Abstract

Panel Discussion

Is there any more pressing question than Understanding Society? David Cameron has made ‘The Big Society’ a central plank of his agenda as if ‘society’ were self-evident. Can the great mavens of public thinking shed light on this central issue?

Lord Giddens, Professors Juliet Mitchell and Richard Sennett – some of the world’s leading sociologists, psychoanalysts, feminists and cultural historians – debate this issue at Kings Place. Lord Giddens is not only one of the world’s most distinguished sociologists but also a key intellectual figure in the development of the Labour government’s social policy the ‘Third Way’. Juliet Mitchell’s work on psychoanalysis and feminism defines the field. If the personal is political, what place is there for social psychology in understanding society? Richard Sennett – recently described as the sage of the tempers of our times – completes the panel. His combination of broad political and social insight is crucial for a question as general as understanding society.

Professor Simon Franklin chairs the discussion which is a culmination of the CRASSH lecture series on Understanding Society at the University of Cambridge autumn 2012.

Tickets: http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on-book-tickets/spoken-word/understanding-society#.UHPZ7mj3Bgf