Keele Debate explores the conflict between local and global goals
Supporting forgotten communities, attracting global talent to North Staffordshire, and demonstrating the tangible impact of academic research were among the concepts discussed at the second of Keele’s new debate events this week.
“Local lives vs Global Goals” was the topic of the second event in the new Keele Debates series, which was held in front of a packed audience on Keele’s campus with more than a hundred people also joining online.
The debates have been organised to bring together diverse perspectives from a range of sectors to address the societal challenges facing universities, and to inform the development of Keele’s new strategy to meet those challenges head on.
The expert panel included former MPs Sir Tristram Hunt and Joan Walley, Dr Alicia Greated from CaSE, acting Leader of Staffordshire County Council Cllr Martin Murray, and Port Vale FC owner Carol Shanahan OBE, whose diverse viewpoints on both sides of the argument made for a lively discussion about the local area’s past, present, and future impact on the region and the world.
Sir Tristram opened the debate saying that the history of Stoke-on-Trent's industrial past and particularly the life and career of Josiah Wedgwood, showed that the notion of local and global interests being contradictory and separate was “fallacious”, saying that the profound impact of global events on North Staffordshire – and vice versa – was still a prevalent issue.
He said: “He (Wedgwood) was also dealing with global forces. He was influencing the world, and the world was influencing him. So, when we think about the local and the global, we cannot put them to one side in distinction to each other; we need to merge them together.”
Other panellists agreed, but added that the feeling of pessimism in many post-industrial towns like Stoke-on-Trent showed that the local focus should be a high priority, with Dr Alicia Greated citing research by CaSE which indicated that many people nationally do not feel that the benefits of research and innovation directly impact them.
Carol Shanahan OBE added that institutions like Keele have an important role to play in supporting these “forgotten” communities in their local areas, saying: "What I would like to see is Keele keep on doing what you’re doing; keep on coming down off the hill because that is so important. If you want to be of the people, you’ve got to be with the people.
“So, I say we need you locally, and from that we can inform nationally and from that, we can change the world.”
Professor Kevin Shakesheff, Vice-Chancellor of Keele University who chaired the debate, said: “The second debate in our new series was a great discussion that explored a dilemma for all universities; how do we remain strong civic partners and compete across the world.
“Keele’s founding ethos was all about having a transformative impact on society and the communities we serve, but the world in which we live today is vastly different to the world of 1949; for us to continue having that same impact both at home and around the world we need to adapt, and conversations like these are crucial for developing a cohesive and viable strategy to do that.”
