Society

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 want a world where people can be true to themselves and to live their lives according to who they truly are.

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… I wanted to subvert that by creating a new orchestral structure that reflected how society could be.

Renowned composer known for film scores and electronic classical music

I feel as if our world is moving away from the ideals we subscribed to, and I wanted to reflect that through music. I wanted to create something hopeful and uplifting from this dark material of our times as a metaphor for the questions we are facing as a society.

Renowned composer known for film scores and electronic classical music

Bureaucracy may be humankind's most important innovation. Whether it's scientific innovation, the invention of the steam engine, locomotive, electric-motor, semi-conductor or antibiotics, none of these would have been possible without the understanding of how to work precisely and repeatably at scale; bureaucracy.

Management theorist & author who revolutionized strategic thinking

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

What is worrying is not the rise of multinational corporations, but the rise of social media. Facebook has 2.5 billion participants and Russia was able to use Facebook as a device to penetrate and disrupt the American electoral process in 2016.

Harvard Professor & Creator of "Soft Power" Concept

People are now talking of a new 'Cold War' with China. This is a very misleading use of history. If you look at the relationship between China and the US today, there is half a trillion dollars of trade, and some 350,000 Chinese students and 3 million Chinese tourists are in the US. It's more complex than the Cold War.

Harvard Professor & Creator of "Soft Power" Concept

I strongly believe that art and creative work are essential to a healthy society.

Founder of Kickstarter, crowdfunding platform pioneer

Now, the internet has democratized this, and you don't need to be wealthy to be a patron. You can help bring something to life with $10 because you like the project, not because you see it as a financial return.

Founder of Kickstarter, crowdfunding platform pioneer

You have this very activist sociology rather than a dispassionate or objective sociology informing a broadly humanist framework of caring about flourishing versus suffering. When your sociology has decided that the point of studying society is to change it, you've got a problem.

Mathematician & Scholar of Critical Theory Criticism & Academic Discourse

Critical theories give proposed solutions to legitimate problems that could not possibly be more open to manipulation and grift. The manipulators and grifters have filled the vacuum to the point where they're only ones who can benefit.

Mathematician & Scholar of Critical Theory Criticism & Academic Discourse

Empowerment means we are able to sustain hope in a situation that may – to many outsiders – look hopeless.

British Labour Politician & Former Foreign Secretary

The gap between the situation of people caught in conflict and the rest of us is growing, not narrowing. The gap is not going to be narrowed by trying to change the words on paper, we have to live up to them.

British Labour Politician & Former Foreign Secretary

When you empower people economically, your social programmes go further. When you join economic empowerment to social protection, you get double the benefit and thus there is a very hard-headed reason to support livelihoods not just lives.

British Labour Politician & Former Foreign Secretary