Press releases
Community professionals ‘now more than ever need to debate community’
publication date: 13 September 2005
Leading commentators, policy-makers and professionals will challenge current thinking about community at the inaugural Academy of Ideas Battle of Ideas festival.
Advance notice
As part of the festival, the Battle for Community will include a number of debates on issues such as multiculturalism and anti-social behaviour with speakers including: the CRE chair, Trevor Phillips; American cultural historian, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn; the Observer columnist, Nick Cohen; and Labour MP Frank Field.
The debates for many are timely. Co-convenor of the Battle for Community, Patrick Turner, a former youth worker who is currently researching cultural policy said:
Community professionals now more than ever need to debate community. Rhetoric about the need to ‘do something’ about Britain’s fragmented communities has been a hallmark of the Blair years. But it is a rhetoric empty of ideas.
This need for debate and ideas was echoed by Battle for Community speaker and author on youth issues, Stuart Waiton:
Within today’s discussions about ‘community’ there are few if any ‘communal’ values that are being promoted and politicians are increasingly relating to communities solely through the negative framework of ‘antisocial behaviour’. Never has there been a more important time to discuss what the idea of community represents and raise a question about the ‘community safety’ framework the government is adopting to rebuild communities in Britain.
Note to editors
For further information, to request press passes or to interview speakers please contact Shirley Dent on 020 7269 9229/ 07841 583058 or email shirleydent@instituteofideas.com
NB: An experts media directory accompanies the Battle for Community. If you are looking for comment from experts with opinions please call Shirley Dent, the festival press officer on 020 7269 9229/07841 583058