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November 28, 2018
Place for kindness
A new report from Carnegie UK Trust written by Julia Unwin highlights what she sees as the blind spot in public policy – a space in which kindness and human relations can be considered. She begins by acknowledging what the problem is. Talk about kindness and public policy in the same breath and you get one of several reactions and none of them are easy to deal with. It’s just not considered a very grown up, professional thing to do. And so we don’t. But perhaps if enough folk read her report more folk will try and, as she argues, we’ll all be better off for it.
Kindness, Emotions and Human Relationships : The Blind Spot in Public Policy – Carnegie UK Trust
There is growing recognition of the importance of kindness and relationships for societal wellbeing. But talking about kindness does not fit easily within the rational lexicon of public policy. The Trust was delighted that Julia Unwin CBE accepted our invitation to become a Carnegie Fellow; and over the course of the last two years we have been exploring the complexity and contradictions of kindness and public policy through a series of roundtables and events.
Julia’s report, Kindness, emotions and human relationships: The blind spot in public policy, brings together our learning from these discussions. It argues that there have been very good reasons for keeping kindness separate from public policy; but that the great public policy challenges of our time demand an approach that is more centred on relationships; and, with technology and artificial intelligence transforming the way we do things, it is imperative that we focus equally on our emotional intelligence.