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Salon Discussions
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Monday 20 FebruaryDavid Lewin and James Heartfield will introduce a discussion on how the role of technology in improving our lives is discussed by society  The public’s use of the internet is causing many liberals anxiety. Our unfettered access to it has made some begin to question whether all this communication and networking is entirely a good thing—especially when it takes place out of view from officialdom.
In the past, governments have always been exponents of censoring, regulating and questioning merits of access to content including pornography to hate-speech. But now, more and more liberals are themselves questioning the effects of the technologies involved in the internet on wider civil society. |
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Salon Discussions
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Monday 12 March Mike Koefman, Lauren Collins and James Woudhuysen will introduce a discussion on how science could help deal with the looming energy crisis
 The Manchester Salon hosted a discussion in October 2011 entitled Fukushima fallout, which brought the impending energy crisis in the UK into stark relief. What also became very clear was that the terrain of discussing such an issue has transformed itself quite profoundly in the last decade or so. Many in the audience questioned the proposed use of nuclear technology as a solution to existing and indeed increasing demands for energy production in a way that didn't seem to connect with how the nuclear industry insiders discuss their solutions.
 The assumption that society's use of more power should be answered by simply producing more power is commonly questioned, and indeed many in education as well as politics, now teach (or preach) that society should learn to consume less through Reducing, Reusing or Recycling what we have rather than producing more. There seems to be a growing gulf between discussions around reducing waste within energy production and society in its consumption of energy. The talking at cross purposes isn't helpful and as misanthropic views of humanity and its profilgate and rapacious use of energy become more widespread, so the discussion within the industry about how to produce more will be impacted with profound consequences for the lights going out.
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Salon Discussions
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Wednesday 23 May John Siddique and Ian Betts will introduce a discussion about the role the novel plays in shaping conversations about politics Despite a widespread sense of wanting politicians to resolve problems in society, paradoxically there's also a widespread sense that politics is failing to take society forward. So where does all that desire to discuss important ideas and moral issues find an outlet? The popularity of devices like the Kindle come from more than the ease of using the technology to read, but is based on a broad and sustained market for reading across all ages in society. It is argued by many that the renaissance for reading novels from the university of the third age discussion groups to the buoyant popularity of child focussed books, is reinvigorating a broader discussion about society's values in a way politics maybe used to fufil.
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