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Welcome to The Great Debate website.
The Great Debate is a group of people dedicated to providing
courses, day schools, discussions and workshops for the general public
on topics ranging from Darwinism and human nature, to free speech and
environmental thought.
We are committed to education, discovering knowledge and
developing informed opinion through discussion and research.
The Great Debate is a partner in the
RCE North East regional network.
The Great Debate is organised by director and chair
Caspar Hewett,
co-director Mo Lovatt,
treasurer
Dave O'Toole
and the team:
Jon Pugh,
Oliver Moss
and Jon Bryan.
By the end of our tenth
anniversary (2008) we had
organised nearly fifty events attracting a wide audience
drawn from the general public of ages 15 to 80 years old.
We also run a schools
programme that includes
public discussions, debating workshops in schools and
thegreatnortherndebate RCE project.
The Great Debate website includes listings of events,
articles, reviews and useful links to other sites.
We hope that you will find our website to be a useful resource.
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news
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The Great Debate, in partnership with
RCE North East, has successfully
gained funding from Mediabox
for a new venture, Living in a Changing World. This film-making
project for young people not in employment, education or training kicks off at
end of January 2010.
The Great Debate's ongoing contribution to
ESRC Festival of Social Science continued in
2010 with Getting
Real About Climate Change on 20th March.
The Great Debate is very pleased to announce that
thegreatnortherndebate has been recognised by the
United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies as a Regional Centre of
Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development project. Thanks to everyone
who has been involved in our Development, Sustainability and Environment
series for helping to make this happen.
More ...
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New on The Great Debate website
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Edited video of food and water security debate
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Living in a Changing World
Video made by young participants of the
Living in a Changing
World project filmed at The Great Debate:
Getting Real About Climate Change workshop held as part of the
Economic and Social Research Council Festival of Social Science/Newcastle
Science Festival in March 2010.View video.
Getting
Real About Energy: debate held at
EGU conference in Vienna, May 2010.
With Dermot Roddy,
Science City Professor of Energy, Newcastle upon Tyne,
Director, Sir Joseph Swan
Institute for Energy Research;
Hervé Coutrix,
Vice President, Geosciences Structural and Sedimentological studies, TOTAL;
Niel Bowerman,
co-founder and former Executive Director,
Climatico,
co-founder, The Climate Justice Project.
View video.
Free Thinking
Oliver Moss and Caspar Hewett comment on BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking
Festival at the Sage Gateshead.
View videos.
Don't Shout at the Telly North East
Following the North East premiere of the documentary
Flush It,
students reflect on water and sanitation provision
across the globe. The featured discussion was filmed by young people
taking part in The Great Debate and WORLDwrite workshop
Don’t Shout at the Telly, Change What's on it!,
March 2009.
Learning camera and reporting skills ‘on the job’ they consider
key issues in the process.
View video.
The Great Human Nature Debate
Video of debate between Rita Carter, Caspar Hewett and Thomas Pink held as part
of Agents of Change?
Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature, October 2008.
View video.
What can science tell us about human nature?
Video of debate between Bruce Charlton and Igor Aleksander held as part
of The Great Debate: Agents of Change?
Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature. October 2008.
View video.
Darwinism or Darwinitis?
Video of discussion following
Darwinism
without Darwinitis: key note talk by
Raymond Tallis
given at
The
Great Debate: Agents of Change?
Darwinian Thought and Theories of Human Nature. October 2008.
View video.
What is radical politics today?
Video of Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens in conversation with
Jonathan Pugh and an audience on 5th December 2008.
Video.
The Great Debate: Development, Sustainability and Environment
Edited videos of two debates held in March 2008 as part of the day workshop on
Developing World Challenges. Simply click on the images.
Or join our
facebook group
and view our events and videos there.
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The Great Debate is a North East partner of the National Institute of Ideas
Debating Matters Competition. Click
Here for further details.
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To sign up to our mailing list, please send us an email at
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Previous contributors to
The Great Debate have included
Susan Blackmore,
Christopher Badcock,
Rita Carter,
Frank Furedi,
Anthony Giddens,
David Glass,
Will Hutton,
Sir Bernard Ingham,
Kenan Malik,
Matt Ridley and
Raymond Tallis.
Previous events
have been organised in association with
RCE North East,
Discovery Museum,
Newcastle's Centre for Lifelong Learning,
Northumbria University,
Newcastle University,
the Institute of Ideas,
RSA
and
WORLDwrite
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