Manchester Salon Connections

To help your subject matter research the following links may prove useful:

To add a link and site description to a website you think would be useful when researching the discussions we have planned or that are being suggested, please click on the Contact menu option to let us know.

Belfast Salon

"In homage to the spirit of 18th century political salons, Pauline Hadaway and Siobhan O’Dwyer founded the Belfast Salon last year, wanting to broaden public space for argument and debate. Membership is growing substantially as the Salon meets monthly to discuss and debate the big ideas of the day.

The French Salons were typically organized by aristocratic ladies and yet become centres of radical thought and intellectual ferment ushering in a new revolutionary age. We may lack aristocratic credentials, but we share a passion for ideas and argument, not only for enjoyment’s sake, but because we believe ideas are important and because we want to know where the world is going and how we can play a part in shaping its future."

Brighton Salon

"The idea of a Salon was invented in 18th Century France. Typically they were created and organised by the aristocratic ladies, to hear the ideas of the great thinkers of the time, to debate their meaning, for entertainment, because they believed ideas were important and because they wanted to know where the world was going, and of course to flirt.

The Salon was central to the intellectual ferment of the end of 18th Century. They hosted the great thinkers of the time; Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire. They were the scenes of excitement, outrage, the shock of the new, in a time when ‘the new’ still seemed possible. They signalled a time when the future was still an unwritten book.

The Brighton Salon is organised in homage to those days which only came to end with the eruption of the French Revolution and the arrival of a new constellation: the age of revolutions. Many historians think the Salons helped develop the ideas that ushered in that age. Here’s to that." Rob Clowes, Brighton Salon Chairman

Battle of Ideas

The weekend, initiated by the Institute of Ideas and organized and supported by a wide range of partners and sponsors, makes virtues of free-thinking and lively exchanges of views. Aims to:

** to showcase new arguments about the core issues of the day, while avoiding getting bogged down in the minutiae of everyday policy

** to initiate open-ended discussions regardless of the demands for immediate practical outcomes, which too frequently act as a brake on innovative thinking

Emulating the best of academia, the Battle of Ideas fosters an atmosphere of intellectual freedom and open-ended exploration of new ideas, research and trends. Additionally we challenge academics to distil their insights for a public intellectual gathering, creating a truly accessible university. The IoI seeks to identify a new generation of public intellectuals, and create a space where they can meet and have their ideas held to account.

The Battle of Ideas was in Nov 2008 and videos of most sessions can be viewed at http://www.battleofideas.org.uk

Leeds Salon

Leeds Salon is a new initiative that has grown out of a book club held regularly in Leeds since early 2008. The aim of the Salon is to create a public forum for lively and enlightening debate around contemporary political and cultural issues.

If you want to know more about our discussions, please ask to be added to our Email list,

Spiked

spiked is an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the horizons of humanity by waging a culture war of words against misanthropy, priggishness, prejudice, luddism, illiberalism and irrationalism in all their ancient and modern forms. spiked is endorsed by free-thinkers such as John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx, and hated by the narrow-minded such as Torquemada and Stalin.