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"Leveson is a threat to freedom of expression"
The Yorkshire Post’s Bill Carmichael, who spoke at April’s Leeds Salon, argues that the newspaper industry has "meekly allowed the establishment ... to set up an enquiry that will inevitably place new restrictions on that most fundamental of our liberties, freedom of expression". For the full story, visit his blog at billycarmichael.blogspot.co.uk.
Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity
Date: Wednesday 23 May, 6:45pm (for 7pm start) to 8:30pm
Venue: The Millennium Room, Carriageworks, Leeds
Speakers: Ray Tallis
Leeds Salon welcomes back Ray Tallis to discuss his latest book Aping Mankind.
In a devastating critique Raymond Tallis exposes the exaggerated claims made for the ability of neuroscience and evolutionary theory to explain human consciousness, behaviour, culture and society.
While readily acknowledging the progress neuroscience has made in helping us understand how the brain works, Tallis directs his guns at neuroscience’s dark companion — Neuromania, as he describes it — the belief that brain activity is not merely a necessary but a sufficient condition for human consciousness and that consequently our everyday behaviour can be entirely understood in neural terms.
Aping Mankind is available at Blackwell’s Bookshop, 21 Blenheim Terrace, LS2 9JH, opposite Leeds University Parkinson Building, price £15.
Does Leeds Have a Problem with Lap Dancing Clubs?
Date: Mid-June (tbc)
Venue: Carriageworks, Leeds
Speakers: Cllr. Rebecca Charlwood (more speakers tbc)
The last decade has seen 'an explosion' of lap dancing clubs across the UK. According to the campaign group Object, the number of clubs has more than doubled since 2004, growing to more than 300 nationally. In Leeds, they've long since been part of city's nightlife. With eight clubs in the city at present, some in prominent positions in the city centre and more looking to open all the time, there’s concern about their influence on, and what they say about, contemporary society.
For many, lap dancing is harmless fun that adds to Leeds's night-time economy and provides flexible employment for the hundreds of young women who choose to work in them. For others, the 'sex industry' of which they are a part has a detrimental impact on society.
In Leeds, political and religious leaders have recently clubbed together to call upon the Council "to significantly reduce the number of clubs in operation".
Surviving Identity: Vulnerabity and the Psychology of Recognition
Date: Monday 16 July 2012, 6:45pm (for 7pm start) to 8:30pm
Venue: Room 2, Carriageworks, Leeds
Speakers: Ken McLaughlin
Leeds Salon invites Dr Ken McLaughlin to discuss his latest book, Surviving Identity: Vulnerability and the Psychology of Recognition
Today, political claims are increasingly made on the basis of experienced trauma and inherent vulnerability, as evidenced in the growing number of people who identify as a "survivor" of one thing or another, and also in the way in which much political discourse and social policy assumes the vulnerability of the population. In Surviving Identity, Ken McLaughlin discusses these developments in relation to the changing focus of social movements, from concerns with economic redistribution, towards campaigns for cultural recognition. As a result of this, the experience of trauma and psychological vulnerability has become a dominant paradigm within which both personal and political grievances are expressed.
FIPA: the Leeds Salon sister journal
www.freedominapuritanage.co.uk
