“Britain is at an inflection point. It must change. Its economy must start growing again, our social fissures close and a sense reborn that the future can be better than today.”
The Academy was delighted to welcome our President, Will Hutton FAcSS, to share his personal views in delivering the Academy’s 2024 Annual Lecture, marking both our 25th anniversary year and the mid-point of his presidency.
In a wide-ranging and inspiring talk, attended by Academy Fellows, decision-makers, leaders of sister bodies and members of the public, Will drew on over 40 years of political commentary and insights from his recently published book, This Time No Mistakes, to share his vision for a new way forwards and how the social sciences can and must contribute to building a better future through the concept of a ‘We Society’.
Will began by looking back to the beginnings of an ‘I Society’ in which “individual agency, individual ambition, self-responsibility and self-reliance were seen as means not only to economic prosperity but social harmony and a moral order.” He then highlighted how, 45 years on, it was clear that capitalism needs guiderails, pro-active management and mechanisms to offload and share risk – whether for workforces or companies. And that the failures of the ‘I Society’ extend beyond the economy. Will said, “The ‘Me Society’ has begun to undermine not just economic growth, stability and even damage economic dynamism but wider structures and values. The innate human tendency to look out for each other still remains, but it is more qualified.”
He went on to explore the cultural fall-out of the ‘I Society’ ideology with growing inequality, insecurity and stagnating living standards fuelling a fear of ‘the other’ and leading to the growth of right populism. He said, “The argument of this lecture is that the ‘we’ needs to be urgently reasserted to head off those dangers [international breakdown and war] and relaunch growth, prosperity and peace – and that social science has a critical role to play in that reassertion.”
Before Will went on to share his ideas for a new way forwards, he did highlight that liberal capitalism was a fecund system, with pluralism and the experimentation that accompanies it being two of its great virtues. In addition, he commented that, “There can no be denying that every individual alive wants to exercise agency in their lives, and to quest for the best for themselves and those they love. We want to exercise responsibility, express ambition and to build – a family, a career, a company, a charity, friendships and relationships. We want as Aristotle once put it, to act on the world using the gifts the gods gave us to make it in some way better.”
Will then went on to explain how assimilating these insights while addressing the social and economic imperfections of capitalism, would result in a ‘We Society’ in which there is a floor below which no-one can fall in terms of income, housing, education, nutrition and access to health. He said, “Ladders of opportunity must be organised up which every individual, exercising agency and drive for self-betterment and self-actualisation, is equipped to climb to live a life they have reason to value… But crucially this individualism is framed – whether of private individuals or firms – by recognition of obligations to the social whole including the environment – and the whole reciprocally acknowledging obligations back.”
Will once again stepped back in time to illustrate how, throughout the past 100 hundred years, social science complements, informs and has the greatest impact when it plays into a ‘We Society’. He used examples of the introduction of a state pension, compulsory health insurance, sick pay and limited unemployment benefits in the early 1900s, as well as the formation of the NHS and the Butler education reforms a few decades later to illustrate this.
He then brought us back to the present day and how a fresh wave of social science could populate the thinking of the new UK Government’s missions – in both their priorities and delivery. Will used examples of how research and thinking from social science across a breadth of issues holds the opportunity to provide the evidence needed to inform a new way forwards – from housing, health, social care and education, to families, work, taxation and Britain’s place in the wider world.
He said, “We need to redouble our efforts to put social science on the map. It’s been right in terms of the 21st century economy to stress the importance of STEM subjects: wrong to allow them to crowd out the contribution of social science to economic prosperity and social well-being. A strong economy and society are interdependent; and social science has insights into both the interdependency and the sources of strength.”
Following a plea for further innovation to deliver on great analysis and solid recommendations, Will closed on a final thought, “As social scientists we can take heart from what we have achieved in the past at moments like these, but redouble our efforts to do better – more compelling evidence, more workable innovation, more making sure that we think across our disciplines which can be so powerful and, above all, have the ambition and determination to be heard.”
You can watch the full lecture below.