User:Amylepp/sandbox

Ben Rogers is a British urbanist, author and academic. He has written books on philosophy and history, and is the Founding Director of the think tank Centre for London.

Early Life
Rogers was born in London in 1963. He is the son of two architects, Su Rogers and Richard Rogers (Lord Rogers of Riverside) architect of the Centre Pompidou and Lloyd's building among others. After his parents divorced in the early 1970s, Su married architect John Miller CBE, another successful architect and Professor of Architecture at the Royal College of Art. His father married Ruth Rogers, who later founded The River Café (London). He attended Fleet Primary School, King Alfred's School, Haverstock Comprehensive and Oxford University.

Career
Rogers completed a doctorate at the University of Oxford in 17th Century English and French intellectual history and went on to work as a journalist and write a number of books: Pascal: In Praise of Vanity, A J Ayer: A life , and Beef and Liberty , published in both the UK and the US. A. J. Ayer was serialised on BBC Radio 4 as 'Book of the Week'. Rogers also edited a collection of philosophical papers on atheism and the sacred and the Penguin Modern Classic’s edition of A. J. Ayer’s Logic, Truth and Language.

From 2000-2005 Rogers was an Associate Director at the Institute for Public Policy Research focused on constitutional reform and democratic engagement, before working for local and national government including the London Borough of Haringey, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, where he led a cross-government review of the planning and design of the build environment, and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

In 2011 he founded Centre for London, as a programme within the Demos think tank, before it became an independent charity in 2013. He led the growth of the Centre into a leading urban think tank with an international following. He worked closely with the mayoralty of both Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan, and was a member of both the first and second London Finance Commission, chaired by Professor Tony Travers.

Rogers writes regularly for the Evening Standard, The Guardian and the Financial Times and lectures and broadcasts widely on London and cities more generally. He has produced and prsented numerous programmes for BBC Radio Rogers has been a Contributing Editor to Prospect Magazine and a visiting fellow at the [[Royal Society of Arts] for whom he wrote a widely discussed pamphlet, The Woolwich Model, setting out a 'first aid' approach to tackling antio social behaviour..

Rogers stepped down as Director of Centre for London at the start of 2021 and is currently Professor of Pratice - London at the University of London and Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. He is writing an introduction to urbanism.

Ben Rogers has been featured by Arena magazine as one of Britain's 10 most prominent young thinkers (2008).

Personal Life
Rogers is married with three children.

= References =