Recognizing those who are changing the world

The 50 new radicals | From the Observer | The Observer: "Last November, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) teamed up with the Observer to launch a call to find 50 of Britain's new radicals. We wanted to find people who were coming up with creative answers to the big issues of our times, working below the radar of national media. We wanted to celebrate people who were really doing good rather than celebrities famous for being famous. And we wanted to find examples of inspiration during a difficult time."

We were bowled over by the response. Many hundreds of nominations came in from every part of country, the great majority of them impressive and intriguing combinations of big vision and practicality. We don't pretend that there was any science to our selections. We tried to strike a rough balance, from business to science, arts to community, with one or two better known projects alongside others that are almost wholly unknown. But we had to exclude many brilliant people and ideas, and the judges didn't always agree.

The bigger message we've taken away is that a similar exercise could be done in every region, and every city. Britain is rich in radicalism, and anyone who says that our society has drifted into fatalism and apathy should get out more.

Not surprisingly, we found some common themes. Many of the nominees – Rubies in the Rubble, Transition towns and the Green house – were involved in reuse and recycling. The extent to which we waste things becomes even more of an affront in times of austerity – and we were impressed by the number of great ideas for making use of otherwise wasted food, buildings or land. Another large group were making the most of digital technologies, smartphones and broadband – fromentrepreneurs such as Michael Acton-Smith, to social entrepreneurs (Iris Lapinski) and computer scientists (Open Street Map). Many nominees offered creative responses to the return of mass unemployment – from Women Like Us to Working Rite. The longer-term trends of ageing are also calling forth imaginative responses such as Dementia Adventure and Shared Lives.