Café Culture
For discussion and debate café style
Each Cafe Culture event series runs from September to July every year, with events running fortnightly, usually on the first and third Monday of each month. To view a pdf of our current flyer click here
3 January 2011
Theory slam
Do you have an original theory you would like to share, it needs to be snappy, at our theory slam each theorist has just three minutes to convince the audience their theory is the strongest, be it philosophical, political, scientific or cultural. Email your theory, which needs to last no more than 3 minutes, to info@cafeculturenortheast.org.uk by 4 December and will select a good crop. Come and listen to this fast paced, entertaining and energetic event, the perfect way to bring in the new year!
17 January 2011 café philosophique
Philosophy, fairness and democracy
Ian O'Flynn, political theory, Newcastle University will consider why, or under what conditions, people should be willing to accept a decision as fair even when the decision does not go their way. To get to grips with this question, we must start by defining ‘political equality’, before moving on to consider what that idea might mean in a modern multicultural society such as Britain.
7 February 2011 café politiique
Do the people have power?
Andy Gibson, Scotswood Area Strategy and independent researcher Judith Green will explore whether local communities have the power to bring about positive change. In 1991 riots broke out in Scotswood, this event will remind us of how the riots epitomised a daily nightmare of crime, joyriding, intimidation and physical decay that residents faced. Reflecting on this, they will consider how things have changed 20 years on and whether local people have been able to bring about positive change.
21 February 2011 café scientifique
Should we use human reproductive tissue
in scientific research?
This Cafe Scientifique will be a debate about the scientific, clinical, social, ethical, theological and legal aspects surrounding the uses of human reproductive tissue (for example, eggs, embryos, sperm) for science aimed at developing therapies for serious illness.
7 March 2011 café culturel
Interior design and the secret life of buildings
In his book The Secret Lives of Buildings author Edward Hollis tells the story of 13 widely varied but uniquely significant buildings by examining the relationship between architecture and the art of storytelling in history, performance, and myth. He seeks to understand and transform the stories that buildings have to tell us. Hollis has worked as an architect and currently teaches Interior Design at Edinburgh College of Art.
“....he brings together an iconoclastic attitude and a lively writing style to create a kind of counter-history of architecture”. Washington Post.
21 March 2011 café scientifique
The Tyne River
Malcolm Newson, physical geography, Newcastle University will discuss the Tyne river system as part of the local environment and the ways in which it mirrors and indicates the health of the regional ecosystems. He will also talk about how we get out what we put in - bad behaviour makes a bad river (and eventually seas). The Tyne has had a miraculous recovery in the last 50 years, partly due to the decline of heavy industry which polluted the middle and lower reaches. How much more could we do and what are the new threats?
This talk will identify three key groups of issues facing the river Tyne during your lifetime; we will ask you 'are you bovvered'? If you are 'bovvered' we will suggest how, via Tyne Rivers Trust, you can make a difference.
18 April 2011 bookgroupsummit
This is How
Join award-winning novelist MJ Hyland to discuss her compelling and often shocking novel, This is How. Set in the late 1960’s the novel explores the inner life and motivations of a young man. The novel is an unflinching and morally complex portrait of one life gone suddenly and terribly awry. MJ Hyland is the author of How the Light Gets In and Carry Me Down, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. This is How was longlisted for the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction.
“Thrilling, moving and compassionate”. The New York Times
16 May 2011 café scientifique
CSI: the true story
Find out how crime scene investigations really work, how difficult it is to obtain evidence and how that evidence is presented in court, all from an ex-forensic officer turned CSI lecturer Laura Heath, forensic science, Northumbria University.
6 June 2011 café politique
Ticking timebomb?: The politics of dementia
By 2025 the number of people diagnosed with dementia will reach one million. Given the social and public cost of dementia, Charlotte Clarke, community, health and education, Northumbria University will ask how best can we support people with dementia and their carers. She will explore the policies outlined in the National Dementia Strategy which point to the growing challenges of caring with people with dementia and the need for early diagnosis, early intervention, education and new service approaches. She will also explain why policies need to give weight to the private experiences by thousands of people, the interpersonal dynamics, balances of risk and safety, and responses which can lead to heightened disability. This event will explore why both the macro and micro politics associated with dementia are important to address.
20 June 2011 café scientifique
Climate adaptation: Can we change?
The political agreement to limit average global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius did recognise that things would change and it was argued that we, and the ecosystems we depend upon, could adapt. But now, post Copenhagen, it seems wildly optimistic with a 4 degrees Celsius average rise seeming more realistic. Can we adapt to a 4 degrees rise? Geoff O’Brien, geography and environmental management and Phil O’Keefe, economic development and environmental management, both Northumbria University, will highlight global adaptation studies which indicate that the poor are likely to be hit the hardest and consider a Kilimanjaro case study which shows that people’s responses to other pressures are driving change that acts against what is generally regarded as good climate adaptation practice.
4 July 2011 café philosophique
Cosmopolitanism and global justice
Cosmopolitanism is a philosophy that treats people as ‘citizens of the world’ who have ties of duty and care to one another that transcend national boundaries. It regards justice as something we should secure not only within states but across humanity as a whole; that, in turn, implies a radical transformation in the way we currently distribute wealth, provide for life chances, and organise political power across the globe. In this talk, Graham Long, politics, Newcastle University will consider the desirability and practicability of cosmopolitanism.
5 September 2011 café scientifique
Moorbank Botanic Garden:
OPAL The people’s laboratory
Helen Weddle, from Newcastle University, will discuss OPAL, the open-air laboratory, a national lottery-funded project that allows people from all walks of life to contribute to national wildlife surveys. Find out about how the projects worked and the results of experiments including worm-charming, pond-dipping and hedge shaking.
19 September 2011 café politique
Who is afraid of China?
What role does China play in the Western imagination? Dr Michael Barr, from Peals, Newcastle University, will discuss how its rise as an alternative model to Western liberalism has created a fear that developing countries will stray from Western standards of democracy, transparency and human rights. He will challenge us to rethink our ideas on modernity, history, and international relations.
3 October 2011 café philosophique
Why save the planet?
Can we solve the problem of climate change? Moral philosophers have proposed several possible solutions to this challenge. Thom Brooks, from Newcastle University, will argue that they fail, but shed light on a better alternative. However, a bigger concern remains. Have we got the problem right?
17 October 2011café scientifique
A tunnel to the beginning of time
Join physicist Dr Pete Edwards, from Durham University, as he takes us on a journey to recreate the start of the universe using the Large Hadron Collider. Can it cause the end of the world?
6 November 2011café culture
The Fairness Commission
Join Chris Brink, philosopher and mathematician, who transformed Stellenbosch University in South Africa from the intellectual heart of apartheid into the mixed race institution it is today. Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University since 2007, he chairs the Newcastle Fairness Commission, which seeks to create a fairer city. Chris will argue that in times of austerity it is vital that the principle of fairness should underpin decision-making. This event is taking place at the BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival from 3-4pm, Joan and Margaret Halbert Space, the Sage. The Festival is free but ticketed please visit www.thesagegateshead.org/whats_on/index.aspx for tickets.
21 November 2011café scientifique
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how will your garden grow?
Prof David Manning, from Newcastle University, will discuss the intensification of agriculture over the past 50 years explaining how it has revolutionised food production across the world. He will argue that the extensive use of artificial fertilisers is leading to a worldwide shortage of potassium and phosphorous, which are key to plant growth and ask how can we continue to feed ourselves in the future?
5 December 2011café politique
How can Universities encourage social mobility? Beyond the Oxbridge obsession
Pam Tatlow, from the University Think Tank Million +, will argue that the Government's claim that social mobility has been stuck for a generation is not borne out by the evidence. She will discuss how modern universities have been successful in delivering opportunities to students of all ages and from non-traditional backgrounds. She will comment on the impact of the fee and loan regimes which the Government has introduced for new entrants to English universities from 2012.
19 December 2011café scientifique
What’s going wrong with the latest hip joint replacements and why
Dr Tom Joyce Newcastle University, will explore how the ASR artificial hip joint represents probably the greatest failure in the history of modern orthopaedics. Almost 100,000 have been implanted worldwide before it was withdrawn. Dr Tom Joyce will ask what has driven the need for new designs such as the ASR and discuss how surgeons and engineers in the north east of England are leading initiatives to prevent such a disaster happening again.
