Society

I've been teaching for most of the last 40 years, and I've not come across a generation as dedicated to public service and the common good as my current generation of students. They will inherit the future, and I have great confidence that they know what they must do.

Labor Secretary & Economist; Leading Voice on Inequality

When social distrust mounts- when people feel like the game is rigged against them- they are especially vulnerable to demagogues who come along and want them to channel their rage, anxiety and distrust toward scapegoats who have nothing to do with the underlying problems.

Labor Secretary & Economist; Leading Voice on Inequality

America has a class system, and it's becoming more rigid all the time. As inequality widens the damage spills over to children, and the ladder becomes so long that you have little hope of getting too far up it in your lifetime.

Labor Secretary & Economist; Leading Voice on Inequality

Inside each of us are monsters and angels- there are no divisions between good and bad people- and I've seen how those times of insecurity can make us do terrible things to each other.

Founder of Acumen Fund & social entrepreneur focused on global poverty alleviation

We cannot focus only on the material aspects of poverty- we must address the poverty of spirit that's present in every one of our broken institutions: health systems, economic systems, criminal justice systems, and food systems. If we are going to solve the toughest problems we face as a world right now, we're going to need new operating principles that are compatible with a deeply interconnected world.

Founder of Acumen Fund & social entrepreneur focused on global poverty alleviation

wrote a brilliant report about entry to the Bar and how professional structures historically operated to exclude swathes of people, not just based on ethnicity and 'race', but on gender, sexual orientation and a range of non-traditional backgrounds.

People are not born homophobic – or racist or misogynist. That's learned behaviour. This is why the current bid for LGBT-inclusive education in schools is so important.

Human rights activist & campaigner for LGBTQ+ equality and justice

Backlash is sadly an intrinsic part of social progress. When oppressed people make their claim for justice, they trigger a response – a fightback by those who want to maintain the status-quo.

Human rights activist & campaigner for LGBTQ+ equality and justice

I am hopeful that we, in Western countries, are on the path towards a post-homophobic society. I was very gratified a couple of years ago to see a survey of 16-24 year olds. When asked about their own sexuality, 49% said they would not define themselves as 100% straight.

Human rights activist & campaigner for LGBTQ+ equality and justice

LGBT+ identity came into existence as a defence mechanism against those who were attacking us. We were being targeted because of our sexual behavior and our love. We had to defend ourselves – that is why we claimed, and asserted our LGBT+ identity.

Human rights activist & campaigner for LGBTQ+ equality and justice

The way an orchestra is normally structured is cast in the image of what people in the 18th century thought society should look like. It's very top-down, a hierarchical power structure… reflecting the vision of society at the time. I wanted to subvert that by creating a new orchestral structure that reflected how society could be so it came through the musical DNA.

Renowned composer known for film scores and electronic classical music

There are no such thing as low-skilled jobs, there are only low-opportunity jobs where people are treated as commodities. We don't train them.. we don't give them autonomy… we don't give them any financial upside… yet when they fail to be creative, and fail to do more than the job requires, we say they just aren't very clever or capable…. Guess what; if you put someone in leg-irons, they will have a hard time running.

Management theorist & author who revolutionized strategic thinking

You cannot say you support a values based human rights agenda and have your defense industry dictate the terms of your relationships between states to the extent that you won't criticize states who you sell weapons to. People see this for what it is, they recognise the internal and external inconsistencies and are tired of it.

UN Human Rights Chief & International Justice Advocate

In my experience, unless you are directly affected by a human rights abuse, you are unlikely to give it a second thought. How many times do you draw breath a day? It's about 22,000 times – you don't think about it until you can't. That's exactly how most people view human rights- they are generally apathetic and may express some concern or sympathy when they hear about something on the news, but they don't mobilise unless it affects them directly.

UN Human Rights Chief & International Justice Advocate

I'll hope I have helped be more generative and less extractive, through my own actions, and through my support of others. We live in a world where we're constantly battling these forces and we need to ensure we're more generative than extractive — of each other, of our planet — I believe we can do it.

Founder of Kickstarter, crowdfunding platform pioneer

I believe businesses need to move away from having profit as their primary reason for existing, that's why we built Kickstarter as a public benefit corporation and encoded our mission into our fiduciary responsibility. Profit primacy can be replaced by mission primacy.

Founder of Kickstarter, crowdfunding platform pioneer