Dr Ricardo Blaug introduces the topic of his book and the ifsobooklet, written as part of a week-long event at the Free Word Centre exploring How Power Corrupts.

You can download Ricardo Blaug’s pamphlet HERE and fold it into an A5 booklet

You can view the event listing HERE

HOW POWER CORRUPTS was a public conversation, online and off, that culminated in a week of activities at the Free Word Centre inspired by the book ‘How Power Corrupts: Cognition and Democracy in Organisations’ byDr Ricardo Blaug.  Curated by if:book in collaboration with the Roundhouse group, a collective of recent graduates from the University of Leeds in partnership with the Free Word Centre, Palgrave MacMillan and Westminster University.

Events included

 Lord David Owen in Conversation, discussing The Hubris Syndrome

The Chronicles of Protest, film screening and Q&A with director Michael Channan

Power Dynamics, a drama workshop with Tripwires

The Future of Academic Publishing, A roundtable discussion

Most agree with Lord Acton that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It seems to apply to history’s cruel dictators, perhaps also to the behaviours of current political and economic elites and even across the hierarchic organisations of our everyday lives. Whilst most agree that it does, there has been little study of how power corrupts, and in particular, how it does so beneath the awareness of those afflicted.

Rather than taking Acton’s quote as a truism Dr Blaug uses it as a starting point to critically analyse the subtle ways in which power corrupts and distorts our thinking. Drawing on the history of ideas and current research on the nature of power, it shows that co
The events during this week offered a unique exploration into how an academic text can spark a wider discussion on a topical theme, pushing its contents into the public domain. In an attempt to break down the research silo and bring the conversations surrounding a book to the fore, these events sought to bridge a gap between theory and practice – asking academe to inform the day-to-day. Events took place online with contributors from all over the world taking up international perspectives – whilst the Free Word Centre will become the home of the book for one week.rruption affects both the powerful and powerless, arguing that its symptoms are best treated with radical democracy.

This project explored the creative possibilities for the future of academic publishing, asking how new media can provide a framework for curation and celebrating how in the digital age the ‘book’ can be made of much more than paper.