small Odiham community throughout the twentieth Century. Skilfully blending the personal accounts of residents with detailed archival research, Philip Humphrey explores the many social and physical changes that have occurred in Colt Hill throughout the century and analyses the factors that have contributed to the longevity of the community.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Victoria Schofield
Afghan Frontier: Feuding and Fighting in Central Asia
Tauris Parke, 2003, 954.912 SCH
Drawing on written records, Victoria Schofield unravels the history of the North-West Frontier from Alexander the Great to the kidnapping of Molly Ellis; from the languages and religions to the women; from skirmishes, wars and the mujahedin struggle with the Soviet Union, to the more recent tragic history which continues to unfold there.

Reference

European Commission
Europe in Figures: Eurostat Yearbook 2006-07
European Commission, 2007, REF 330.94 EUR
A complete statistical guide to Europe for the year 2006-07.

RSA Library Wireless Upgrade

We are pleased to announce that the RSA Library has recently completed an upgrade to the Wireless Connection it provides for the use of RSA Fellows.

This upgrade has been designed to enable Fellows to far more quickly and efficiently gain access to the internet through their own laptops when visiting the library. The need for Fellows to change the settings on their own computers has been greatly reduced, web based services that may have previously blocked will now be available, and Fellows with a VPN (Virtual Private Network) set up will now have uninterrupted access to their non web-based email (Outlook, etc.).

In order to continually protect the security of the Library's wireless connection, we have decided to retain the username and password operated system that we have run up to now. When you initially open up the web browser of your choice, you will immediately be presented with the screen opposite:

If you have any questions or concerns regarding these changes to the library's wireless connection, please do get in contact with us.

Like the entire RSA House, the Library will be closed for the Bank Holiday on Monday 7 May.

New Book - Universal Principles of Design

William Lidwell
Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design.
Rockport Publishers, 2003, 745.403 LID

Both a quick access resource for designers, and an easily digestible introduction to the fundamentals of design, Universal Principles of Design is a valuable tool for anyone wishing to engage with the design process.

As well as unpacking major subjects within design such as 'Accessibility' and 'Aesthetics', Universal Principles of Design also explains theories such as the 80/20 rule, which highlights the need to evaluate each design element as '80 percent of the effects generated by any large system are caused by 20 percent of the variables in that system'.

The book provides concise yet detailed explanations to aid our appreciation of methods such as consistency in branding, a concept that we all know to be an effective advertising technique without necessarily having a full understanding of why. Delving deeper into the importance of human responses to design, the book contains a strong coverage of human factors such as 'Attractiveness Bias' and 'Mimicry' illustrating that the way we engage with a product psychologically is as important as the way we use it physically.

Universal Principles of Design could certainly provide valuable insight for anyone wanting to be involved in any of the design competitions being run by the RSA in 2007. Once again RSA Design Directions has a number of awards on offer, including the recently launched 'Flying Start 2007 ' for young design/creative graduates with an interest in starting up a design-led enterprise. For those wanting to gain a better understanding of exactly what Design Directions is all about, a free publication is available entitled Design Directions: Three Years of Designing the Difference. To receive a copy of this publication, please contact janet.hawken@rsa.org.uk.

RSA Arts & Ecology will also be encouraging general thinking about design solutions in 2007. Engaging in the need for arts and design to tackle environmental issues, we will soon be launching our 'Bat House Project' which is a competition to build a home for bats in London and will be open to architects, the general public and school children, with a prize for each category.

RSA Ethical Futures - Loving the Machine

Timothy N. Hornyak

Loving the Machine: the Art and Science of Japanese Robots
Kodansha International, 2006, 629.892 HOR

As advancements and breakthroughs in science and technology become increasingly frequent and further reaching, scientists, politicians, the media and society as a whole are beginning to think more and more deeply about the possibilities for human existence in the future.

Long existing in our imaginations through science fiction books and films, ideas such as dramatically extended or infinite human life expectancy or robots that replicate human actions and emotions are beginning to enter the realms of possibility. There are scientists who believe that the first human to live to 1000 has already been born, and as the book Loving the Machine illustrates, robots or 'humanoids' of various kinds are already being developed as commercial products in Japan.

The book, supported by author Timothy N. Hornyak's blog, is more than a celebration of robots and their potential impact on our lives. It focuses on Japan, not simply because this is where the biggest developments are being made, but also because of the unique attitude the country holds toward robots. Hornyak informs us that Japan is 'creating what will likely be the world's first mass robot culture'. What is perhaps most interesting is the Japanese attraction to specifically designing robots with human characteristics that encourage us to express the kind of emotions towards robots that we would only normally express towards other living things. Indeed, the Japanese economy is the only one that has really shown an interest in developing robots as mass consumer goods, designed to entertain people as pets or even friends.

However, a future in which humans have relationships with robots that replicate their relationships with other humans creates another element of uncertainty surrounding the future relationship between human, 'post-human' and robotic states. To consider this and many other issues arising from the prospect of a 'post-human' world, the RSA Programme team has created an Ethical Futures Project to question how our society might ethically comprehend and deal with this challenge.

RSA Library Update - April 2007

What follows is a complete list of RSA library acquisitions for the month of April 2007. Fellows are welcome to e-mail library@rsa.org.uk if they wish to borrow any of these items, or search the library catalogue for thousands of other titles....

000s – Generalities

100s – Philosophy & Psychology

G.Neil Martin, Neil R. Carlson & William Buskist
Psychology
Pearson Higher Education, 2007, 150 MAR
This new third edition of Psychology introduces students to the central concepts, ideas, theories and findings in all major branches of psychology.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Lucienne Roberts
Good: an Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design
AVA Academia, 2006, 174.974
This timely book is a reaction to the current tendency within design for a focus on style-led design solutions and the pursuit of self-expression alone. Urging designers to use their influence wisely, Lucienne Roberts seeks to open up a dialogue about ‘good design’ and challenge the perpetuation of vacuous design judgements that are often made without any real analysis of the criteria used.

200s – Religion

Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion
Bantam, 2006, 211.8 DAW
While Europe is largely secularized, the rise of religious fundamentalism, whether in the Middle East or Middle America, divides opinion around the world. The God Delusion attacks God in various forms, from the sex-obsessed, cruel tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign, but still illogical, Celestial Watchmaker favoured by some Enlightenment thinkers.

300s – Social Sciences

We Are What We Do
Change the World for a Fiver: 50 Actions to Change the World and Make You Feel Good.
Short Books, 2004, 303.4 CHA
This book marked the launch of ‘We Are What We Do’, a national movement developed by the charity Community Links that aims to inspire people to make small changes and undertake small acts that can have a large impact on the environment, society, and their individual lives.
RSA Lecture related item 'People Making Waves' Wednesday 18 April 2007.

We Are What We Do
Change the World 9 to 5: 50 Actions to Change the World at Work
Short, 2006, 306.36 HEN
Following up from the best selling Change the World for a Fiver, this stimulating and thought provoking book looks at actions we can take in and around the workplace.
RSA Lecture related item: 'People Making Waves' Wednesday 18 April 2007.

Nick Cohen
What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way
Fourth Estate, 2007, 320.51 COH
From the much-loved, witty and excoriating voice of journalist Nick Cohen, comes this powerful and irreverent dissection of the agonies, idiocies and compromises of mainstream liberal thought.

Michel Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington & Joji Wotanuki
The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to The Trilateral Commission
New York University Press, 1975, 321.8 CRO
A classic report on democracy from 1975, made to the pan North American, European and Pacific Asian independent organisation - The Trilateral Commission.

Maurice Fraser (ed.)
European Union: the Next Fifty Years
Financial Times Business, 2007, 327.410 MAU
Half a Century after the EEC was established by the Treaty of Rome, fifty leading politicians and political thinkers provide their hope and ambitions for the next fifty years of the EU.
RSA Lecture related item: 'The next 50 years: what sort of Europe do we want?'

Will Hutton
The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century
Little, Brown, 2007, 330.951 HUT
The Writing on the Wall is an incisive and thoroughly accessible account of China's emergence as an economic power from the best selling author of The State We’re In.

David Strahan
The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man
John Murray, 2007, 333.823 STR
The Last Oil Shock is the story of a threat even more serious than global terrorism, and even more urgent than global warming. David Strahan guides us through the shocking facts of the looming energy supply and energy security crisis facing the world.

Stuart Skorman & Catherine Guthrie
Confessions of a Serial Entrepreneur: Why I Can't Stop Starting Over
John Wiley & Sons, 2007, 338.097 SKO
Stuart Skorman gives us an insider's view of what it takes to start a business from the ground up, offering his hard-won lessons in business for any entrepreneur or small businessperson who wants to create a company that has a heart and soul.

Bryan Burrough
Barbarians at the Gate: the Fall of RJR Nabisco
Arrow Books, 2004, 338.836 BUR
Barbarians at the Gate is the shocking account of the largest corporate take-over in American history. Bryan Burrough tells the ultimate story of greed and glory with 25 billion dollars at stake.

Ian Shapiro
Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy Against Global Terror
Princeton University Press, 2007, 363.325 SHA
Attacking both the Bush administration’s inflammatory national security programme and the inability of the US Democrat party to present viable alternatives, Containment argues that the idea of containment offers the best hope for protecting American security and encoring the expansion of democracy throughout the world.
ThuRSdAy related item, ‘Confronting Nuclear Proliferation in an Age of Terror'.

RSA
Drugs - Facing Facts: the Report of the RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy
RSA, 2007, 364.177 RSA
Following a wide-ranging two-year study, this report was launched in March 2007 by the RSA and proposes a radical rethink in drugs policy ahead of a major government review of the National Drug Strategy in 2008.

Professor W.J. Morgan
Teacher Mobility, 'Brain Drain', Labour Markets and Educational Resources in the Commonwealth
Department for International Development, 2006, 370 MOR
The result of an 18 month research project, funded by the Department for International Development, this book examines the role of education within strategies for poverty elimination.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

400s – Language

500s – Natural Sciences & Mathematics

600s – Technology (Applied Sciences)

Bryan Appleyard
How to Live Forever or Die Trying: on the New Immortality
Simon & Schuster, 2007, 612.68 APP
The search for immortality has been a constant human refrain throughout history and medical science has improved at an exponential rate in recent decades and there are those who believe that the ability to cheat death will soon be within our reach. In this book Bryan Appleyard examines our human desire to live forever.

Mike Southon & Chris West
The Boardroom Entrepreneur: Putting the Craft of Entrepreneurship to Work Inside the Large Organisation
Random House Business Books, 2005, 658.421 SOU
Entrepreneurs are the masters of change in the modern business environment: visionary, flexible, innovative. Large, established organizations look ponderous in comparison - but they need to change too, now more than ever. Can they learn from entrepreneurs? Or is the culture clash just too great? Mike Southon and Chris West, authors of the bestselling The Beermat Entrepreneur, believe that established institutions can harness the entrepreneurial passions and skills of their people. In this book, they show how.

Chris Fill
Simply Marketing Communications
Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2006, 658.802 FIL
The third edition of Fill’s best selling, theoretically strong marketing communications text provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject and focuses on two main themes- integrated marketing communications and relationship marketing.

Ian Wilkinson
Inclusive Design: Clear and Large Print Best Practice Guide for Designers
International Society of Typographical Designers, 2007, 686.22 WIL
Written by RNIB with specific reference to the Disability Discrimination Act and supported by the Design Council and the European Institute for Design and Disability, Inclusive Design is a landmark publication which provides a framework within which to work when producing typography and graphic design for people with partial sight.
RSA related item: Design Directions.

700s – The Arts

Gerald Scarfe
Drawing Blood: Forty-five Years of Scarfe Uncensored
Little Brown & Co., 2005, 741.594 SCA
Drawing blood is the first collection of Gerald Scarfe drawings and paintings to be released for twenty years. A truly exceptional artist and one of Britain’s most revered cultural commentators; Scarfe is also a member of the RSA Royal Designers for Industry faculty.
RSA related item: Royal Designers for Industry collection.

Phil Baines & Steve Hare (ed.)
Penguin by Designers
Penguin Collectors' Society, 2007, 741.640 BAI
As part of Penguin’s 70th anniversary celebrations, The Penguin Collectors’ Society held a study day at the V&A to explore the history of the design of Penguin books. Penguin by Designers documents this fascinating event, attended by many of the people who have been involved in the design of Penguin books over the last fifty years.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Pentagram & Delphine Hirasuna (ed.)
The Pentagram Papers: a collection of 36 papers containing curious, entertaining, stimulating, provocative, and occasionally controversial points of view that have come to the attention of, or in some cases are actually originated by, the partners of Pentagram Design
Chronicle Books, 2007, 745.2 PEN
Since 1975, the famed international design firm Pentagram has produced a series of signature documents, known as Pentagram Papers, exclusively for their clients and colleagues. For the firms thirty-fifth anniversary, these idiosyncratic and influential pieces are collected together for the first time and made available to the public.
RSA related item: Royal Designers for Industry collection.

Kathryn Best
Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation
AVA Publishing SA, 2007, 745.206 BES
Design Management is about the management of design in industry. It leads the reader through the strategy, process and implementation of design management via an exploration of the required skills, theory and practice of each.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Trevor Naylor
Living Normally: Where Life Comes Before Style
Thames & Hudson, 2007, 747.1 NAY
The anti-style bible for those who ignore makeover culture, Living Normally is an interiors book with a difference. Fifteen inhabitants of ordinary homes are given the chance to air their views on life at home today and to have the world come for a cuppa at their place.

Banksy
Wall and Piece
Century, 2005, 759.2 BAN
Banksy is responsible for decorating the streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cites through Britain and the world with works of art. Officially a criminal by law, his brand of graffiti art combines comedy with political and social comment to great effect.

800s – Literature

John Mullan
How Novels Work
Oxford University Press, 2006, 809.3 MUL
Using examples from popular novels, John Mullan examines the techniques by which fiction works. He explains how the pleasures of novel reading often come from the formal ingenuity of the novelist, addresses the close reading of fiction, and shows that literary criticism is something that fiction enthusiasts can do.

900s – Geography & History

Alistair Horne
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962
New York Review Books, 2006, 965.046 HOR
British historian Horne spent much of his career studying French military history. In this work originally published in 1977, he turns his eye on France's failed colonial war in Algeria.

New Book - Change the World 9 to 5

We Are What We Do
Change the World 9 to 5: 50 Actions to Change the World at Work.
Short Books, 2006, 306.36 HEN

Change the World 9 to 5 is the latest book from We Are What We Do which is a movement set up by the charity Community Links with the aim of "inspiring people to use their everyday actions to change the world". Following up from the 2004 publication Change the World for a Fiver this book focuses on the place where we spend a huge amount of our adult lives - at work.

Beyond the convenience of suggesting practical actions that can be undertaken in a place where most of us spend a great deal of time, many of the suggestions within the book also focus on changing the culture of the working environment, such as 'speak rather than email' or 'know how you fit into the bigger picture'. The benefits of making work a nicer place to be are fairly self explanatory, however this approach also as has potentially significant implications regarding the politics of work, as described by this Guardian Newspaper article.

With such a broad and far reaching goal as "changing the world" it is not surprising that the movement advocates action on a wide variety of issues including the environment, community cohesion and personal behaviour. However We Are What We Do argues in favour of developing a large social movement of people making small manageable actions, rather than relying on the actions of a select few individuals to promote change. The movement has attracted praise within the world of politics from both the Labour Party and particularly the Conservative Party, who have connected the movement to their idea of "social responsibility".

We Are What We Do has also attracted considerable media attention, not least because it has produced a bag, designed to be used instead of plastic bags, that has become a hugely popular and fashionable accessory. Read an article about the bag in The Independent newspaper.

David Robinson, co-founder and current chair of We Are What We Do, will speak at an RSA Lecture on 18 April 2007 entitled People Making Waves.

New Book - Good: Ethics in Graphic Design

Lucienne Roberts

Good: An Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design
AVA Publishing, 2006, 174.974 ROB

Contributing to the library's support of all projects run by the RSA Programme Department, Good: an Introduction to Ethics in Graphic Design explores the emerging concept of 'design for good', examining the way designers, as people, are constantly faced with decisions that shape the outcome of their work and thus the world at large.

Covering everything from the ethical decision a designer faces when choosing who to work for, to the ethics of who a product is designed for and the motivation behind the design itself, the book uses contributions from a number of professionals in design and related fields to answer the fundamental question 'What is good design?'

Working at the forefront of the 'design for good' concept, Design Directions is an RSA scheme working with student designers to promote engagement in social, cultural and ethical issues. Focusing on user-centred methodologies, Design Directions offers awards in a wide array of especially crafted design subjects, such as 'Design for Patient Safety', 'Designing Out Waste in Specific Environments', 'Furniture for Real Environments' and 'Natural Disaster Relief'.

The RSA is currently (and for a very limited time only) hosting exhibition called Designing Our Futures showcasing a selection of winning work from past RSA student design award schemes, at the Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art (RCA).

An exhibition of the 2005/06 Design Directions winners is available to view online.

Featured item - The Welfare State We're In

James Bartholomew
The Welfare State We're In
Politico's Publishing, 2004, 361.650 BAR

This week's thuRSdAy event saw a post-budget debate on public spending between two journalists of very different political persuasions.

James Bartholomew, who writes freelance for papers such as The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Mail and is the author of the book The Welfare State We're In (available to borrow from the RSA Library), argued that the very nature of public sector institutions is highly inefficient, inherently over-administrated and unnecessarily bureaucratic. He suggested that this was unavoidable in such large and cumbersome organisations that are often largely unaccountable and in which employees have more incentive to maintain the status quo than to strive for efficiency and productivity.

Arguing the case for public spending was RSA Fellow and regular contributor to the Guardian and the New Statesman, Neil Lawson. Lawson, who is also the chair of the fast-growing pressure group Compass, argued that public institutions are important in the promotion of social values and community cohesion, are vital in safeguarding the rights of less advantaged sections of society, and in ensuring a level of equality within society. He also pointed towards the great costs of marketing and PR in the private sector to suggest that efficiency might be equally problematic within the that sector, and then provided the example of Sweden as a country with comparatively high levels of taxation and public spending but still manages to be economically prosperous and competitive.

Both panelists agreed that inefficiency is a considerable problem within current public institutions in Britain, but while Bartholomew's view is that the competitiveness of the market provides the best path forward, Lawson argued for a re-imagination of the way services are provided within the public sector. He highlighed the need for an approach that is less top-down and less regimented, and that would allow customers and those employees that actually provide the service on a daily basis greater scope for developing services that more effectively meet the public need.

Both in his book The Welfare State We're In and in his thuRSdAy argument James Bartholomew devotes considerable attention to the current situation within the state school system, estimating bureaucracy to a level that means there is the equivalent of one non-teaching administrator for every single class in the state school education system. He also suggesting that this leads to a significantly lower standard of general education for British students in comparison to other parts of Europe.

Improving and re-conceptualising British education is an area currently receiving significant attention from the RSA. Not only have we been successfully running our Curriculum Network for several years, but we are also now embarking on a RSA Academy project.

The City Academy initiative is perhaps one that combines some ideas from both James Bartholomew and Neil Lawson. On the one hand it allows private sector (or at least non-public sector) money into state schools with a view to improving education standards, on the other it allows individual academies the independence and autonomy to have a significant influence over both the running of the the school and the focus of the curriculum it runs.

The RSA certainly has big planes for the City Academy we are sponsoring in the town of Tipton in the West Midlands, as RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor explains in a recent interview with The Independent newspaper.

Featured Book - States of Denial

Stanley Cohen

States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering
Polity Press, 2001, 121.5 COH

This week's post on RSA Chief Executive Matthew Taylor's new blog, 'The View from the 4th Floor of John Adam Street', praised the political events of the last week in which Gordon Brown and David Cameron went head-to-head, each attempting to win points and convince the British public that theirs was the party with the best ideas on confronting climate change.

However he also warned of the danger that the environment and climate change could start to be "seen as a political fad", and pointed to sociologist Stanley Cohen's book States of Denial as an exploration of our human ability to prevent ourselves from focusing on unpleasant events as a way to protect ourselves from the psychological burden of such information.

With some further thought, many of the major political and humanitarian issues confronting the world today tempt us into a similar process. The Zimbabwean Embassy in London it situated on The Strand, almost directly opposite the rear entrance of the RSA House. The regular protects against the Mugabe regime that have been taking place there have for a long time been a reminder to us of the need for international action against injustice in Zimbabwe. Perhaps the one positive to come from the assault on opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is that it has prompted increased international pressure on the Mugabe regime, including from Great Britain.

In this context, by analysing the psychology of how we respond to terrible and tragic events, Stanley Cohen can provide great insight into the way we are prone to react, helping us overcome this tendency and alerting us to our wider social responsibility as well as the political responsibility of our governments to confront those issues that it might well be easier to shy away from.

States of Denial is available to borrow from the RSA Library.

RSA Library Update - March 2007

What follows is a complete list of RSA library acquisitions for the month of February 2007. Fellows are welcome to e-mail library@rsa.org.uk if they wish to borrow any of these items, or search the library catalogue for thousands of other titles....

000s – Generalities

100s – Philosophy & Psychology

Robert B. Cialdini
Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion
Quill/ William Morrow, 1993, 153.852 CAL
Influence is an investigation into the six psychological principles that drive our powerful impulse to comply to the pressures of others. Practically focused, it discusses how to defend against manipulation.

200s– Religion

300s – Social Sciences

John Scott
Social Theory: Contemporary Debates
Edward Elgar, 1995, 301.01 SCO
Social Theory: Contemporary Debates explores the principle trends and lines of division within contemporary sociology, presenting arguments about the relative merits of the positions covered. It considers symbolic interactions, rational choice and exchange theories, conflict theories, and structuralism.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

John Scott (ed.)
Fifty Key Sociologists: the Formative Theorists
Routledge, 2007, 301.092 SCO
Covering the life, work, ideas and impact of some of the most significant thinkers in sociology, this book concentrates on the most significant figures in the field that were writing principally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

John Scott (ed.)
Fifty Key Sociologists: the Contemporary Theorists
Routledge, 2007, 301.092 SCO
The second in the "Fifty Key Sociologists” series, this book concentrates on figures writing predominantly in the second half of the twentieth century, such as Zygmunt Bauman, Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault and Claude Levi-Strauss. For each entry it includes full cross-referencing, a further reading section, biographical data, key works and ideas, and a critical assessment.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Rosemary Crompton (ed.), Fiona Devine (ed.) & Mike Savage (ed.) et al.
Renewing Class Analysis
Blackwell Publishers/ The Sociological Review, 2000, 305.5 CRO
This collection advances contemporary debates in class analysis by offering a range of new empirical research on emergent forms of social stratification and by re-thinking the intersection between economic change, social polarization, and the remaking of class relations.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Fiona Devine (ed.), Mike Savage (ed.), and John Scott (ed.) et al.
Rethinking Class: Culture, Identities & Lifestyle
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 305.5 DEV
Advancing debates in class analysis Rethinking Class draws on current theoretical debates in sociology and considers the implications of the cultural turn for the study of class.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

John Scott
Stratification & Power: Structures of Class, Status and Command
Polity Press, 1996, 305.5 SCO
Stratification & Power presents a systematic discussion of the leading theoretical approaches to social stratification. It is both an accessible overview and a distinctive contribution to the analysis of class, status and power. John Scott argues that, among other things, Max Weber's conceptual framework-reconstructed and enlarged-provides the basis for integrating what have been considered up to now as divergent approaches to stratification studies.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

John Scott
The Upper Classes: Property and Privilege in Britain
The Macmillan Press, 1982, 305.5 SCO
In this book John Scott draws together the major sources of evidence on the upper classes in British social development, and locates this evidence in a class frame of reference.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Jose Lopez & John Scott
Social Structure
Open University Press, 2000, 306 LOP
Social Structure argues that analysing the conceptual frameworks in which different concepts of social structure are embedded can help to clarify their meanings and reshape debates. This book aims to show that competing conceptions of social structure can be seen as capturing significant and different aspects of the reality of social organization.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

Lynsey Hanley
Estates: an Intimate History
Granta Books, 2007, 363.585 HAN
Britain's council estates have become a media shorthand for poverty, social mayhem, drugs, drink and violence - the social ills they were built to cure. This work focuses on how shifting trends in urban planning and changing government policies affected those so often left out of the argument over council estates.

400s – Language

500s – Natural Sciences &Mathematics

600s – Technology (Applied Sciences)

Robert I. Sutton
Weird Ideas that Work: 11 1/2 Ways to Promote, Manage and Sustain Innovation
Allen Lane, 2002, 658 SUT
Weird Ideas that Work begins by demystifying creativity at work and goes on to show how companies have managed and mismanaged the creative potential of their staff. The author's conclusions are drawn from studying dozens of successful companies and hundreds of case studies.

700s – The Arts

Maggie Smith (ed.)
The New Art
Rachmaninoff's, 2006, 709.05 SMI
A bold and exciting new book profiling some of the most significant work that could be described as 'new art'.

800s – Literature

900s – Geography & History

Reference

John Scott (ed.) & Gordon Marshall (ed.)
Oxford Dictionary of Sociology
Oxford University Press, 2005, 301.03 REF
This dictionary of sociology contains vital information at general interest level as well as catering for advanced students and teachers of sociology.
RSA Fellow’s donation.

RSA Library - Improved DVD Lending Service

Michael Winterbottom

The Road to Guantanamo

Cinema Club, 2006, DVD WIN

In order to expand the range of factual based DVDs that we can offer to fellows, the RSA Library has teamed up with a leading DVD rental service, to provide us with short term access to a wealth of new titles.

Each month the RSA Library will make a selection of different films available, such as the Berlin Film Festival award winning and critically acclaimed 'The Road to Guantanamo' which chronicles the terrifying first-hand account of three British Citizens who were held without charges for two years inside the American military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Read a Guardian review of The Road to Guantanamo.

The Library will also accept requests from Fellows for suitable titles, and will make all DVDs available on a one week loan. If you have a DVD request, please e-mail the Library.

The RSA Library is also happy to announce that from now on, all books withdrawn from our shelves will be donated to Oxfam and sold at their shop in Bloomsbury, London.

Featured Book - What Are Children For?

Laurie Taylor & Matthew Taylor

What Are Children For?

Short Books, 2003, 306.874 TAY

The ThuRSdAy event this week focused on the relationship between parents and children in today's society. Entitled Time to grow up: Have generation X parents failed their children? the event was chaired by Matthew Taylor, who was involved not only as the Chief Executive of the RSA, but also as the co-author of the book What Are Children For?

In an age where large numbers of adults are waiting longer and longer to enter into parenthood or deciding not to have children at all, and where the demands of work are encroaching ever further on family and social life, What Are Children For? delves into the psychology of parenthood and poses so difficult questions to parents everywhere. Written together with his father, broadcaster and journalist Laurie Taylor, the book is both a study of the current state of parenting, conducted by parents of different generations, as well as an intimate dialogue between a father and son seeking to resolve their very different attitudes to family life.

Listen to Laurie & Matthew Taylor's appearance on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

If you are interested in attending a future ThuRSdAy event, why not join the event mailing list.

If you would like to borrow the book What Are Children For?, please email the library.