Spring 2009 | Public lectures and events | Video: Recent Episodes
London School of Economics and Political Science
Video files from LSE's spring 2009 programme of public lectures and events, for more recordings and pdf documents see the corresponding audio collection.
Contributor(s): President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev | Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation in March 2008. In November 2005 he was elected First Deputy Prime Minister, previous to this he was Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.
Contributor(s): President Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev | Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation in March 2008. In November 2005 he was elected First Deputy Prime Minister, previous to this he was Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office.
Contributor(s): Professor Peter Singer | We live in a world of great affluence as well as extreme poverty, and in which the rich nations play a disproportionate role in changing the planet's climate, from which the poor will suffer most. What values would best guide us to a more just and sustainable world? Can we realistically expect them to be put into practice?
Contributor(s): Professor Jeffrey D Sachs | The G20 Summit is the world's key venue for addressing the current global crisis. Yet there are profound questions facing the Summiteers. What are the underlying causes of the global crisis? What are the priorities to speed economic recovery? How should the G172 (the 172 UN members not members of the G20) be represented? What are the most powerful tools for protecting the world's most vulnerable people, arresting financial contagion, restoring global demand, and creating a path to sustainable development? Does the world require a fundamental re-shaping of global institutions and modes of cooperation?
Contributor(s): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono | General TNI (Ret) Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was born in Pacitan on 9 September 1949. Having graduated from the Military Academy in 1973, his military career and rank rose until he became a four-star general in 2000. In 1991, he received his Master of Arts in Management from Webster University, the United States. He earned a Doctorate Degree in Agricultural Economics from Bogor Institute of Agriculture in 2004.
Contributor(s): George Soros | On the eve of the G20 summit, George Soros will argue that authorising an increase in SDRs is the most significant step that the G20 leaders could agree. This event will also launch the paperback edition George Soros latest book, The Crash of 2008 and What it Means: the New Paradigm for Financial Markets.
Contributor(s): Professor John Roberts | The current financial crisis was largely caused by strong, misaligned incentives for bankers, resulting in calls for redesign of these pay schemes. Yet economic research over the last several years has suggested a number of contexts where muted incentives are desirable. This lecture will examine these.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard Thaler | Standard economic analyses rely on an unrealistic model of human behaviour in which economic agents are hyperrational robots. Modern behavioural economics takes a more realistic approach and assumes that economics agents are humans, who sometimes forget where they put their keys, panic in the face of economic volatility, and are growing more obese by the day. The theme of Nudge is that it is possible to help such humans make better choices without taking away their freedoms, just by giving them a gentle nudge. The financial crisis of 2008 makes the message of Nudge more relevant than ever, both in determining how we got into this mess, how we can get out, and how we can prevent another crisis.
Contributor(s): Professor Michel Balinski | Balinski argues that, although the new Majority Judgement voting system is not perfect, Approval Voting fails in theory and in practice, and that Majority Judgement is better than Condorcet's and Borda's classical proposals, point-summing methods, first-past-the post and others.
Contributor(s): Professor Simon Caney, Professor Paul Kelly, Baroness Onora O'Neill | Three distinguished political philosophers examine and discuss how theories of social justice and sustainability can be related to each other.
Contributor(s): Professor Rida Laraki | Laraki argues that the new Majority Judgement voting system is superior because it best ranks candidates according to merit. It best resists manipulation or "gaming the vote." It heeds majority rule. It is not subject to Arrow's impossibility, nor to most other classical paradoxes.
Contributor(s): Professor Michel Balinski | Balinski presents an introduction to Majority Judgement, a new voting model that proposes a solution to many of the pressing problems confronting representative democracy and its various current electoral systems.
Contributor(s): David Leonard, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor James Putzel, Clare Short | With its most recent press release the Crisis States Research Centre (LSE) prompted fierce debate on the international response to the ongoing crisis in the Eastern DRC. Reactions to the arrest of the rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in Rwanda on 22 January are loud and divided, though international actions continue to follow the same three trends identified in the CSRC release. This response, says the CSRC, fails to comprehend the cause, complexity and extent of the crisis.
Contributor(s): Lord Goldsmith QC, Howard Davies | The separation of powers idea is at the heart of all legal democracies. Yet within those democracies there will often be positions of high office which require their holders to perform functions which are both legal and political. In this series of events senior figures who hold or have held positions of this type talk about their lives in the law, the nature of their office, the institutions which they serve, their roles and responsibilities within those institutions, the role of lawyers in government and their understanding of the relationship between law and politics.
Contributor(s): Wayne Swan | Wayne Swan was sworn in as Australian Treasurer on 3 December 2007. He has been Member for the Brisbane seat of Lilley from 1993 to 1996, and from 1998 to the present. In 2005 he published Postcode: the Splintering of a Nation, a well-received book on economic and social policy in Australia. Before Wayne's appointment to his current role, he was Shadow Treasurer for three years and for six years Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services (1998-2004).
Contributor(s): Professor Wolfgang Streeck | How does the de-regulation of employment relate to the evolution of other social structures, in particular the family? And what are the consequences for the role of the state in society?
Contributor(s): Professor Ratna Kapur | rofessor Kapur examines the specific challenges that have faced feminist activism in South Asia, and discusses how it might forge a new political direction.
Contributor(s): Professor Gilat Levy | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed.
Contributor(s): Thomas Mirow | The crisis originated in the main western financial centres, but emerging markets will pay the price. How steep a price? And what is the responsibility of the rich countries now?
Contributor(s): Professor Barry Buzan | China has moved closer to international society on regional and global levels. The tide of history will probably favour China's peaceful rise, but the country will need to act to ensure this happens.
Contributor(s): Professor Vytautas Landsbergis | Professor Vytautas Landsbergis will in his lecture be giving his perspective on the today's pressing events in the western world. His lecture will be an examination of consequences of doubtful mentality, as growth in population figures and average living standards have not resulted in increased happiness. Growing frustration and the crumbling myth of welfare state point to a crucial need to consider a new philosophy for life. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.
Contributor(s): David Miliband, Frans Timmermans, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis, Sir Stephen Wall | An interdisciplinary, cross-party investigation of policy options for the EU post-2009, involving 50 experts from all over Europe. The final report will be presented to national governments and the EU institutions in spring 2009.
Contributor(s): Professor Jean-Pierre Filiu | European forces make up most of the international force in south Lebanon. The EU is the main donor to the Palestinian territories, a member of the Quartet and the initiator of the new Union for the Mediterranean. But how is all this activity to translate into a strategy for promoting peaceful co-existence in that troubled region?
Contributor(s): Polly Toynbee, David Walker | The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. City workers earn millions. Manual workers earn less than they did thirty years ago. The widening gap is tearing apart the fabric of our society. In their new book Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today, Polly Toynbee and David Walker present a worrying portrait of Britain.
Contributor(s): Vikram Pandit | Today's financial and economic wreckage will provide the foundations for a system on which a stronger future will be built. This will only happen with a real cooperation and collaboration that is hard to envisage amidst the growing clamour for protectionism, speculation over the possible nationalisation of the banking system, and questions over the right of those at the centre of the industry to be part of the solution. In his lecture, Vikram Pandit will outline his views on the role of banking in society and the future of the industry, its supervision, its structure and its reputation and explains his work to reinvent the world's most global financial services company and his vision for the New Reality.
Contributor(s): Professor Norman Rose | A review of British policies in Palestine in particular and the Middle East in general with special emphasis on the inter-war and post-war periods. For the Jews, this critical period led to the establishment of the state of Israel, for the Palestinians, to their 'Nakba' (Catastrophe), and for the British, a humiliating retreat from their imperial standing. Norman Rose is a graduate of the LSE and now holds the Chair of International Relations at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
Contributor(s): Professor Michael Cox, Will Hutton, Professor Danny Quah | The upcoming meeting of the G20 in London in early April 2009 is crucial for the development of policies to stabilise the world economy and reform the international financial architecture. What will the G20 do and what should it do? Will Hutton, Danny Quah, Mick Cox and David Held debate the issues.
Contributor(s): Jack Straw | Jack Straw was appointed as lord chancellor and secretary of state for Justice on 28 June 2007. He has previously served as leader of the House of Commons, secretary of state for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and home secretary. In Opposition he served as shadow home secretary, shadow environment secretary and shadow education secretary.
Contributor(s): Nandita Ghose, A.F Harrold, Andre Mangeot, Ife Piancu | This event is aimed at encouraging anyone who has never been to a poetry event before to come and see the amazing and exciting range of possibilities that poetry has. Poet in the City's New Audiences initiative has fast become one of our most popular set of programmes with events at the Guardian on Spoken Word and at Imperial University on Work, Space and Maths. This event has a mix of our favourite performance and up and coming poets that we're sure you'll enjoy.
Contributor(s): Will Self | "All but death" wrote Emily Dickinson "can be adjusted", and yet, the cold fact that bodies must eventually die only serves to hide the reality of death as a contested cultural domain, where competing notions of public and private, tradition and innovation, individual and collective, are played out, and discourses within literature, art, jurisprudence, medicine, religion, and politics all stake their claim to knowledge of the great unknown. This talk will illuminate the social aspects of death and dying in contemporary society, and challenge received ideas of what Rabelais' called our "vast perhaps".
Contributor(s): Professor Conor Gearty, Ivan Hare, Kenan Malik | A year after the repeal of blasphemy from English law, religious defamation laws are tightening their grip on the world, with the apparent support of the United Nations. Whatever happened to freedom of speech? A discussion of the nature of blasphemy in the twenty-first century.
Contributor(s): Dr. Laura Bear, David Lan, Tim Parks | A reading from Tim Parks' latest novel Dreams of Rivers and Seas followed by a discussion on the anthropological themes explored within it.
Contributor(s): Jane Duran, John Mole, Robert Minhinnick, Jo Shapcott | A high profile poetry event reflecting on the choices that we all make in our lives, whether social, economic, moral or spiritual, featuring a great line-up of some of the UK's finest poets.
Contributor(s): Kapka Kassabova, Mustafa Kör, Naema Tahir | The migrant intellectual, writes Edward Said, has 'double perspective'. He or she is in a constant dialogue with his or her old and new home. Their writings often convey both a sense of loss and yearning but also display a richness wrought by the integration of multiple cultural identities, unique experiences and diverse modes of expression. These authors will explore what is it like to be migrant writers in their respective societies: what are the points of divergence, what are the commonalities? The authors will be invited to start off the evening by reading short excerpts from their work that typifies their own experiences as migrant authors. We will then explore some of the following questions in a roundtable discussion.
Contributor(s): Professor Lord Anthony Giddens | Political action and intervention, on local, national and international levels, is going to have a decisive effect on whether or not we can limit global warming, as well as how we adapt to that already occurring. At the moment, however, Anthony Giddens argues controversially, we do not have a systematic politics of climate change.
Contributor(s): Alistair Beaton, Martin Rowson | Alistair Beaton is Britain's leading writer of political satire. Martin Rowson is an award-winning political cartoonist whose work appears regularly in The Guardian, The Times, The Independent on Sunday, the Daily Mirror, the Scotsman, Tribune, Index on Censorship and Granta.
Contributor(s): Iain Sinclair, Jerry White, Patrick Wright | Iain Sinclair is a writer, poet and film-maker and widely regarded as one of London's greatest chroniclers. Jerry White has been writing about London for thirty years. His London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People won the Wolfson History Prize 2001. Patrick Wright is a writer with an interest in the cultural and political dimensions of modern history. He is the author of a number of highly acclaimed and sometimes also reviled books, including The Village that Died for England (1995), Tank: the Progress of a Monstrous War Machine and Iron Curtain: from Stage to Cold War (2007).
Contributor(s): Ben Okri | Poet in the City and LSE are honoured to be holding a special showcase event with the world famous poet and writer Ben Okri. Born in 1959 in Minna, northern Nigeria, he became world famous as a writer in 1991 when he won the Booker prize for his novel The Famished Road. Set in a Nigerian village, this was the first in a trilogy of successful novels about Azaro, a spirit child. In all he has published eight novels, and won countless awards and honours for his writing. His latest novel, Starbook, was published in 2007.
Contributor(s): Antony Gormley, Professor Richard Sennett, Neven Sidor | By exploring the experiential and social impacts of creating spaces for public engagement, contemplation and education - including the Fourth Plinth at Trafalgar Square and the LSE's New Academic Building - an artist, an architect and a sociologist discuss the intellectual practice of 'designing spaces for thought'.
Contributor(s): Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Searle | Hans Ulrich Obrist was born in Zurich in May 1968. He joined the Serpentine Gallery as Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects in April 2006. Prior to this he was Curator of the Musie d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris since 2000, as well as curator of museum in progress, Vienna, from 1993-2000.
Contributor(s): Mohsin Hamid, David Hare, Boyd Tonkin | This event marks the launch of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Weekend, the LSE's first ever Literary Festival, celebrating the completion of the New Academic Building. A discussion about not only the links between the social sciences and the arts, but the role of the arts in the LSE's past, present and future. Is literature relevant today?
Contributor(s): Morris Gleitzman, Elizabeth Laird, Anthony McGowan, Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff | The culmination of a creative-writing competition for London state schools, this panel discussion looks at how authors find inspiration in contemporary social issues- from gang culture and knife crime, to the more timeless problems of being a teenager. The panel of popular and award-winning teen authors have dealt with topics as wide ranging as Ethiopian street children and Nazi Germany, with a mixture of reality, comedy and fantasy.
Contributor(s): Karl Otto Pöhl | How has the euro performed over its first ten years, and how will it cope with the strains caused by the current financial and economic crisis? Karl Otto Pvhl was president of the German Bundesbank from 1980-91, and played a leading role in the preparation of the European single currency.
Contributor(s): Hazel Blears MP | The tragic events of 7/7 illustrated the threat to our society posed by violent extremism. Preventing it is one of the defining challenges of our age. Hazel Blears will explore the tough choices government has to make - how to empower new voices to join the debate, how to support people standing up for shared values and how to equip communities with the skills, confidence, and resilience they need to be part of the solution. In June 2007, Hazel Blears became the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
Contributor(s): Pauline Tiffen, Rajah Banerjee, Kate Sebag, Katie Stafford, Dyborn Chinonga | The idea of fair trade has become increasingly popular amongst consumers and some producers. But who does fair-trade really benefit? The producers? The consumers? The Farmers? These are some of the issues that the panel will debate.
Contributor(s): Joschka Fischer | Joschka Fischer was Germany's foreign minister and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005.
Contributor(s): Professor Peter Onuf | Professor Onuf explores the development of the elusive and controversial ideal of democracy from Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary writings to Abraham Lincoln's great effort to vindicate republican principles in the American Civil War. Peter Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford.
Contributor(s): Alex Brummer, Vince Cable MP, Evan Davis, Gillian Tett, Professor Willem Buiter | This event will discuss the reporting leading up to the global credit crash of 2008. Alex Brummer has been City Editor for the Daily Mail since 2000. He has over thirty years' experience in the media. Vincent Cable is the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and speaks for his party on issues of Finance, European Economic and Monetary Union and the City. Evan Davis is a presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He was the BBC's Economics Editor from 2001-2008.
Contributor(s): Professor Fred Halliday | Thirty years after the fall of the Shah of Iran and the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini to power, the Iranian revolution continues to exert a dynamic ideological and political influence across the Middle East. In a retrospective analysis of the revolutionary period itself, some of whose decisive moments he witnessed at first hand, and of the subsequent development of the Islamic Republic Professor Fred Halliday will attempt to set these dramatic events in context, as much that of the comparative study of revolutions as of the history of the contemporary Middle East.
Contributor(s): Dr Gezim Alpion | Having identified some of the reasons which made Sister Teresa leave the Loreto Order in 1948, Alpion approaches this painful but momentous departure from a sociological perspective through biographical and historical contextualization and in the light of the work of Marx, Freud, Durkheim on the sociology of religion and career.
Contributor(s): Professor Marco Sassòli | Professor Sassoli will explore the relationship between International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law during non-international armed conflict, by applying the lex specialis principle. Marco Sassrli is professor of international law at the University of Geneva and associate professor at the Universities of Quebec and Laval.
Contributor(s): Professor Jean Tirole | This is the third annual Coase-Phillips lecture, hosted jointly by Economica and the Department of Economics. Jean Tirole is one of the world's most eminent economists working in the fields of industrial organisation, finance and game theory.
Contributor(s): Sir John Gieve | The past 18 months have been a tumultuous time for the financial sector and the global economy more generally. In this speech, his last as Deputy Governor at the Bank of England, Sir John Gieve will discuss some of the key lessons for public policy and outline some potential improvements that could be made to the framework and tools available to policy makers. Sir John Gieve was appointed Deputy Governor in January 2006. In addition to his membership of the Monetary Policy Committee, he has specific responsibility for the Bank's Financial Stability work and is a member of the Board of the FSA.
Contributor(s): Judge Sir Christopher Greenwood | While each system of national law seeks to regulate affairs within only one society, international law concerns the entire world. Yet it has almost none of the methods of enforcement available to national legal systems. So, can it change the world? Christopher Greenwood was elected a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in November 2008. He is an authority in international law who taught at LSE for 12 years, and was a practising barrister and has been a QC since 1999. He has appeared as an advocate in several cases at the ICJ.
Contributor(s): Ambassador Muhamet Hamiti | Dr Muhamet Hamiti is the current and the first ambassador of the Republic of Kosova to the UK. Born in Podujeva in Kosovo in 1964, Ambassador Hamiti earned his BA in English Language and Literature at the University of Pristina in 1987; earned his MA in English Literature at the University of Zagreb (Croatia) in 1990, and his PhD in English literature at the University of Pristina in 2006 with a thesis on the prose fiction of James Joyce and Joseph Conrad. In the 1990s, Dr Hamiti was also an independent scholar at the University of East Anglia and at Birkbeck College of the University of London respectively, pursuing research in the field of literature.
Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Barr | In this lunchtime series lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed. Nicholas Barr is professor of public economics at LSE and the author of numerous books and articles on the economics of the welfare state and the finance of higher education.
Contributor(s): Harriet Lamb, Adam Brett, Dr Teddy Brett | Only 14 years ago you couldn't buy a Fairtrade product in Britain. Today almost £500m worth of goods bearing the Fairtrade mark are sold annually, including tea, coffee, bananas, cotton, flowers and even footballs. At the heart of this revolution in our shops is the Fairtrade Foundation, which was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, New Consumer, Oxfam, Traidcraft Exchange and the World Development Movement. Starting small but with big ideas, it has turned a grass-roots movement into a phenomenon of our time - changing not only the way in which corporations deal with their suppliers and how consumers shop on the high street, but also transforming the lives of over 7 million farmers, workers and their families.
Contributor(s): Professor Tim Besley, Professor Francesco Caselli, Professor Chris, Professor Danny Quah | A panel discussion on the current global economic crisis: its origins, transmission, and possible impact and resolution. Tim Besley, Francesco Caselli, Chris Pissarides and Danny Quah are all economics professors at LSE.
Contributor(s): Vladimir Yakunin | Vladimir I. Yakunin, president of "Russian Railways" will deliver a speech covering three main topics in the context of his company: economic science, market awareness and development.
Contributor(s): Abdullah Bishara | Significant political reform processes are underway in all six member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). In this lecture the first secretary-general of the GCC will reflect on their progress and future prospects. Abdullah Bishara was secretary-general of the GCC from 1981-93.
Contributor(s): Professor Philippe Van Parijs | Is democracy sustainable in a multilingual polity? Or should appropriate institutions make democracy compatible with multilingualism? Which of these views does the experience of the European Union support? Or is the EU irrelevant to this dispute as English fast becomes Europe's lingua franca? Philippe Van Parijs directs the Hoover Chair in Economic and Social Ethics at the University of Louvain and is visiting professor at the Philosophy Department of Harvard University.
Contributor(s): Lakhdar Brahimi | Lakhdar Brahimi, with an extensive career in peace-building, reflects on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with Mary Kaldor. Lakhdar Brahimi was foreign minister of Algeria (1991-93) and prior to that ambassador to the UK (1971-79). He mediated the end of the Civil War in Lebanon (1988-91) and headed UN Missions in South Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq. Lakhdar Brahimi is now a member of "The Elders", a group created at the initiative of Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel and chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Contributor(s): Professor Judy Dunn, Professor Lord Richard Layard | (We apologise for the poor audio quality, this was because of technical problem with the audio-visual system) Is childhood all it should be? Or has it been spoilt by broken homes, junk food, alcohol and exam stress? The speakers will present the findings of The Good Childhood Inquiry. Judy Dunn is professor of developmental psychology at King's College London, and was chair of The Good Childhood Inquiry. Richard Layard is director of the Well-being Programme in the LSE Centre for Economic Performance.
Contributor(s): Professor Nicholas Barr, Lord Turner of Ecchinswell | How can European countries reform pensions so that they keep pensioners and taxpayers happy, follow workers who move from country to country within the EU, and allow workers choice about retirement? Nicholas Barr is professor of public economics in LSE's European Institute. Lord Turner is chairman of the Financial Services Authority and chairman of the Climate Change Committee and the Overseas Development Institute. He is a visiting professor at LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Richard H Steckel | Measuring social performance is an important task in the social sciences, and the complexity of the problem has given rise to numerous approaches. In this lecture, Professor Steckel will discuss the use of anthropomorphic measures in this field, and explain the advantages of height as a measure of standard of living. Richard H Steckel is SBS Distinguished Professor of Economics, Anthropology and History at Ohio State University. The Space for Thought Lecture series celebrates the completion of the New Academic Building and is supported by the LSE Annual Fund.You can see a list of all the lectures in this series at Space for Thought Inaugural Lecture Series.
Contributor(s): Professor John Street, Kris Torgeson, Ann McFerran | Why do charities use celebrities to speak out on humanitarian action? Who do celebrities represent? Are they genuinely committed to the causes they espouse or have causes become another path to self-promotion? John Street is a Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia. Kris Torgeson is the International Secretary for the Midecins Sans Frontihres International Office. Award-winning journalist and freelance feature writer for the Sunday Times, Ann McFerran has interviewed and accompanied many celebrities on their travels to meet some of the world's most neglected people.
Contributor(s): Professor David Reynolds | A new president. A new era? David Reynolds will introduce the Obama presidency against the backdrop of America's epic, tangled history. David Reynolds is professor of international history at Cambridge University and a fellow of the British Academy. His most recent book is America, Empire of Liberty: A New History.
Contributor(s): Bruno Le Maire | Bruno Le Maire is the French minister of state for European affairs, prior to this he was principal private secretary to the Prime Minister, 2006-2007, advisor to the Prime Minister, 2005-2006, advisor to the Minister of the Interior, 2004-2005 and advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2002-2004. Bruno has been National Assembly deputy for Eure since 2007, and is a member of the National Assembly Finance Committee. He is also the Finance Committee special rapporteur on health security and has been a member of Evreux (Eure) Municipal Council since 2008.
Contributor(s): Professor Lauren Berlant | This lecture draws on two films of Laurent Cantet - Human Resources (1999) and Time Out (2001) - to engage the new affective languages of the contemporary economic atmosphere, languages of anxiety, contingency and precarity. Lauren Berlant is George M Pullman Professor, Department of English, University of Chicago. Sadie Wearing is lecturer in gender theory, culture and media at the Gender Institute, LSE.
Contributor(s): Professor Clay Shirky | Clay Shirky, one of the new culture's wisest observers, steer us through the online social explosion and ask what happens when people are given the tools to work together, without needing traditional organisational structures. As online communication becomes ubiquitous, Shirky unpicks fundamental issues that are increasingly the source of much debate in particular in the media, in business, and in government, all of whom are grappling to make sense of the new social revolution. He argues that the conundrum is not whether the spread of these social tools is good or bad, but rather what the impact will be, for better or for worse.
Contributor(s): Professor Daniele Archibugi, Professor Michael Cox, George Monbiot | This panel will explore whether or not the concepts and practices of democracy can be extended beyond borders to embrace the global order. Panellists take sharply different views on this question and very lively debate is promised. Daniele Archibugi is professor of innovation, governance and public policy at Birkbeck College. Michael Cox is professor of international relations at LSE. George Monbiot is a bestselling author and a columnist for The Guardian newspaper.
Contributor(s): Professor Danny Quah | China has, single-handedly, brought more people out of poverty than the rest of the world combined, and faster than anywhere else has been able to achieve. How can this continue? Danny Quah is professor of economics and head of the Department of Economics at LSE.
Contributor(s): Jonah Goldberg | For nearly a century the political left has controlled the commanding heights of intellectual discourse by asserting, contrary to the evidence, that the left holds a monopoly on political virtue. The further you move from the left on the political spectrum, it is asserted, the closer you get to evil. "Fascism" has long served as the central prop in this drama. Fascism and evil are interchangeable terms, we are told. The reality is that while fascism may be evil, it has always been a leftist phenomenon. Jonah Goldberg is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and contributing editor to National Review. A USA Today contributor and former columnist for The Times in London, he has also written for the New Yorker, Commentary, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. His latest book is Liberal Fascism.
Contributor(s): Professor Chen Jian | Professor Chen offers a historian's overview of China's 1970s transformation and the beginning of global systemic change that this transformation helped create. Chen Jian is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for 2008-09 at LSE. He is the Michael J Zak Chair of the History of US China Relations at Cornell University.
Contributor(s): Professor John Worrall | Richard Dawkins and others claim that science and religion are incompatible. Others argue that on a more sophisticated view there is only the appearance of a clash. Who is right? John Worrall is professor of philosophy of science at LSE.
Contributor(s): Dr Sabine Freizer, Professor Salome Zourabichvili | Sabine Freizer is Europe programme director of the International Crisis Group. Salome Zourabichvili is associate professor at Sciences Po, Paris and former foreign minister of Georgia.
Contributor(s): Professor Philippe Aghion | In Wednesday's lecture Professor Aghion will focus on the relationship between market reforms and trust. Philippe Aghion is Robert C Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University.
Contributor(s): Professor Philippe Aghion | In Tuesday's lecture Professor Aghion will discuss how policies inducing directed technical change can be designed to maximise sustainable growth. Philippe Aghion is Robert C Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University.
Contributor(s): Laurence Rees | Laurence Rees will be discussing his book and BBC series World War Two: behind closed doors. He will re-examine the key decisions made by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during the war. Laurence Rees is an award-winning historian and documentary maker.
Contributor(s): Professor Philippe Aghion | In Monday's lecture Professor Aghion will lay down the framework to think about growth policy design. Philippe Aghion is Robert C Waggoner Professor of Economics, Harvard University.
Contributor(s): Dr Ben S. Bernanke | Ben S. Bernanke was sworn in on February 1, 2006, as Chairman and a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Bernanke also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. He was appointed as a member of the Board to a full 14-year term, which expires January 31, 2020, and to a four-year term as Chairman, which expires January 31, 2010. Before his appointment as Chairman, Dr. Bernanke was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, from June 2005 to January 2006.