Blind Spots #1: The Knowledge Economy, the Progressive Project and the Future of Britain with Roberto Unger

The Art / Earth / Tech Institute in collaboration with the Institute for Public Policy Research and Open Knowledge International are pleased to invite you to our major event with Professor Roberto Unger of Harvard Law School on Sunday the 17th of March 4-6pm at Newspeak House.

Roberto Unger played a significant role in bringing democracy back to Brazil, served in Lula’s government as a minister and has been called “a prophet” by the famed philosopher Richard Rorty. Roberto Unger was also a key influence and inspiration to Obama and was also one of Obama’s toughest critics.

He will be speaking on the knowledge economy and the rise of inequality. In the last few years the techno-optimism surrounding the digital revolution has given way to dystopia. Rather than a force for economic and social democracy, digital now seems to mean monopoly and manipulation. What have we been missing for this to happen?

On the Blind Spots series:

In our Blind Spots series we will be looking at what is holding us back from creating a powerful vision for our future? What is the source of our incapacity to act on climate change other than the symptom of a blind spot?

Today, instead of politics and the state we are entrusting our collective future to individual initiative, NGOs and private corporations. What is the source of this distrust in the state, in organised collective action, of disbelief in politics? Many have found the current political climate - of Trump, Brexit, and Bolsonaro - surprising, even unimaginable. This is symptomatic of a collective blind spot. What have we been missing to not see this coming? How could we have been so blind-sided? And what does the future hold?