What It Really Takes to Change the World

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Can we really trust the work of social change to the ‘winners’ of global capitalism? Can our most urgent challenges be truly addressed by an unelected elite, whose ‘win-win’ solutions do little to question the root causes of systemic inequality and injustice?

In his acclaimed book Winners Take All, Anand Giridharadas offers a trenchant analysis of a global elite who claim to be in the business of ‘changing the world’ while all the while preserving a status quo that favours their interests and obscures their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve.

Taking us into the inner sanctums of a new gilded age, Giridharadas shows how the rich and powerful fight for equality and justice any way they can - except ways that threaten the social order and their position at the top. We see how they rebrand themselves as saviours of the poor; how they reward ‘thought leaders’ who redefine ‘change’ in winner-friendly ways; and how they constantly seek to do more good, but never less harm. 

Rather than rely on scraps from the winners, Giridharadas argues, we must instead take on the demanding democratic work of building more robust, egalitarian public institutions and truly changing the world.

Join us at the RSA for a powerful call to action for elites and everyday citizens alike.