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Tuesday, September 09, 2008 from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (GMT)
With Dame Liz Forgan DBE, Chair, Heritage Lottery Fund
Chaired by Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive, RSA
To meet the challenges posed by a more mobile, less grounded society, with increased migration and devolution, the Government has set out to develop a statement of British values, backed by a legally enforceable British Bill of Rights.
Yet can a diverse society agree on a shared set of values that has any meaning? Can a fixed constitutional settlement and set of values truly reflect and keep up with a society in a rapid state of change? And can values, rights and responsibilities really describe what it means to be British when individual and collective identities are based on so much more?
Research suggests that a stronger attachment to national identity is fostered through personal/’ethnic’ links - like genealogy, birthplace etc - than through civic links such as democratic participation and respect for national institutions. But such ethnic conceptions are often seen as backward-looking, exclusive and even toxic and the Government is seeking to build a national identity based purely on civic grounds.
After seven years of overseeing a renaissance of the UK’s heritage as chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Liz Forgan will argue that not only is a purely values-based concept of national identity too narrow to succeed, but that heritage has enormous power to bring communities together around disparate yet powerful ethnic links, provide a route into civic participation and foster a strong, inclusive national identity.
RSA Event with Heritage Lottery Fund
For more than 200 years, the RSA has provided platforms for leading public thinkers. That tradition lives on in our free events programme.
Our distinguished and diverse roll call of speakers has recently featured, amongst others, Kofi Annan, Wangari Maathai, Al Gore, Clay Shirky, Jeffrey Sachs and Craig Venter.
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