Geoff Mulgan
Geoff Mulgan
Geoff Mulgan CBEis Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts and Visiting Professor at University College London, the London School of Economics and the University of Melbourne. Previously he was:...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionEducator
technology ideas people
Many of the greatest composers and musicians do their best work in extreme confinement but we are seeing it in other fields - uses of technology to link people together in networks to solve problems and almost certainly we'll get better ideas than we would from them just doing it on their own.
ideas design innovation
Social innovation thrives on collaboration; on doing things with others, rather than just to them or for them: hence the great interest in new ways of using the web to 'crowdsource' ideas, or the many experiments involving users in designing services.
opportunity ideas lessons
One of the lessons of history is that even the deepest crises can be moments of opportunity. They bring ideas from the margins into the mainstream.
hard-work ideas hard
Spreading an idea is hard work.
art ideas doe
The idea of entrepreneurship applies as much in politics, religion, society and the arts as it does in business.
vigorous
Vigorous independent and critical media are indispensable in a democracy.
answers contains within
Capitalism is not so much an aberration as a step on an evolutionary path, and one that contains within it some of the answers to its own contradictions.
people prefer
I have a lot of admiration for people willing to face the public, but I'd prefer not to.
ability change cynical government leave left opposite people rather
Many people leave government disillusioned about its ability to achieve change and cynical about politicians. I left with rather opposite lessons.
citizens directly messages states
States which used to communicate directly to their citizens now do so through the media, where their messages are reshaped by the logics of news values and commentary.
people
Freecycle groups match people who have things they want to get rid of with people who can use them.
biases compass contain favour love moral plenty protect rich steely themselves whatever
Most governments do have inbuilt biases in favour of the rich and powerful, and most do contain plenty of manipulators who love intrigue, who have lost whatever moral compass they may once have had and who protect themselves with steely cynicism.
claims consistent deliver drawn knowledge less originally people perhaps promised promote protect reason recently states truth truths uphold
Over 5,000 years, states have made surprisingly consistent claims about their duties. They have promised to protect people from threats; promote their welfare; deliver justice and also, perhaps less obviously, uphold truth - originally truths about the cosmos, and more recently truths drawn from reason and knowledge.
academia brought charge civil complex crops dissecting gm government including nuclear outside people problems schools science servant solving strategy work
As a civil servant in charge of the government's Strategy Unit, I brought in many people from outside government, including academia and science, to work in the unit, dissecting and solving complex problems from GM crops to alcohol, nuclear proliferation to schools reform.