Mandarin Course

Going nowhere? Staying local in a global village

Battle of Ideas 2010, Royal College of Art, London Speakers: John Adams – emeritus professor of geography, University College London; editor, Risk in a Hypermobile World website Michelle Di Leo – director, FlyingMatters, the national campaign for flying Dr Peter Heller – technology consultant, Innovationszentrum Niedersachsen GmbH, Germany; co-editor, Science Skeptical blog Philippe Legrain – journalist; writer; author, Immigrants: your country needs them and Aftershock: reshaping the world economy after the crisis Chair: Peter Smith – director of tourism, St. Mary’s University College, Twickenham, London Blurb: The newest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary includes the word ‘staycation’, a vacation taken in your home country. David Cameron took one in Cornwall this summer, and has urged Britons to follow his lead to help boost economic recovery. With no sense of irony, he then advocated making the UK one of the top five tourist destinations in the world. Presumably staycations are not to be encouraged for the Chinese. This seems to capture today’s ambivalence about mobility. We are more connected then ever — by travel, culture and the economy — and people have consistently demonstrated their desire to live more mobile lives. Take any measure from car ownership or rail use to the rapid growth in air travel, and the picture is clear: people embrace opportunities for increased mobility. Visiting the world’s great cities and sights is no longer restricted to the …