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Date and Time

30th October 2020

Location

Online

Speakers and Artists
  • Shiv Malik
  • Susanna Rustin

The term ‘reconstruction’ is often used to characterize a moment in time where a series of events force a period of political, social and economic reorganisation. This past year, the Covid-19 pandemic and the sustained Black Lives Matter protests have prompted a collective reassessment of the past in order to make sense of present-day inequalities. Stuart discussed ‘reconstruction’ as an opportunity to “reinscribe the past, reactivate it, relocate it and resignify it” in order to work through the present, reinterpret the future and to imagine something else. Our #reconstructionwork series implements Stuart’s thinking through a series of online public conversations where we invite writers, artists and activists to critically consider how we can build a better society in response to the Covid-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter protests worldwide.

The first three #reconstructionwork conversations explored how the long histories of black cultural and political activism can help us construct just and equal futures, working across different generations and geographies (Gary Younge and Lola Olufemi), how best to effect political change through grassroots activism and the parliamentary system, taking into consideration the role of community, culture and theories of change (David Lammy and Amina Gichinga), and the importance of new histories, Reparations, working to decolonise education and shifting collective memories in the effort to imagine new futures (Catherine Hall and Ruth Ramsden-Karelse).

For our fourth conversation in the series, you will meet technologist, author, broadcaster and former investigative journalist Shiv Malik, and social affairs leader writer for the Guardian and SHF trustee Susanna Rustin. In the last decade, intergenerational inequalities have been at the fore of political argument, alongside other inequalities such as class, race, sex, with which the left has traditionally been engaged. Shiv and Susanna will explore how this new analysis, and the economic reality on which it has been based, has changed our politics and what this might mean for the future.

Learn more about our #ReconstructionWork Programme here.

Speakers and Artists

Shiv Malik

Shiv Malik is a technologist, author, broadcaster and former investigative journalist. He began his career reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan and subsequently worked for the Guardian for five years breaking exclusive front page stories on everything from UK government social policy to secret ISIS documents. He is a co-founder of the think-tank, the Intergenerational Foundation and the author of two books, the 2010 cult economics book Jilted Generation and The Messenger an intrepid personal tale about a relationship with a terrorist-cum-fatasist, published by Faber last year. He has been a full time contributor to the open source project Streamr, since 2017, where he evanglises about a new decentralised data economy and data ownership.

Susanna Rustin

Susanna Rustin is a journalist at the Guardian. Currently on the Opinion desk, she has also been a feature writer and deputy editor of the Saturday Review. She helped set up London’s only parish council in Queen’s Park, where she lives with her husband and daughters. Susanna is Catherine and Stuart’s niece.