Geoff Mulgan quotes

All over the world, social innovation is tackling some of the most pressing problems facing society today - from fair trade, distance learning, hospices, urban farming and waste reduction to restorative justice and zero-carbon housing. But most of these are growing despite, not because of, help from governments. (Geoff Mulgan)
The smug complacency of technology adverts disguises a pretty mixed picture, with too many people not connected, too many passive users of technologies designed for interactive, and far too much talk about empowerment but far too little action to make it happen.
Geoff Mulgan
A modest dose of self-love is entirely healthy - who would want to live in a world where everyone hated themselves? But taken too far it soon becomes poisonous.
Geoff Mulgan
On the environment and climate change, I suspect that future generations will think there was too much timidity, too much fear of upsetting business. Basically, New Labour was very nervous about regulating business, or requiring it to do anything, even when there was a very clear social or environmental case for doing so.
Geoff Mulgan
All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism.
Geoff Mulgan
Societies advance through innovation every bit as much as economies do.
Geoff Mulgan
The most important innovators often don't need any technologies - just imagination and acute sensitivity to people's needs.
Geoff Mulgan
The idea of entrepreneurship applies as much in politics, religion, society and the arts as it does in business.
Geoff Mulgan
As the Internet of things advances, the very notion of a clear dividing line between reality and virtual reality becomes blurred, sometimes in creative ways.
Geoff Mulgan
So is civil society prepared for the future? Probably not. Most organisations have to live hand to mouth, juggling short-term funding and perpetual minor crises. Even the bigger ones rarely get much time to stand back and look at the bigger picture. Many are on a treadmill chasing after contracts and new funding.
Geoff Mulgan
The biggest barrier to dealing with climate change is us: our own attachment to habits that are hard to shift, and our great ability to park or ignore uncomfortable choices. (Geoff Mulgan)
Understanding capitalism is in some ways simple. At its best, capitalism rewards creators, makers and providers: the people and firms that create valuable things for others, like imaginative technologies and good food, cars and drugs.
Geoff Mulgan
The most dynamic cities have always been immersed in the critical innovations of their time.
Geoff Mulgan
Everyone knows of great projects that were too dependent on a charismatic individual, or simply too expensive to be replicated.
Geoff Mulgan
Governments that invest billions in new hardware still find it hard to accept that they might benefit just as much from systematic innovation in such things as child development or cutting crime.
Geoff Mulgan
Science is, rightly, searching for drugs to arrest ageing or to slow the advance of dementia. But the evidence suggests that many of the most powerful factors determining how you age come from what you do, and what you do with others: whether you work, whether you play music, whether you have regular visitors.
Geoff Mulgan
With a fractured sense of self, we come to depend on what people feed back to us - often mediated through social networks - not what we are. We have complex identities but may become less able to act as a subject - confident in what we really are.
Geoff Mulgan
Over 5,000 years, states have made surprisingly consistent claims about their duties. They have promised to protect people from threats; promote their welfare; deliver justice and also, perhaps less obviously, uphold truth - originally truths about the cosmos, and more recently truths drawn from reason and knowledge.
Geoff Mulgan
The wrongful arrest of tens of thousands of British Muslims after the September 11 attacks can be explained by the very poor intelligence the police had, and, just possibly, excused by the fact that a terrorist action in Britain linked to British Muslims would have been hugely damaging.
Geoff Mulgan
L'Oreal's slogan 'because you're worth it' has come to epitomise banal narcissism of early 21st century capitalism; easy indulgence and effortless self-love all available at a flick of the credit card.
Geoff Mulgan
Spreading an idea is hard work. (Geoff Mulgan)
Economies are complex beasts that need people to do an extraordinary range of tasks.
Geoff Mulgan
In Britain, polls show large majorities in favour of mansion taxes and higher taxes on the finance sector.
Geoff Mulgan
One effect of an individualistic culture that's poor at instilling mutual respect is that people jump more quickly to anger or violence.
Geoff Mulgan
There is incredible potential for digital technology in and beyond the classroom, but it is vital to rethink how learning is organised if we are to reap the rewards.
Geoff Mulgan