Culture Wars online review covers public talks, debates lectures and conferences in and around London, and beyond, in order to get to grips with the ideas behind the headlines.

Music for life

A talk given by Time Out deputy editor Rachel Halliburton to the Culture Wars Forum in London on 12 November 2008

How can music help improve young people’s lives? I suppose unlike the Music Manifesto I firmly believe that the answer comes as much in the discipline it instils as in the flights of creative self-expression it can let loose.

Head to head on space exploration: ‘man not machine should explore space’

A Battles in Print essay from the Battle of Ideas 2008

Two students from Barton Court Grammar School in an email head-to-head on whether man or machine should be exploring space in the twenty first century

‘And be with me in wonderland’

For better or for worse? Scotland transformed: 1980 – 2008

The challenge of Thatcher to the social concord of the Scottish elites was different from that posed by previous governments, but the political and national confidence that Professor Devine argues grew in the aftermath of that period is perhaps more difficult to see.

Chaotic creativity; critical chaos

Stefan Collini and Peter Conrad, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Friday 15 August 2008

Any view that holds the ‘democratisation’ of criticism and generation of Web 2.0 responsible for the current state of critical thinking, puts far too much emphasis on the technology itself; and at the expense of recognising the superficiality and sometime coerciveness of the supposed democratisation.

Presenting the Past

Who Gives a Folk?, Vibe Bar, London, Tuesday 29 July 2008

Is folk relied on to provide a sense of cultural identity in the absence of any form of social cohesion in society? From the floor the question came that if there is a lack of political or ideological certainty, should one turn to folk and the history it provides to give a sense of identity in the ‘cultural crisis’?

Being Frank

Mark E Smith, London Literature Festival 2008, Southbank Centre, London, Wednesday 16 July 2008

Mark E Smith is yet to become Self-Revealing Talkative Man. Just who thinks he should?

Self-regulate or be doomed

Traffic Jam: are we heading for an internet crunch? a sp!ked debate, London, Tuesday 8 July 2008

The Left is in fantasy land when it comes to the internet, but the libertarian nature of its technology makes it easy to idealise from both sides of the traditional divide.

Dancing around the issues

Excellence and Social Inclusion – an impossible partnership?, RSA, London, Wednesday 2 July

On a case by case basis, arts charities that aim towards ‘reintegration’ do some worthwhile work. But the broader context is one characterised by a general lack of cultural authority in the arts and criticism about them.

Beyond the dogma: the real abortion debate

What’s so bad about abortion?, Future of Abortion conference, London, 24 June 2008

While acknowledging that nobody ever sets out to have an abortion for fun, Ann Furedi made the case boldly that abortion can be a morally good thing, as opposed to a ‘necessary evil’. This position is rarely heard, but it is crucial to any serious debate about abortion.

Speed dating on progress

The Battle for Progress, LIFT festival, Southbank Centre, London, 28 June 2008

‘India has been successful in producing the Tata car to replace the rickshaws that many people have to depend on for transport. The Indian people want cars not rickshaws. Now we’re bringing their rickshaws to central London. What’s that about? We should be happy for the Chinese and the Indians.’

A forward motion

'No Platform' debate at Sussex University, 1-2 May 2008

Two campaigners reflect on two days spent arguing for the motion to abolish No Platform at Sussex University.

Radical Oxford Blues

Oxford Radical Forum, Wadham College, Oxford, 29 February - 2 March 2008

If anything came out of the Forum at all, however, it was a snapshot of the radical state of confusion on the left today, combining nostalgia for the themes and slogans of the past with many of the prejudices of the present.

Obfuscating accountability

Intelligence Squared debate: ‘Britain should have a referendum on the EU Treaty’, Royal Geographical Society, London, 5 March 2008

On the same night that the House of Commons debated the Conservative Party’s amendment to the bill that will ratify the Lisbon Treaty, Intelligence Squared held its own debate on the question of whether Britain should have a referendum on the EU treaty.

Is there a new global working class?

ICA, London, 20 November 2007

The answer to the title of a debate at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) ‘Is there a new global working class’ is ‘yes.’ So you can stop reading now!

Risk and Childhood

RSA, London, 31 October 2007

This conference was a curious affair. The clear message from the opening address was that childhood, like much else about life today, is less risky now than it ever was in the past. This seemed like a good start to a day of debunking risks, and a full frontal assault on our risk society. Or so I had hoped.