Staying Human: Statecraft for the Common Good

Staying Human: Statecraft for the Common Good

With Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman

Join us for this online lecture and Q & A held by Together for the Common Good

Introduction

We find ourselves navigating a change of era as the old is dying and the new is emerging. Amidst upheaval, fragmentation, accelerating AI, extreme inequality, and intensifying concentrations of market and state power, we can feel powerless. Yet at Together for the Common Good, we also sense the possibility of spiritual and civic renewal.

Serious questions lie before us: how can we restore our common life, and with the advance of artificial intelligence, how can we stay human? Remembering our friend, the late Frank Field, who embraced difficult questions with courage and honesty, we are convening Staying Human, a series of four conversation events, to prompt a faithful and constructive response.

Our speakers bring a depth and breadth of experience and expertise, and all are inspired by the tradition of Catholic Social Thought. We began in February with Luke Bretherton, whose lecture helped us recover the memory of the commons and enclosures. Luke signalled the importance of associational life and agency, and of fostering the spaces where we can experience together what it means to be human.

Statecraft for the Common Good

On September 15th, we turn to the realm of statecraft. After decades of dysfunctional government, it seems that nothing works as it should. Indeed, we may be witnessing the collapse of trust in the British State. Discontent is now widespread. Radical reform needs to happen, but the form it should take and the principles that should guide it are contested and confused. Such decisions will profoundly affect the kind of people we become.

Our country needs a coherent and principled vision of political economy, an architecture of statecraft geared to the common good, and the wisdom to draw on traditions old and new to engage with the challenges and opportunities of the new industrial revolution. Artificial intelligence poses a paradox: it not only threatens humanity but also offers the potential to enable society to be more human.

We have commissioned Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman to help us embark on a serious conversation around this challenge. With deep knowledge of Catholic Social Thought, the workings of government and state, long experience in grassroots and parliamentary politics, and as people of faith, they bring an unrivalled combination of gifts.

Jon Cruddas is currently Co-Chair of the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion and Co-Leader of the Future of the Left Project at Policy Exchange. Having stood down after 23 years in Parliament as the MP for Dagenham, Jon is now at the leading edge of the debate around modern industrial relations, work, and employment in the age of artificial intelligence. He is writing two books: a history of Dagenham and its communities, and another on Catholic Labour. Jon is an Honorary Professor at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham, an Honorary Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and Senior Fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Dignity of Labour (Polity, 2021) and A Century of Labour (Polity, 2024).

Maurice Glasman is the Director of the Common Good Foundation and the founder of the Blue Labour movement. A life peer who has served in Parliament for 14 years, Lord Glasman is actively engaged in domestic and geopolitical concerns. He is a key figure in the current battle for Labour’s soul, challenging the party to return to its founding principles. Lord Glasman has longstanding experience in authentic community organizing, from the original campaign for the Living Wage to small-town organizing in Grimsby today. Rooted in the Jewish tradition, Maurice is deeply influenced by Catholic Social Thought. He is the author of Blue Labour: the Politics of the Common Good (Polity 2022) and Unnecessary Suffering: Management, Markets and the Liquidation of Solidarity (Verso, 1996).

REGISTER YOUR PLACE NOW

We look forward to you joining online!

Hosted by Jenny Sinclair, Founder and Director of Together for the Common Good, the event will be held before a live invited audience in London, and broadcast on Riverside, a livestreaming platform. You will be invited to submit questions during the Q & A.

You will receive an email with the livestream viewing link nearer to the event.

SAVE THE DATE

The Staying Human series continues on 21 October and 21 November: full details and booking links can be found here

This series is made possible with the support of CCLA, the leading investment manager for mission-driven organisations in UK.

Our thanks go too to the Catholic Union of Great Britain for help in kind.