2021 Festival of Ideas LIVE Events

How Can We Stop Fascism?

Journalist and broadcaster Paul Mason examines the history of fascism and offers a radical, and hopeful, blueprint for resisting and defeating the new far right.

Fascism is back, Mason argues. In January 2021, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. Right-wing populism was supposed to be a firewall against far-right extremism – but the firewall is on fire. From Brazil to India to Sweden the far right is on the rise across the world.

Fascism is not a horror that we have left in the past; it is a recurring nightmare that is happening again – and we need to find a better way to fight it. The new far right is organisationally small, but its ideologies and symbols are proliferating across networks and social media, into the lives of many ordinary people. Fascism, Mason says, is a symptom of capitalist failure, one that has haunted us throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

The new far right is being driven by climate change, economic stagnation but above all by the collapse of free market ideology, and the disorientation of the self-image millions of people created around it. The left and centre, Mason believes, should unite in a defence of democracy, creating – as in the 1930s – an antifascist ethos that can defeat the mythologies of ethnic conflict being propagated by the right. 

In conversation with Bristol Ideas director Andrew Kelly.

IMAGE CREDIT: JÜRGEN BAUER

Paul Mason 13 September 2021

What if All the Stories We Tell are About Climate Change?

At the launch of his new book, The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture, Mark Bould reveals traces of climate catastrophe to be found throughout contemporary literature and film.

Climate change is not going to happen – it is already happening, and deep down our culture knows it. And not just in the science fictions and climate fictions that tackle head-on the crisis through which we are living.

From the autobiographical fictions of Paul Auster and Karl Ove Knausgaard to the Sharknado movies. From experiments in stream-of-consciousness and pseudo-Old English by Lucy Ellmann and Paul Kingsnorth to the Fast and Furious franchise. From the arthouse cinema of Jia Zhang-Ke, Ben Rivers, Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Andrey Zvyagintsev to the comic strip adventures of Swamp Thing, Man-Thing and Groot. From forking paths to foreclosed futures. Zombies rub shoulders with Booker prize-winners. Tom Cruise dies a lot, and Vin Diesel shows us that we cannot go on like this. Oceans and the trees remind us of other ways to be.

Described as a ‘scintillating work of boisterous melancholy’ (China Miéville) and ‘a thrill-ride rollercoaster of ideas’ (Imre Szeman), The Anthropocene Unconscious argues that critical, creative play is essential if we are to bridge the gulf between contemporary too-little/too-late/if-at-all climate politics and a flourishing biosphere in which we too might flourish.

Mark Bould is in conversation with Andrew Kelly, director of Bristol Ideas.

Photo: Andrea Gibbons

Mark Bould 9 November 2021

On 21 October, as part of Film2021 and the Festival of the Future City, an event was held to examine the current status of film and cinema in Bristol and the value of the moving image to cities generally.

This audio recording of the first half of the event includes:

Bristol and Film with Lynn Barlow (co-chair One City Culture Board); Steve Presence and Andrew Spicer (UWE Bristol); and Mark Cosgrove (Watershed)

Bristol, Friese-Greene and City of Film with Peter Domankiewicz

and extracts of four of the essays from the anthology Opening Up the Magic Box read by their authors.

Part of the Opening Up the Magic Box heritage project within Bristol Ideas' Film2021 programme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

www.bristolideas.co.uk/projects/film-2021/

TASCAM DR-100mk3

How Do We Maximise the Potential of Film and Cinema in Cities? (Part 1) 21 October 2021

On 21 October, as part of Film2021 and the Festival of the Future City, an event was held to examine the current status of film and cinema in Bristol and the value of the moving image to cities generally.

This recording of the second part of the event includes:

The Importance of Film and Cinemas to Cities with Karen Merkel (UK National Commission for UNESCO) and Natalie Moore (Bristol UNESCO City of Film)

Making Film Sustainable with Andie Clare (Icon Films), Lucie Muir (Wildscreen) and Kristina Turner (Filmmakers for Future: Wildlife)chaired by Jenny Lacey

The Future for Film, Cinema and Bristol with Michael Jenkins (film-maker), Natalie Moore (Bristol UNESCO City of Film) and Stacey Olika (Channel 4)chaired by Laura Marshall (Icon Films) 

and the final extract read from our newly published book Opening Up the Magic Box.

Part of the Opening Up the Magic Box heritage project within Bristol Ideas' Film2021 programme funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

www.bristolideas.co.uk/projects/film-2021/

How Do We Maximise the Potential of Film and Cinema in Cities? (Part 2) 21 October 2021

This event combines the launch of year two of the Black and Green Ambassadors with a debate about climate change action.

The pioneering Black and Green Ambassadors programme, founded in 2016 and re-launched in 2021, aims to connect, empower and celebrate diverse leadership and community action on environmental issues in Bristol and beyond. It is about challenging perceptions, creating new opportunities, and working towards ensuring the environmental movement is inclusive and representative of all communities.

This year’s Black and Green Ambassadors – Asia Yousif, Olivia Sweeney and Roy Kareem – reflect on their experience and consider what lies ahead. They share learnings and insights gathered throughout their year of research, community workshops and radio shows designed to explore, amplify and enable solutions leading to an environmentally and socially just future for all.

Hosted by Yousif, Sweeney and Kareem, this session also includes special guests and video highlights from the year, with audience questions and answers and a chance to meet the four new ambassadors beginning their journey in year two of the programme.

How Do We All Ensure Meaningful, Inclusive Action on Climate Change? 20 October 2021

Representatives of six Bristol communities discuss their work in developing climate action plans.

Bristol’s community organisations and artists are pioneering bold and equitable community-led climate action in Bristol. They share insights on how to engage diverse communities about the urgency of the climate emergency at a local level.

Throughout 2021, six community organisations representing Bristol’s most diverse and disadvantaged communities, have set about co-producing their own community climate action plans as part of the lottery-funded Bristol Community Climate Action project. The plans developed will identify key priorities to help deliver Bristol’s 2030 net zero ambition, whilst simultaneously improving the quality of life for local residents in the civic recovery from the pandemic.

This session includes a series of short presentations from six of Bristol’s leading community organisations, followed by an audience Q&A.

Speakers include:
Thomas Dixon, ACH
Karen Edkins, Lockleaze Community Trust
Emily Fifield, Eastside Community Trust
Emma Geen, Bristol Disability Equalities Forum
Kirsty Hammond, Heart of BS13
Amy Harrison, Bristol Green Capital Partnership
Donna Sealey, Ambition Lawrence Weston
Abiir Shirdoon, Eastside Community Trust
Morgan Tipping, Socially Engaged Artist

Image credit: Evoke Pictures

How Can Communities Lead Climate Action? 20 October 2021

Dawn Holland, Stewart Lansley, Helen Simpson and Richard Davies

Our panel discusses economics stories in the news and takes audience questions, big and small.

Illustration: Willem Hampson.

Ask an Economist 17 November 2021

Swati Dhingra (LSE), Karen Jackson(Westminster Business School) and Alejandro Graziano (Nottingham) with The Economist’s Soumaya Keynes.

Our panellists assess the Brexit report card almost one year in.

Brexit has now been done – or has it? From empty shelves in supermarkets to small businesses facing additional costs to the loss of EU members of staff from the hospitality industry, some of the negative consequences of Brexit are still affecting the economy. Similarly, some of the positive opportunities – from trade deals to the new scope for the state to support businesses – have not yet been realised.

What Is the Reality of Brexit? 18 November 2021

What Should Economics Be?

Diane Coyle asks how economics needs to change to keep pace with the twenty-first century and the digital economy.

Digital technology, big data, big tech, machine learning, and AI are revolutionising both the tools of economics and the phenomena it seeks to measure, understand, and shape. Coyle explores the enormous problems – but also opportunities – facing economics today if it is to respond effectively to these dizzying changes and help policymakers solve the world’s crises, from pandemic recovery and inequality to slow growth and the climate emergency.

Mainstream economics, Coyle says, still assumes people are ‘cogs’ – self-interested, calculating, independent agents interacting in defined contexts. But the digital economy is much more characterised by ‘monsters’ – untethered, snowballing, and socially influenced unknowns. What is worse, by treating people as cogs, economics is creating its own monsters, leaving itself without the tools to understand the new problems it faces.

Coyle asks whether economic individualism is still valid in the digital economy, whether we need to measure growth and progress in new ways, and whether economics can ever be objective, since it influences what it analyses. How can economics adapt to the rewiring of society, including by digital technologies, and realise its potential to play a positive role in the twenty-first century?

In conversation with Romesh Vaitilingam.

Diane Coyle 18 November 2021

What Have We Learned From the Pandemic and Global Recession?

Grant Fitzner discusses the economic lessons to be learnt from the extraordinary events of the past two years, sharing his insights as Chief Economist at the Office for National Statistics.

Since the start of last year the UK economy has seen the worst pandemic in a century, the most severe recession in a century, and has left the European Union after 47 years of membership. As the effects of the pandemic and recession abate it’s time to start reflecting on what we’ve learned. Fitzner led the pandemic response at the Office for National Statistics during the first lockdown. He draws on that experience – along with more recent data and analysis – to argue that recent events could have far-reaching implications for how we measure the UK economy.

Grant Fitzner 18 November 2021

Our panellists discuss what reparations for the descendants of enslaved people should be, and the importance and role of reparations in addressing racial injustice.

In the USA, much as been written about a reparations programme but the conversation in the UK has been less prominent. The outrageous revelation that up until 2015 British taxpayers were paying off the debt of compensation to British slave owners, has seen the question of reparations in the UK resurface. What should a reparations programme in the UK be? How could reparations close the racial wealth gap and address systemic inequities?

Patricia Daley (University of Oxford), Leon Sealey-Huggins (University of Warwick) and Hasit Shah join Tanita Lewis.

What Are the Economics of Reparation? 18 November 2021

How Can We Recognise and Adapt to Disruption?

Will Page, Spotify’s former chief economist, shares the lessons he’s learned on how to recognise and adapt to disruption through the application of ‘Tarzan Economics’.

The near destruction of the music industry at the hands of online piracy and its subsequent recovery on the backs of digital streaming platforms is more than just the biggest story of disruption and reinvention of the digital age. It is also a trove of insights on how to confront the metamorphosis we are all facing in dealing with the COVID-19 era, as accelerating tech and economic changes reshape our work, our play and our very minds. 

Page extrapolates music’s journey into eight guiding principles for pivoting through the ubiquitous disruption in nearly all industries. The notion of ‘Tarzan Economics’ ties these principles together: a framework for recognising and acting on disruption, by letting go of the old vine and grabbing onto the new. He assesses the new dynamics of the ‘long tail’, identifies friends and foes in the battle for scarce attention and provides a practical tool for discovering the right role for each of us to succeed in this new modern world.

As we emerge from the unprecedented disruption of a global pandemic, ‘Tarzan Economics’ shows all of us – individuals, organisations and institutions – that if the vine we are holding onto is withering, we can have confidence to reach out for a new one.

In conversation with Alieda Moore.

Will Page 17 November 2021

How Can We Create a Shared History?

Celebrating the new edition of his award-winning book Black and British: A Forgotten History, David Olusoga talks about shared history, the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean, Black Lives Matter and Bristol.

Black and British is vivid confirmation that black history can no longer be kept separate and marginalised. It is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Olusoga reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan ‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. He brings us right up to date with the Windrush scandal and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, events which put black British history – and Bristol – at the centre of urgent national debate. 

He shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Unflinching, confronting taboos and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how the lives of black and white Britons have been entwined for centuries. Black British history is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all.

In this wide-ranging conversation with Andrew Kelly, director of Bristol Ideas, David Olusoga talks about his work, what and who inspires him, and what comes next.

David Olusoga 22 November 2021

Our panellists explore how the economy might recover from one of the after-effects of the pandemic – increased debt.

Companies have borrowed from the government and the banks, businesses and households owe rent and mortgage arrears, and some people will have maxed out their credit cards to get by. How can the debt hangover be resolved, so those affected – and the economy – can recover and indeed ‘build back better’?

Arun Advani (Warwick), Kate Collyer (Financial Conduct Authority) and Gemma Tetlow (Institute for Government) are in discussion with the Independent’s Economics editor Anna Isaac.

How Should We Deal With the Debt Hangover? 19 November 2021

Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC’s technology correspondent, weaves the story of the smartphone era with his own personal experience of the good and bad ways technology has touched and affected us all.

We live at a time when billions have access to unbelievably powerful technology. The most extraordinary tool that has been invented in the last century, the smartphone, is forcing radical changes in the way we live and work – and unlike previous technologies it is in the hands of just about everyone. Coupled with the rise of social media, this has ushered in a new era of deeply personal technology, where individuals now have the ability to work, create and communicate on their own terms, rather than wait for permission from giant corporations or governments. At least that is the optimistic view.

Cellan-Jones takes a characteristically entertaining ride through this turbulent era and examines the dramatic impact of hyperconnectivity, the smartphone and social media on everything from our democracy to our employment and our health. He also discusses his personal experience with technology and medicine, considering how COVID-19 made us look again to computing in our battle to confront the greatest challenge of modern times.

In conversation with Andrew Kelly.

Rory Cellan-Jones 19 November 2021

Our panellists discuss how work in the home might best be assessed in terms of its economic value.

Household labour has – notoriously – never been included in how the economy is measured. But lockdowns have made it impossible to ignore how important it is to our lives – and the economy. Will the experience of ‘working from home’ (as if nobody was working at home before) finally change how we think about the fundamental importance of this activity?

Andrew Eyles (LSE), Sonia Oreffice (University of Exeter), Mary Ann Sieghart and Sarah Smith (University of Bristol) are in conversation with Diane Coyle.

Illustration by Willem Hampson.

What Are the Economics of Household Labour? 19 November 2021

Meredith Crowley, George Magnus and Linda Yueh discuss the uncertain outlook for the world’s two largest economies.

Will President Biden rescue the US from its Trump-induced geopolitical decline? Will the growth of the Chinese economy slow or come to a halt as it faces structural problems? What are the implications for the UK of being caught in the middle of potential US-China clashes over everything from AI to Taiwan?

What Is the Wider Impact of a Resurgent China and an America in Decline? 19 November 2021

The audio recordings for all Bristol Ideas work have been grouped into sets by programme and year.  Please note that not all events are recorded. If you notice any gremlins, glitches or other errors in the recordings, please let us know at info@bristolideas.co.uk and we will make the correction, if appropriate or possible.