|
Welcome to The Great Debate!
The Great Debate is a not-for-profit community organisation dedicated to
maintaining a space for public discussion through
courses, day schools, debates 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 dialogue and research.
The Great Debate is organised by director and chair
Caspar Hewett,
co-director Mo Lovatt,
treasurer,
Jon Bryan,
and film-maker in residence,
Jackie Scollen.
Since our formation in 1998 we have organised more than a hundred public
debates, over twenty day events, and over twenty courses, seminars and talks,
attracting a wide audience
drawn from the general public of ages 14 to 80. Our activities have included
film-training for young people not in employment, education or training,
debate workshops for schools and a programme of events engaging engineers
and scientists in conversation with the general public.
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.
Join
The Great Debate
facebook group or
visit The Great Debate facebook page.
Follow us on twitter: @greatdebateuk
|
Comment on The Great Debate:
"Fun is not usually a word that complements intelligent discussion, but
without wishing to devalue the serious nature of the enterprise that's
exactly what The Great Debates are. For more than three years I have
been going to the debates on all sorts of subjects and never been
disappointed. The speakers are always willing to engage with the
audience even if what they have to say is a little off the wall.
Attendance is usually free, which means all my poor friends can come along
as well. The atmosphere is friendly and inclusive, during intervals
there is the possibility of free flowing intellectual engagement."
Abdul Hamed
More comments
|
Top of page
|
|
|
Engineering
Transmission Using Deliberative Events
ETUDE
was a project funded by
Royal
Academy of Engineering as part of the Ingenious
grant scheme which engaged engineers in dialogue with the
general public in order to improve understanding the intersection of
technology with human values and behaviour.
More ...
great northern youth voices
In January 2014 we restarted this highly successful
citizen journalism programme thanks to a second Awards for All grant.
Previously funded by Big Lottery and Dulverton Trust the programme provides
documentary-making training and production for young people not
in employment, education or training.
More ...
Top of page
|
|
|
|
recent history
|
In 2023, The Great Debate celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary and
after a long
break following the Covid epidemic we were delighted to team up with
POLITICS in PUBS
to bring a
series of 9
discussions held in The Telegraph pub between
March and
December on
topics ranging from
the monarchy to
nudge policy.
We hope to bring many more debates over the coming months.
Between 2017 and 2020, The Great Debate teamed up with
Institution of Civil Engineers to deliver
the
ice breaking dialogues. This series of seven public debates
held at The Mining Institute, Newcastle, was
very well attended and well received, covering a wide range of topics
including:
Devolution;
Who
should pay for education;
HS2;
Brexit;
and
Climate
change adaption vs mitigation. While the Covid 19 pandemic put a stop to
this series, we hope to resume them in 2024.
In September 2018 The Great Debate held its 20th anniversary
event "The Art of Reason:
Curiosity, Creativity, Mystery" at the Black Swan
in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Organised in partnership with
Bigg Books,
North-East Humanists,
Newcastle Philosophical Society
and
Philosophical Society of England,
this one day event explored the uniquely human gift of reason and rationality
in all its various forms. Speakers included
Raymond Tallis,
old friend of The Great Debate who discussed his latest book,
Logos: The Mystery of How We Make Sense of Things;
Timothy
Williamson, Oxford University, author,
Doing Philosophy:
From Common Curiosity to Logical Reasoning;
Nigel
Collins,
Newcastle Philosophical Society;
Hisham
El Edrissi, A-level student, Heaton Manor School;
Edward
Gibney,
North-East Humanists;
David Large,
The Great Debate;
Amanda
McBride,
Newcastle Philosophical Society;
and
Andrés
Saenz De Sicilia, Newcastle University.
Click here for Videos.
In April 2018, The Great Debate was back at European Geosciences Union
(EGU) General Assembly in Vienna with
'The Great Debate:
Hands on or hands off?', a debate looking at the
growing distrust of experts in the public imagination and the implications
that has for the role of scientists in policy making and the political sphere.
In February 2017, The Great Debate launched the
ice breaking dialogues, a series of public debates organised in
association with Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North East. So far, the series
has included debates on devolution, flooding, who should pay for education and HS2.
Watch this space for future debates in the series.
In October 2016, The Great Debate's director, Caspar Hewett, spoke
on the panel of a debate entitled 'Humanity's Big Challenge: Water Wars'
at The Battle of Ideas Festival in London.
View the video here.
In April 2016, The Great Debate co-convened a debate at
European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna.
'Plan it Earth:
Is there enough resource for all?' critically examined the
controversies surrounding management of resources and challenged
the geosciences community to apply its knowledge to solve problems
(Click here for video of the debate).
This event followed on from successful debates held at EGU in 2015
and 2015: 'The
thirsty 10 billion: Are we managing?'
(Click here for video) and
'Geoengineering the climate:
the way forward?'
(Click here for video).
The Great Debate was delighted to announce that in late 2014 our
great northern youth voices
project won an outstanding flagship project award from
United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability
(UNU-IAS). Special thanks are due to Jackie Scollen for all her hard work,
to Charlie Winstanley for his valued contribution to the project,
to Mo Lovatt for her role in getting us started on this road and
Jon Bryan without whose support The Great Debate
simply would not have kept going the last few years.
In 2014, we ran a series of events
as part of ETUDE:
Engineering Transmission Using Deliberative Events in
partnership with Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities
and Institution of Civil Engineers. The
ETUDE
project engaged engineers in dialogue with the general
public in order to improve understanding the intersection of technology with
human values and behaviour. Building on the success of our
2011/2012 project
Sustained Engagement,
ETUDE used a variety of formats to develop dialogues between
participating engineers and our general audiences with events running throughout
2014. ETUDE was funded by
Royal
Academy of Engineering under their Ingenious
grant scheme.
More ...
In 2013 The Great Debate celebrated its fifteenth year
of providing a space for public debate in the North East.
We had a fitting start to the year with a nod to where it all started
with a seven week evening course on
The Science of Humanity. This was followed in April with the
first of our Great North Festival Debates which
ran throughout the year.
One highlight of the year was
Media, Culture, Voice: Tackling inequality and marginalisation
in July with Vinod Pavarala of University of Hyderabad.
We were also pleased to anounce that we won two other grants in our
fifteenth year which kept us busy throughout 2013-14:
Economic and Social Research Council supported us for the
seventh year running to contribute to their
Festival of Social Science in November 2013.
Decline and Fool: Changing Ideas in the Twenty Teens
looked at the declining influence of ideas that have dominated
politics, philosophy and the arts for decades and asked what, if anything,
is taking their place. This day of active debate and documentary-making
included two panel debates: Environmental retreat, examining how
environmentalism
has become less central in the popular imagination since the economic downturn; and
After the fall?, looking at postmodernism, asking what people think it is,
whether it has any relevance to the general population and what we would we like to see
replace it. More ... In previous years, The Great Debate's
ESRC Festival of Social Science events included
Whatever
Happened to Equality? (2012),
Facing the
Future (2011),
Getting Real About Climate Change (2010)
Don’t Shout at the Telly, Change What's on it! (2009)
The “Credit Crunch”: Consequences for UK Households (2009)
Developing
World Challenges (2008) and
The 3rd Workshop on
Development, Sustainability and Environment (2007).
Big Lottery Fund's Awards for All scheme is now offering follow-on
funding for existing projects, and we were extremely pleased and proud that
they awarded us £10,000 to resume
great northern youth voices,
our venture into
documentary-making training for young people not in employment, education or training.
In 2011 a £10,000 startup grant from Big Lottery Fund enabled us both to buy
the minimum of kit needed to make this aspect of our
work sustainable and provided the funds to run a set of pilot workshops.
This was followed up by £5000 from Dulverton Trust which enabled us to continue
running workshops into 2012. The latest grant
allowed us to continue this work throughout 2014.
More ...
The Great Debate rolled out a programme of debate workshops for schools
throughout the North East in the 2011/12 academic year. This included
a series of workshops in schools and a School Debating
Competition sponsored by Newcastle University.
Top of page
|
|
|
More on
|
|
website
|
I took a punt and went to see 'Gamble'. Did it pay off?
by Jon Bryan, May 2022
Why gambling adverts should not be banned
by Jon Bryan, June 2021
Why I am voting in the UK elections to the European Parliament
by Jon Bryan, May 2019
Why I Want Out of the European Union
Opinion piece by Caspar Hewett, June 2016
What Has The European Convention on
Human Rights Ever Done For Us?
Article by Caspar Hewett, May 2015
Can't Surf, Won't Surf!
Review by Danny Crossley of "Media, Culture, Voice: Tackling inequality
and marginalisation", a panel debate held at Northumbria University in
July 2013 looking at what roles media and culture can and should
play in tackling inequality and enabling the marginalised to speak.
Motion, Midges and the Magician of the North
Review by Danny Crossley of "Water and wind - Can renewables deliver?",
a panel debate held at Cragside, June 2013 looking at a variety of ways in
which energy can be obtained from water and wind and asking how much of our
future energy requirements they can provide.
Whatever Happened to Equality?
Whatever Happened to Equality? was a day of active
debate and documentary-making
held as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012.
The event took a critical look at how the ideal of
equality has been eroded in recent times, becoming replaced by notions of
equity and the celebration of difference.
Participants of our film-making programme for young
people filmed the debates and interviewed speakers.
View Videos
Nuclear power is the answer to the world's energy problems
Video of the final of Newcastle University Year of Sustainability
School debate event held in November 2011.
Recorded by participants of
great northern youth voices
project. View Video
great northern youth voices
videos
Young people taking part in our 2011/12 film-making programme conduct
interviews and reflect on change. Includes interviews from
Facing the Future, a day of documentary-making
and debate held in November 2011.
View Videos
The Great Infrastructure Debate
Proceedings of an event held in April 2012
as part of the
Sustained Engagement project.
With ICE President, Richard Coackley;
Edward Bentley, Northumbria University;
Richard Dawson, Newcastle University;
Stephanie Henderson, Environment Agency;
Laura O'Toole, Jacobs;
Tony Quinn, National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec).
Read details and view video.
The Challenges of Sustainable Transport
Proceedings of an event held in March 2012
as part of the
Sustained Engagement project.
With Matteo Conti, Northumbria University;
Katja Leyendecker, Environment Agency, Newcastle Cycling Campaign; and
Adriana Monroy-Olaya, Newcastle University.
Read details and view video
Facing the Future
The Great Debate: Facing the Future was
a day of active debate and documentary-making
held as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science 2011.
Participants were encourages to take a critical look at current discussions
around population and the limits to social and technical engineering.
View videos of:
Vox pops
with participants /
Interviews with
speakers /
Debates
Visions for the Future of the City
Videos from workshop exploring the question "How do we create a sustainable and
resilient city in 2050?" held as part of the
Sustained Engagement project at Newcastle University,
22nd October 2011.
View Videos
Economic Growth: Bane or Boon?
Head to head debate between Daniel Ben-Ami,
author Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Progress
and Jonathon Porritt,
author Globalism and Regionalism, Living within our means,
Capitalism as If the World Matters held at Northumbria University,
19th October 2010. View Video
Top of page
Limits to Growth in the 21st Century
Discussion held as part of
The Great Debate Green Phoenix Festival Programme, August 2010 with
Daniel Ben-Ami,
author Cowardly Capitalism,
Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Progress;
Richard Dyer,
Transport and Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth;
Phil O'Keefe, Professor
of Economic Development and Environmental Management,
University of Northumbria.
View Video
Food and Water Security, March 2010
Debate held as part of
Getting
Real About Climate Change with
Prof Tony Allan,
Stockholm Water Prize Laureate 2008, founder of London University's
Water Issues Group;
Dr Jennie Barron,
research fellow in water management at
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI);
Dr Julia Brown,
Portsmouth University; and
Dr Ben Campbell,
social anthropologist, Durham University.
View Video
Top of page
Living in a Changing World
Video made by young participants of the documentary-making project
Living in a Changing
World, funded by Mediabox, 2010. The interviews
featured were 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.
More videos and articles can be viewed by clicking on these links:
Videos
Articles
You can also join our
facebook group,
view our videos and hear about our events there.
Top of page
|
|
The Great Debate is a North East partner of the National Institute of Ideas
Debating Matters Competition. Click
Here for further details.
|
|
To sign up to our mailing list, please send us an email at
|
|
