The Communities of Inquiry Across the Generations APPG aims to provide practical models for conducting productive debates on difficult topics between young and old; to facilitate academic and expert evidence-based, transformative discussions on equality and identity (e.g. race, faith, climate, migration); to create intergenerational communities of inquiry with parliamentarians, universities and young citizens.

Officers

Lord Balfe of Dulwich (Conservative Life Peer)
John McDonnell (Labour MP Hayes and Harlington, former Shadow Chancellor) 
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party peer)
Baroness Prashar (Crossbench Life Peer)
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour MP Streatham)

MPs, peers, experts and civil society are rethinking political and social communication to protect and revitalise democracy in the UK. What is ‘identity politics’ and what are the ‘culture wars’? What is ‘gesture politics’? Does it matter? How can different groups be true to their values and respect the values of others when emotions run high? Why do older and younger generations avoid discussing complex issues with each other? How can we work with local government? We need to rethink political and social communication and knowledge management by replacing divisive debate with evidence-based discussion. By establishing intergenerational communities of inquiry we will ensure the debate itself doesn’t choke freedom of expression at source. The APPG will facilitate these important conversations through transformative debates to unlock knowledge and understanding in exciting ways by:

1. running events with academics/experts, parliamentarians and the public to revive trust in democracy and in expertise
2. providing practical models for how to conduct productive debates on difficult topics; these models will be useful in a wide range of contexts
3. conducting intergenerational inquiries on complex topics so that MPs, peers academics, students and young people in communities can access and share reliable evidence to promote critical debate

This APPG will combine expertise in the Commons and the Lords with expert academic and practitioner knowledge from relevant disciplines including the arts and humanities, education, law, medicine, science and technology. This means working effectively across parties and across sectors and considering issues that range from equality legislation and the environment to social media matters.

APPG secretariat

Nina Arif
Sanjana Deen
Rana Osman
Hasan Pandor
Prof Alison Scott-Baumann
Dr Julia Stolyar

The Influencing Corridors of Power team (ICOP) is well established, widely trusted and effective at increasing and improving communication between parliamentarians, academics, students and young people in work across and beyond the HE sector, so that key players can work together productively. The ICOP one-page expert briefings serve to demystify key topics that need to be addressed urgently and are a boon for busy MPs and peers. As such, ICOP is perfectly positioned to support Westminster in its work to address these big questions.  ICOP provides an experienced secretariat, with a well-established track record of working with parliamentarians through SOAS ICOP.

Please contact Professor Alison Scott-Baumann as150@soas.ac.uk for more information.