Should a university provide a moral or spiritual education to its students? The idea seems ridiculous in the age of the mega-university. Universities today are enormous corporations, employing tens of thousands of academics and staff, with anything from 5000 to … Continue reading
This is a guest post by Erin Lafford and the fourth, and final, in this week’s ‘Romantic Voices’ series. Erin is a final-year DPhil student (AHRC funded) at the University of Oxford, writing a thesis on ‘Forms of Health in John Clare’s Poetics’. Her … Continue reading
Paul Burstow MP was formerly the minister of state for care services, and is head of a commission on mental health at the liberal think-tank Centre:Forum. That commission has just brought out its report, calling for various policies as part … Continue reading
I have recently returned from a journey deep into the warm, pulsating heart of the happiness movement. Last Thursday I took part in a conference on Positive Psychology at Wellington College (the pioneer of well-being classes), and then I went … Continue reading
On 30 November 2011, Britain witnessed its largest strike in nearly three decades as an estimated two million public- sector workers protested against the degradation of their pensions. One day later, the Office for National Statistics released the results of … Continue reading
The UN Happiness Conference last week looks to have been a fascinating event. The Prime Minister of Bhutan sent me a giant Willy Wonka-esque invitation, for which I’m grateful, but wouldn’t pay my air-fare, for which I’m lingeringly resentful (not … Continue reading
The New Inquiry has a great piece asking if TED has jumped the shark: So many of the TED talks take on the form of those famous patent medicine tonic cure-all pitches of previous centuries, as though they must convince … Continue reading
Yesterday, I went to the British Academy, to hear Richard Easterlin, the father of happiness economics, present his latest thinking, together with Andrew Oswald of Warwick University. Easterlin asked the provocative question: does higher income raise happiness in poorer countries? … Continue reading
The Office of National Statistics published the findings of its national survey into well-being this week. The report is the result of 175 events across the country, attended by 2,500 people, as well as emails, postcards, tweets and blog comments, … Continue reading