A new initiative called 'imagine2027' has been launched in Cambridge, and will involve a series of lectures which present "positive visions about how we can build a better, fairer future, for all of us, in 10 years' time".

Funded by The Cambridge Commons, the local affiliate of The Equity Trust, and set to run until mid-2018, the series of public lectures invites “12 well-known speakers to consider how Britain can become more prosperous and fairer over the next decade.” Speakers set to present at 'imagine2027' events in the near future include journalist Owen Jones, serial entrepreneur Hermann Hauser, public health expert Sir Michael Marmot, Cambridge professor and former MP David Howarth, comedian Ava Vidal, and more.

Economist Ann Pettifor opened the lecture series on Thursday., presenting a speech entitled “A Fairer Economy in the Year 2027. 

 The next event will host Oxford geographer Danny Dorling on October 19, who will be speaking about policies that aim to improve education in Britain. Topics covered by the series of talks range from social media and technology to basic income and intersectional feminism. 

The common thread linking every speech is an aim “to kick-start a national debate on inequality from the city recently found to be the most unequal in Britain by the Centre for Cities.”

Imagine2027 is a project of The Cambridge Commons (TCC) in affiliation with the Labour History Research Unit of Anglia Ruskin University. TCC is a local affiliate of The Equality Trust, a national campaigning organisation focused on reducing inequality.

TCC has a similar focus on raising awareness of inequality, with its chair, George Weyman, saying “we urgently need to imagine what a fairer and more equal country would look like and how we are going to get there.”

Imagine2027 aims to achieve this objective in three stages, starting with the lecture series. After completing the series, “the organisers plan to turn the ideas generated into a fairness manifesto published in 2018.” According to the imagine2027 website, the project will culminate with a national convention focused on how to make their vision a reality.

Places at any of imagine2027’s events can be booked on their website, and all of the speeches will take place at Anglia Ruskin University