Tuesday 15 July 2025
18:15
Hilary Cottam OBE
Reinventing Work for the 21st Century
For decades, work has been debated and discussed as a narrow economic category. Instead, Hilary identifies work as a cultural force and one at the heart of good lives, strong communities and nations that have a sense of a shared destiny. Crucially, in these dramatic times, she will show how we can shape this force to meet technological change, our ecological crisis, and the challenges of the world’s deep injustices.
In collaboration with How To Academy.
Hilary is an internationally acclaimed social activist whose work in Britain and with communities around the world has focused on collaborative and affordable solutions to some of the greatest social challenges of our time. Her first book Radical Help was hailed as ‘mind-shifting’ by David Brooks in the New York Times and has been translated internationally. Awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the welfare state, Hilary has been recognised by Fast Company in the US for her pioneering creativity and by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. Hilary’s TED talk has had close to a million views. Hilary was educated at Oxford, Sussex and the Open University and she holds a Ph.D in social sciences. Her work has received numerous awards, and she has been recognised as Britain’s Designer of the Year.
Social activist and author
Hilary is an internationally acclaimed social activist whose work in Britain and with communities around the world has focused on collaborative and affordable solutions to some of the greatest social challenges of our time. Her first book Radical Help was hailed as ‘mind-shifting’ by David Brooks in the New York Times and has been translated internationally. Awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the welfare state, Hilary has been recognised by Fast Company in the US for her pioneering creativity and by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. Hilary’s TED talk has had close to a million views. Hilary was educated at Oxford, Sussex and the Open University and she holds a Ph.D in social sciences. Her work has received numerous awards, and she has been recognised as Britain’s Designer of the Year.