In 2012 London, the divide between officially-sanctioned culture - branded, sponsored, and sold to the highest bidder - and a genuine public culture, accessible to and owned by everyone, is greater than ever. As well as describing the capital's high energy creative arts, 'culture' now has the smell of cordite, as we talk of the cultures of responsibility for phone-hacking or banking fraud. At the same time another culture of total surveillance (not to mention secret courts) carried out by the private sector is reinforced by the Olympics.

Coming the day after the Paralympics closes, this is the first chance to debate the long-term forces at work in London after the Olympic Games. Can we still have a culture of public freedom, open to all - and how do we get it?

Suzanne Moore, journalist of Hackney; Dan Hancox of ourBeeb, author and critic; Henry Porter novelist and of the Observer; Vron Ware, writer on the Army and society (tbc) will all be speaking briefly to start the conversation; moderated by Anthony Barnett.

This is an openDemocracy / OurKingdom event.

Open Democracy Website