To coincide with the University of Nottingham’s debate about the state of meritocracy in contemporary Britain (24 October 2018), CEO Helen Goulden share her thoughts and asks what has merit?
Find out moreWhat has merit?
Blog
The Young Foundation welcomes contributions from many sectors and standpoints - views expressed here are not necessarily held by The Young Foundation.
Ideas, as well as people, now move more freely. We have put new models, drawn from other classes and other parts of the world, before the local people, creating new aspirations and new ideas.Michael Young and Peter Willmott.
Family and Kinship in East London, 1957
For a fairer, more inclusive Europe, sign the #SIDeclaration
While industries like pharmaceuticals and automotive are good at getting decision-makers’ attention, the social innovation community – a broad movement of people and organisations innovating for public benefit – often has less influence. We want this to change. Over the past year, we have asked people working in social innovation all over Europe about how... Find out more
The Red Baron
In moving toward the meritocratic ideal, we have imagined that we have retired the old encrustations of inherited hierarchies. As the sociologist Michael Young knew, that’s not the real story.
- writes Kwame Anthony Appiah in 'The Red Baron' for The New York Review of Books.
Find out moreCreative ways to address housing exclusion
On 16 July 2018, The Young Foundation and FEANTSA (the European Federation of Homeless Organisations) hosted a webinar on ‘creative ways to address housing exclusion’. Radhika Bynon from The Young Foundation discussed Reimagining Rent, the Young Foundation’s housing innovation programme, and Freek Spinnewijn discussed FEANTSA’s The Housing Solutions Platform. The Housing Solutions Platform is a... Find out more
The Rise and Fall of the Meritocracy? By Toby Young
To coincide with the University of Nottingham's debate about the state of meritocracy in contemporary Britain (24 October 2018), we're sharing this piece by Toby Young where he explores the question: What lies beyond the meritocracy?
Find out moreCommunity and plastic cups: reflections on what it all means on World Mental Health Day
Here in Bethnal Green, generations of researchers and innovators have been reflecting on the idea of community since Michael Young moved here to undertake the research that would become the foundations of Family and Kinship in East London.
Find out moreLaunching cohort seven of The Young Academy
We’re pleased to welcome eight new initiatives to the Young Academy’s accelerator programme for early-stage social ventures tackling educational inequalities. Through the Accelerator, participants will attend intensive workshops and receive one-to-one support from social impact experts, volunteer advisors and education sector leaders. Our goal is to create a space for ideas and projects to be... Find out more
Putting health into place: What’s it all about?
In 2018 in the UK people are much more likely to suffer from preventable, lifestyle related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, than they are to suffer from communicable diseases such as measles or tuberculosis. This situation is set to worsen. The number of people with diabetes is projected to rise by one million... Find out more
Meet the innovators Reimagining Rent: our second cohort
Through Reimagining Rent, we are committed to accelerating the innovations that have the potential to improve the private rented sector for vulnerable renters, including those on low incomes. We know that concentrated innovation at a local-level can create models for others to follow. This is our second cohort to the programme, which is funded by... Find out more
#3 What lies beyond the meritocracy? By David Goodhart
The final piece in our three-part series of guest blogs exploring what lies beyond the meritocracy? David Goodhart, journalist and author: Meritocracy is the worst system in the world for distributing status, responsibility and rewards, apart from all the others, to paraphrase Churchill on democracy. If one’s main priority is the efficient running of society,... Find out more