Leeds Salon
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Next Salon:The Myth of Racist Kids
Mondy 11 October 2010 - Leeds Civic Hall, Millennium Square, in Committee Rooms 6 & 7
Many of the 'racist incidents' reported by schools involve very young children and include cases of name-calling in the playground and arguments between friends. A growing 'race relations industry' has moved into the daily life of schools and even nurseries, with the aim of combating prejudice in children as young as three.
In The Myth of Racist Kids Adrian Hart argues that well-meaning policies have led to a growing regulation of children's peer relationships, and the undermining of teacher's ability to deal with everyday classroom incidents. The growing myth of racist kids can actually create ethnic tensions, stifling the trend towards increasing oppenness and intermixing.
Readings & Reviews
This isn't racism. It's just kids being kids, by Helene Guldberg, Spiked Review of Books, Issue no.32, February 2010
The myth of racist kids?, by Sean Bell, Culture Wars, 17 November 2009
Schools reporting 40,000 cases of racism a year, by Martin Beckford, Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2009
Number of racist incidents reported in schools tells us more about the mindset of officials than children, by Josie Appleton, Daiily Telegraph, 29 October 2009
About the Author
Adrian Hart is an award winning community film-maker and founder of Coyote Films.He is a lecturer to special needs students, an author and an anti-racism campaigner. Adrian Hart's film work includes: 'Safe' (winner LWTs Whose London? 2002), Moving Here' (awarded beacon status 2006) and 'Only Human' (2006 broadcast on Teachers TV in 2009). Adrian is also a member of The Brighton Salon.
Time and possibly other speakers to be confirmed.
Ferraris for All?
Monday 15 November 2010
The growth of the economy and the spread of prosperity are increasingly seen as problematic rather than positive - a trend Daniel Ben-Ami has termed 'growth scepticism'. Prosperity is accused of encouraging greed, damaging the environment, causing unhappiness and widening social inequalities. Ferraris for all is a rejoinder to the growth sceptics. Using examples from a range of countries, including the US, the author argues that society as a whole benefits from greater affluence. Action is needed - but to increase prosperity and spread it worldwide, not to limit prosperity, as the sceptics would have it. Lively and provocative, this timely book will trigger debate and dissent in equal measure and will be essential reading for everyone who cares about the impact of western policy on developing countries.
Readings & Reviews
Growth sceptics selling the economy short, by Daniel Ben-Ami, The Australian, 26 July 2010
'More for less' deficit policy is mixed up, by Daniel Ben-Ami, Guardian Comment is Free, 24 July 2010
An economics blind to human ingenuity, by Daniel Ben-Ami, Guardian Comment is Free, 16 July 2010
Why more is really more, by Sean Collins, Spiked Review of Books, Issue no.35, June 2010 About the Author
Daniel Ben-Ami has worked as a journalist for over 20 years, during which he has contributed to numerous national and specialist publications. His previous book, Cowardly Capitalism (Wiley, 2001) , was recommended by the Baker Library of Harvard Business School. He is a regular contributor to Spiked-online and his work has appeared in many other newspapers and magazines, including: The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Novo (Germany), Propect, The Sunday Telegraph and The Sunday Time., Visit his website here.
Venue, time and possibly other speakers to be confirmed.
The 'Two Cultures' Debate Fifty Years OnMonday 13 December 2010 |
Leeds Salon has invited filmmaker and anti-racist campaigner, Adrian Hart, to talk about his book 
Leeds Salon welcome economics writer Daniel Ben-Ami to discuss his provocative new book 
In 1959, C.P. Snow delivered the annual Rede Lecture in Cambridge under the title of 'The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution'. Snow warned of a gap that had opened up between scientists and the 'literary intellectuals' that made it almost impossible for the two groups to communicate. Snow complained that literary intellectuals were not only ignorant of science but contemptuous of it, as if scientific knowledge were unnecessary for a good education. Snow believed that improvements in the teachnig of science were required in order to address the world's greatest problems, and to complete with the USA and USSR. Snow spoke with the authority of a man with a foot in both camps, as a trained research scientist and a successful novelist, and his lecture provoked worldwide coverage. However, in 1962 it received an extraordinary response from the influential literary critic F.R. Leavis, who delivered an attack on Snow of unprecedented ferocity. The Snow/Leavis controversy has provoked debate ever since between supporters of both men's positions as to the real purpose of education.