Social programme
Guided walking tours
We have arranged guided walking tours of Oxford as the evening activity on Monday 2, Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 July. The guided tour is an hour and a half's walking tour, starting at 8.15 pm from St Catherine's College and ending up in a pub. Each tour, will be accompanied by a Blue Badge Guide from the Oxford Guild of Guides who will lead an entertaining and informative walk through the city. The cost of the tour is £3.00, payable in advance.
Metaphorical Models
David Gauntlett, University of Westminster
Monday 2nd July, 20.30 – JCR Annex, next to bar
In recent years there has been a growing interest in creative and visual research methods, in which participants are asked to make things such as videos, collage, drawings, or models, to express their feelings or impressions. It is argued that such methods help to get around the unreasonable expectation, inherent in focus groups and interviews, that people can generate instant meaningful speech on topics of interest to the researcher. David Gauntlett has pioneered such methods, and in particular has developed a fruitful method based on LEGO Serious Play, in which people are asked to build models entirely in metaphor. Places are limited and can be booked via the registration form.
Stimulating the Research Imagination: Marxist Magician
Tuesday 3rd July, 20.30 – JCR Annex, next to bar
Whereas David Copperfield is content with little tricks like making the Statue of Liberty disappear, Ian Saville aims at the much more ambitious goal of making International Capitalism and exploitation disappear. True, he hasn't quite succeeded, but he keeps on trying. This is a funny, magical, thought-provoking and topical celebration of Socialism. Places are limited and can be booked via the registration form.
Cafe Scientifique
Dr. Blay Whitby, University of Sussex
Wednesday 4th July, 20.30 – JCR Annex, next to bar
Would you take a robot lover; employ a robot domestic servant or personal carer for your declining years; or leave your children in the care of a robot nanny? Such developments are increasingly possible but the use of robots and artificial intelligence for caring applications introduces new moral dilemmas and brings new costs and dangers. Most existing codes and legislation envisage the typical robot user as a businessperson. Current technological developments of robots for more intimate purposes and for more vulnerable users raise urgent ethical issues, at least some of which we will explore in this cafe. Places are limited and can be booked via the registration form.